interdisciplinary student community-oriented prevention enhancement service
Give, Get Help, Get Involved TODAY 2010 – 2011
ISCOPES ANNUAL OVERVIEW
COMPLIMENTS OF: THE ISCOPES LEADERSHIP TEAM
- COMMITTED PARTNERS - YEARS OF PROGRESS - PURPOSEFUL TEAMS -
ISCOPES would not be possible without community preceptors and their organizations, advisors, staff, and students – past and present – who give all they can and then some… Special thanks to the following preceptors and advisors for their enduring commitment to ISCOPES and the community 10th Anniversary
15th Anniversary
Susan LeLacheur, DrPH, PA-C
Sandy Hoar, PA-C
Paul Tschudi, EdS, MA, LPC
Isabel van Isschot, MSW
To the many people who have coordinated and/or championed the efforts of ISCOPES throughout its 15 year history:
you have our deepest gratitude!!
our year in pictures‌
Appreciating the past with an eye on the future… 15 years ago, seven people worked as an interdisciplinary team to submit a proposal to PEW Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation (HPSISN) that would serve as seed money for what would become the Interdisciplinary Student Community-Oriented Prevention Enhancement Service (ISCOPES). Since then, this service-learning program has left its fingerprint on the DC Metro Area, and will continue to do so. What an exciting first year on the job as the director of ISCOPES! Joining this multidisciplinary family has been both an honor and a pleasure – as well as appropriately challenging! Throughout the year, our teams have been hard at work planning, implementing, and evaluating their projects for our 15 community partner organizations all the while facing some of the challenges that make community health service simultaneously difficult and rewarding. Even in the face of what sometimes seemed to be impossible circumstances, students, advisors, preceptors, and staff prevailed, coming to terms with the extraordinary level of persistence that is required to effectively serve. Meanwhile, many of these folks took their service one step further by stepping up as team facilitators, program representatives, and/or strategic planning team members. The combined efforts of these groups and the lessons learned during ISCOPES’ rich history will shape all the great things to come in 2011 – 2012! Many thanks to those of you who have been a part of and supportive of our work this year and for so long – and a warm welcome to those who are just getting to know what we are all about. In either case, I’m glad you are a part of our pursuit to bring practitioners and clients, non-profits and the University closer together, improving trust, access to care, and health outcomes over time – it goes without saying that we can achieve more together! ---Angie
Thank you to all ISCOPES participants for a memorable year! We’ve taught workshops on healthy diet and physical activity; we’ve given individual attention to clients learning how to use a computer for the first time; we’ve promoted health, wellness, and disease prevention in the District; we’ve advocated for those whose voices are often unheard; and we’ve developed resource guides that will help DC residents find essential health services. These are just some examples of our accomplishments and we should be proud of our hard work! Moreover, please know that we inspire others through our willingness to work together, brainstorm ideas, circumvent challenges, and serve others despite other projects, responsibilities, and priorities on our respective plates. My hope is that we have all learned something from this experience – either from working in interdisciplinary teams, collaborating with each other, listening to valuable feedback from our target audiences, or by challenging ourselves mentally, physically, and/or emotionally to grow as health professionals. I know I’ve learned from all of you and for that I am truly thankful. Lastly, I would like to leave you with one of my favorite quotes: ‘Success and happiness cannot be pursued – they must ensue as unintended side effects of one’s personal dedication to a course greater than oneself.’ -Viktor Frankl. I hope this and our ISCOPES experiences, will serve us well in the future as we continue down the path to improving health for all! ---Donna
Mission: In it for the long term The mission of ISCOPES is to provide students with a service-learning experience while addressing communityidentified health needs in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Interdisciplinary teamwork and community interaction make ISCOPES a unique approach to promoting health in DC and reducing barriers to accessing health information and care.
Committed to Outcomes: Our Goals
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
GW students effectively engage in intensive, health promotion experiences. GW faculty/staff effectively serve as community health promotion coaches. Community leaders facilitate capacity building through university-community health promotion partnerships. High priority target populations in the DC Metro area participate in health promotion experiences. University-community partnerships are strengthened through health communication and marketing.
