Volume 2, Issue 1, June 2023 |
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Our Monthly News & Updates |
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👏🏿👏🏽👏🏼👏👏🏻Celebrate Community Health Workers through Storytelling
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In this video, Johnson County CHW Deborah Uribe says that it’s especially meaningful to be able to help clients with language barriers. As a child, she helped her parents navigate experiences because they didn’t fully understand English. |
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Seward County CHW Susan Lukwago tells the story of a client who came to her at Christmas needing a job, housing, and healthcare assistance. Lukwago and her team made referrals on the client’s behalf, the woman followed up and her situation quickly improved. |
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COPE is grateful for countless Community Health Workers (CHW) who have played a key role in improving community health.
“Community health workers are essentially implementers of health equity. They are strategically placed to connect residents with social services and to amplify the priority needs they see daily to community and public health leaders.”
~Sarah Kessler (COPE Project Lead)
CHWs have many duties. They navigate social and healthcare systems on behalf of clients who need assistance and may not fully understand what resources are available. They perform home visits and sometimes even attend medical and social appointments with clients working to get back on their feet.
Connecting with organizations in the community is another of their key functions. COPE's CHWs have built more than 1,500 partnerships across Kansas so far, including one between Jackson and Brown county agencies that created a day shelter or people needing a place to shower, eat, nap, clean their clothes, avoid dangerous weather and receive mental health screenings, therapeutic
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services and crisis intervention support.
The week of June 4 to June 10 is Community Health Improvement Week. To celebrate COPE's CHWs and their work in bringing equity to their local community, we highlight the journey of Deborah Uribe (Johnson County CHW) and Susan Lukwago (Seward County CHW) through storytelling. In the videos, they describe their lived experience and how they have positively impacted their client's lives.
In addition to the videos, this issue also highlights the impact of other CHWs, including building trust in Montgomery County and promoting dental hygiene in Sedgwick County. We hope you will enjoy learning the positive impact our CHWs bring to their community.
Special thanks to Jeffrey Field, Communications Coordinator in the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Field reported on this piece, part of which also appeared in the Family Medicine & Community Health Newsletter for May. He also filmed the Uribe footage and edited the two videos.
Thanks also to Clarissa Carrillo Martinez (Regional Community Lead for the West Region), who filmed Lukwago's footage.
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Building Trusting Relationships Increases Uses Among Hispanic Clientele in Montgomery County Food Bank |
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Montgomery County CHWs have found a secrete to working with their Hispanic clientele: Trust.
Thanks to the Montgomery CHWs and LHEAT's concerted outreach to the Hispanic community, the team has recently seen a sharp increase of
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The chart below shows that Hispanic clientele (in orange line) has risen steadily. African American clientele has remained steady throughout, showing the CHWs' concerted efforts in caring for both populations.
Linda Follett, the operator of Genesis of Coffeyville and the Montgomery County LHEAT lead, said that "the increase is a direct result of the CHWs engaging with the population of focus and building trusting relationships."
"These individuals now feel safe to go to the pantry and they do not need documentation to receive food," said Follett.
Courtesy photo and chart: Linda Follett
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Protect Beautiful Smiles in Sedgwick County |
In partnership with Oral Health Kansas and the Oaklawn Community Wellness Hub, the Sedgwick County LHEAT and Thien Doan (CHW in Sedgwick County with a home base in GraceMed) sponsored an oral health awareness booth.
Forty 4th and 5th graders in the Oaklawn Elementary School's after school program participated in an experiment to learn about how to protect their “beautiful smiles.” They also learned about how sugary drinks contain excessive amount of sugar. Each student received a dental kit from Delta Dental and a healthy teeth sheet by Oral Health Kansas.
Courtesy photo: Thien Doan
Thien Doan contributed reporting
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Here's How to Reduce Anxiety through Relaxation and Breathing Techniques |
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Twenty people attended a Relaxation and Breathing Techniques Workshop hosted by the Bourbon County LHEAT in partnership with the SEK Mental Health Center. Three mental health specialist walked the participants through practical techniques, such as box breathing, journaling, grounding and blowing bubbles, to relieve anxiety. Most of the techniques took less than 2 minutes to complete, according to Rachel Carpenter (LHEAT Lead).
To continue supporting attendees in their management of anxiety, they received a self-care resource journal and learned about different services offered by the SEK Mental Health Center. The LHEAT also provided childcare and supported the workshop with $20 gift card giveaways.
