Charleston Promise Neighborhood

Charleston Promise Neighborhood’s KidsWell Health and Wellness Initiative is a strategy to improve students’ access to healthcare so they are healthy and ready to learn. KidsWell Health and Wellness includes pediatric health clinics in our four elementary schools, health screenings, hunger amelioration, and other emergency needs.

A nurse checks a students hearing during KidsWell Health screenings.

Partnering with MUSC, a pediatrician spends 2 hours each week per school treating students that have been referred by a parent, CCSD school nurse, teacher or Principal.

Health screenings for the 2012-2013 school year started late September and were completed by mid-October. Over 1,000 students were screened for hearing, dental, and vision. Of those students, 177 were referred for follow-up treatment. The reason for conducting health screenings early in the school year is to enable staff to catch issues that could affect student learning. Key community partners such as Trident Health System, Roper St. Francis Healthcare, and student nurses from Trident Tech College made it possible for students in Charleston Promise Neighborhood to be screened in the first 2 months of school.

On the first day of health screenings at Sanders-Clyde, Vicky Ingalls, Charleston Promise Neighborhood Program Manager, as part of the screening team, met with a young student to check her hearing. She did not perform well at the different screening levels and the team asked the nurse to re-check the student’s ears. Rather than wait the customary two weeks to re-check the student’s ears, the school nurse scheduled a next day appointment for the KidsWell clinic. The timing was perfect, as the doctor was able to determine the student’s hearing issue was due to negative pressure. The student received an immediate treatment for the condition and was no longer in pain. On another day, a student experienced great difficulty with the vision screening test. The nurse learned that the student sat at the back of the room due to behavior issues. She was able to expedite his vision referral and inform the teacher of his vision screening result so that immediate changes were made with his seating arrangement.

Both of these stories exemplify why it is important to conduct health screenings early in the school year. Without the onsite clinic it may take several weeks for a parent or guardian to schedule an appointment with their own pediatrician, and then pull the student out of school for the appointment and miss several hours of class time. Instead, the KidsWell clinic minimizes potential delays and provides a mechanism for students to be seen during the school day.

The Charleston Promise Neighborhood‘s KidsWell Health and Wellness Initiative is committed to improving communication among all parties including the student, school nurse, teacher, and parent. Charleston Promise Neighborhood continues to work with school-based staff to expedite baseline health screenings, referrals, and follow-up activities to ensure all students have the opportunity to be healthy learners.

We hope everyone is starting 2013 on the right foot in terms of living a healthy lifestyle. This year promises many wonderful things as Charleston Promise Neighborhood (CPN) Health Literacy Sessions are in full swing.

Pam Willrodt, Charleston Promise Neighborhood’s Health Literacy Specialist

AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer and CPN Health Literacy Specialist, Pam Willrodt, held two successful Health Literacy Sessions this past month. The first session informed parents and caregivers of what ADHD is and how it manifests in children. In her second session, she introduced ways to use “What To Do When Your Child Gets Sick”, a medical resource book of management strategies for childhood illnesses. Willrodt’s contribution of subject matter expertise and guidance was truly impressive and beneficial. Her information generated dialogue between parents and caregivers. With over ten years of experience working with parents and children, along with her adept interpersonal skills, Willrodt connected with the parents in the room. Everyone who attended the sessions left better-informed and confident.

The ADHD Health Literacy Session educated parents and encouraged them to view the disorder through their child’s perspective. A quote from the research of Children’s Accounts of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder illustrates how children internalize their ADHD diagnosis: “I get frustrated in school. I get frustrated at things. When I get home I get frustrated with people and stuff. I see my friends who are at the speed of everyone else, and I’m not. I get sad.” Willrodt stressed that understanding thoughts and emotions of children with ADHD builds better communication between the parent and child. She has her own experiences raising a child with ADHD, and shares those lessons with parents who are dealing with the power struggles, tantrums, low self-esteem, and school problems that often come with the disorder.

The second session was guided by the book, “What To Do When Your Child Gets Sick”, the most popular of the “What To Do For Health” series, written by two nurses, Gloria Mayer and Ann Kuklierus. “The book is wonderful, instructional, easy to use, and VERY informative!” said Frederica Ladson, Parent, grandparent, and AmeriCorps Family Navigator at Sanders-Clyde Creative Arts School. The book is the basis of the session, covering injuries and health problems associated with children from birth to eight. The book was given to all who attended the session.

Through CPN Health Literacy Sessions, we are improving our families’ access to health knowledge, and helping our parents develop understanding, confidence, and motivation to improve their family’s health. We are creating awareness of health issues in the Neighborhood to decrease child sick days, increase parent work days, and decrease emergency room and clinic visits. As we move forward, CPN is excited about future Health Literacy Sessions.

When CPN Program Assistant, Nakisha Scott, traveled to Athens, GA to meet with Athens Promise Neighborhood’s Whatever It Takes (WIT) Neighborhood Leaders, her mission was to observe their highly successful neighborhood engagement team in hopes of better assisting CPN’s Community Engagement Council, but what she received was more than she ever imagined. “When I arrived, nearly an hour before the meeting, the WIT Neighborhood Leaders were already present, waiting in anticipation for the meeting to begin. I witnessed something greater than residents who care about their neighborhood. I saw transformed individuals whose life mission was to impact every block, corner and square mile of their neighborhood…and they were. With tears streaming down their faces, they each shared stories of how they were once a part of the problems of their neighborhood, but were now converted and see what they do as a form of discipleship…converting one resident at a time”, said Nakisha.

WIT Neighborhood Leaders have been trained and educated by various community partners in areas such as conflict resolution, mediation, public speaking, cultural competency, inter-personal communication skills and community advocacy. Having such a strong core of leaders hasn’t always been the case. Over time, Whatever It Takes has experienced many tears and remarkable victories in the improvement of themselves as leaders and their community. Leaders use all available resources to serve Athens’ children and create a seamless longitudinal network of support so that every child in Athens Promise Neighborhood is healthy, safe, engaged in the community, and successful in school and life. Nakisha is confident CPN’s Community Engagement Council is well on their way to becoming a model for other Promise Neighborhoods seeking to bring sustainable change to their neighborhoods!