Monday: Exploring Community Health

We had an amazing time visiting two community health clinics in Chicago. First, we traveled to the Ukranian Village to volunteer at the Community Health Clinic.  

This neighborhood is particularly interesting because it has the largest population of Polish people outside of Warsaw, Poland.  The clinic goes above and beyond to service not only the Polish population but also the nearby Mexican neighborhood.  Community Health Clinic is completely funded by private donors such Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Rush University, Astra Zeneza, and Bank of America.  Because of these donors the clinic is able to offer a plethora of medical services, including adult internal medicine and dental services, as well as medications, completely free of charge to patients.  The diverse patient population is dependent on the clinic's use of Spanish and Polish speaking interpreters, nurses, physicians, and staff.  The effectiveness and efficiency the clinic offers is rooted in its multilinguial capabilities.  Health care is provided on the heels of the five thousand volunteer medical providers.  Only three of the staff members are paid. Amazing! 10,000 patients a year have benefited from the clinic's presence in the community.

 

 Healthy eating was the focus of the day's work.  Specifically, we wanted to draw patients' attention to the amount of sugar and fat in the foods they eat daily.  Using the nutritional information on the back of McDonald's french fries cartons, chicken nuggets, juice containers, and soda pop cans we demonstrated the amount of fat and sugar in each of these items by scooping out the equivalent amounts in Crisco and sugar onto a plate.  Patients were shocked to find that some foods thought to be healthy, like fruity flavored yogurt, actually contained as much sugar as a can of Pepsi, and that small fries contained a heaping amount of fat. Patients were then easily motivated to discuss ways to change some of their eating habits.  We informed them of healthy snack options that can easily be substituted.

 We gave out flyers for fitness, body, and health classes the clinic offered for free to their patients.  These included yoga, zumba, nutrition, and diabetes classes.  The Community Health Clinic is an advocate for patient centered care.

Next we traveled to the Hispanic Health Coalition where we spoke with Ester Sciammarella, the Executive Director.  She spoke with us about the challenges of collaborating with other organizations to provide the best services for their patients. We talked about the clinics concerns about how upcoming implementation of the ACA will impact undocumented patients. She also highlight the importance of networking and getting involved in local policy to create systems that best support patients. This was a wonderful and inspirational conversation, and the Hispanic Health Coalition is a strong advocate for Chicago's Latino patients.