Courtesy photos: Rachel Carpenter
Rachel Carpenter contributed reporting
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The Montgomery County LHEAT Made Local News Twice in Recent Month |
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Valerie Suddock, reporter of the Coffeyville Journal, published an in-depth article about the Montgomery County LHEAT's effort in helping to restore a school building. This project, now commonly referred as the "The Longfellow Project," has brought together volunteers, many of whom high school students and LHEAT members, to reshape an abandoned school into a site that will house non-profit organizations.
The article also shined a spotlight on the origin of COPE and the Montgomery County LHEAT's past and ongoing projects, including providing IT equipment for the Caney Agape Food Network to support users' online applications to other programs. R ead the article here.
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The LHEAT is partially responsible for the creation and implementation of this resource center, which "offers a refuge with basic services to provide physical and emotional comfort for people" who are unhoused or at risk of experiencing homelessness.
Courtesy images: The Coffeyville Journal, Jody Hoener and Indy Resource Center's Facebook page
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The Voice Features the Wyandotte County LHEAT's Collaboration with Leah's Laundromat on the Q |
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The Wyandotte County LHEAT has been collaborating with Leah's Laundromat on the Q for a long time, providing giveaways and free laundry supplies to visitors. Their partnership was mentioned in The Voice on May 15.
Courtesy photo: The Voice
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Free access to COVID-19 testing, telehealth doctor visit and treatment |
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May 11th marked the end of COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declaration. The current COVID-19 vaccine (Bivalent booster) and antiviral treatment (Paxlovid) are still available for free until supplies run out, which may be around mid-summer to early fall. COVID-19 vaccines will cost about $110~$130 per dose after commercialization, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report. This will affect uninsured and underinsured populations.
Free access to COVID-19 testing, telehealth doctor visit and treatment is available to people for whom finding a doctor or paying for a visit is a barrier. Eligible individuals are at least 18 years old, speak Spanish or English and have an email address. Click here to access the enrollment website.
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On Mapy 17, COPE's CHWs from four regions attended a spring retreat in Topeka with the goal to connect for next steps.
Courtesy photo: Felecia Cunningham
On May 25, COPE members attended the Networked for Change conference in Wichita. Pictured here include LHEAT members and Regional Community Leads (Clarissa Carrillo Martinez and Nadine Long).
Courtesy photo: Nadine Long and Clarissa Carrillo Martinez
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Joe LeMaster, a COPE team member in primary care, presented at the FamMed Forward Conference hosted by the Kansas Academy of Family Physicians (KAFP) on May 5. His talk centered on the role of CHWs in primary care in Kansas.
In his presentation, LeMaster described three clusters that best describe CHW's roles, including clinical services, community resource connections and health education and coaching. He also shared a Kansas City based CHW program evaluation, noting significant reductions in three clinical outcomes, such as lengths of hospital stay, number of visits to the emergency rooms and number of hospital admissions. In a survey of 20 physicians, LeMaster discussed that while primary care doctors are interested in working with CHWs, there are still financial barriers to hiring CHWs.
But state-based reimbursement plans, such as the one in Kansas expected to start in July 1, 2023, may be the answer to addressing these financial barriers. He ended the talk with recommendations for implementations and other issues to consider.
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June is National Immigrant Heritage Month |
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Diverse immigrant groups have powered the U.S. economy and contributed greatly to the American life. How much do you know about immigrants in Kansas? |
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Basic fact:
- One in 14 Kansans is an immigrant.
- In Kansas. 7% of residents are native-born U.S. citizens with at least one immigrant parent.
- 40% of immigrants in Kansas became naturalized citizens.
- The top countries of origin for immigrants were Mexico (41%), India (9%), Vietnam (6%), Guatemala (4%) and China (4%).
Financial impact:
- The total spending power of Kansas immigrants is $4.5 billion.
- They pay $1.5 billion taxes.
- There are 12,164 immigrant entrepreneurs, generating $334.2 million business income.
Source: The U.S. Census Bureau and American Immigration Council
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Debbie Griffin, Senior Clinical Research Nurse Coordinator at the KU Medical Center, shared a clinical trial with us. To learn more, talk to your doctor and APOL1Program.com.
Researchers are looking for people with kidney disease that have proteinuria for the APOL 1 MCKD trial for people of African descent, including:
Black
African American
Caribbean
Sub-Saharan African
Latin X (defined as a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American or any other Spanish culture or origin )
The research team can easily do a dipstick urine test to determine if people have proteinuria.
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Missed our prior issues? Want to share our work with community partners? See links to prior issues below.
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