Grounded in Our Values We Value: Universal healthcare access Authentic collaboration between university and community Service Learning as a core strategy Evidence-based, research-informed, and/or science-based resources enhanced with culturally appropriate adaptation options Interdisciplinary teamwork Culturally competent health services Sustainable, outcomes driven project development, implementation, and evaluation
2010-2011 Strategic Planning Team: Chidimma Acholonu Lisa Alexander Amy Cohen Alison DeLeo Angie Hinzey Donna Javellana Karyn Pomeranz Josef Reum Cheryl Robertson Steve Robie Scott Schroth Alex Stagnaro-Green Howard Straker Paul Tschudi Sharon Watkins
Meaningful collaboration requires teamwork Fifteen interdisciplinary teams each made up of 7-12 health professional students, 1-2 faculty advisors, and 1-3 community preceptors came together in September 2010 to identify and target community health needs. Without knowing exactly what was to come, they committed themselves to each other and the clients they would serve. Hear what they have to say about their experiences…
[My faculty advisor] taught me that no matter how much you as an individual want to work towards a goal, everyone in your group has to be onboard or it will never get there…students have identified areas of bias/assumptions about the homeless that will inform their practice in the future. I grew in how I help guide students through this process and helped develop how they view people from different backgrounds. excellent
opportunity to get to know students from other programs and experience the challenges of providing service in DC. My faculty advisor is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met …she has not only a compassion, but also a passion, for human beings, especially the underserved…I will always remember and attempt to incorporate her commitment in my own practice. I believe
this program gave me a dose of reality, which was very much needed. I learned so much and
will take this experience as a very positive one where I learned and grew tremendously as a person.
Bridging the Gap: Research
To
Practice
Serving as the ‘To’ was the focus of many ISCOPES teams this year. Students and faculty brought their understanding of latest best practices and classroom knowledge to the table while community preceptors and clients offered up their experience and real world circumstances. Both camps taught and both camps learned, creating a middle ground of reciprocity and reflection. Coalition for the Homeless –Emery House Department of Mental Health – Primary Project The Emery House team made visits every other week to talk The Primary Project team spent their first semester training in with the residents and offer preventive screenings. A needs this early mental health intervention program for elementary survey prompted discussions pertaining to diabetes, nutrition, aged children. Circumstances warranted a switch in project sexually transmitted diseases, prostate health, and health focus at midyear toward project implementation advocacy. The insurance. The team implemented an incentive program to team promoted coordination and cooperation between the DC encourage attendance. Additionally, each man was given a Department of Mental Health and DC Public Schools. Their notebook to record his blood pressure and weight, taken at each efforts included emails, letters, and phone calls to council visit. The experience gave the team members and men ongoing members as well as leaders in the school system. Their efforts opportunities to work one-on-one while learning about each were successful and rewarded by a two year implementation other and various perspectives in health care. The success of the agreement. They finished their year by hosting an orientation project was measured by attendance and self-reported impact lunch with the team that will implement Primary Project next as summarized in a series of videotaped interviews. year with the help of future ISCOPES participants. Community of Hope – Marie Reed (COH-MR) GW Veterans Collaborative The COH-MR team helped begin a school basketball team, Throughout the year, this team was able to work with the developed and delivered health-related workshops, and Student Veterans Organization at GW. They planned and collected recipes for a future community cookbook. During the conducted focus groups with these student veterans, and their basketball season, team members supported school coaching findings resulted in a list of recommendations for the University. staff and demonstrated how fun exercise could be. Post season, Additionally, this team found little to no information about the the team developed, implemented, and evaluated two military and current issues facing service members available for workshops: the first was a healthy heart workshop for parents the greater university population. They decided to educate that included a presentation and cooking demonstration of a students, faculty, and staff by showing a screening of the movie meal based on local recipes while the second was a kid-friendly Alive Day and hosting military-associated guest lecturers. workshop on exercise and healthy eating that included exercise Health Information Partners(HIPS) – Academy of Hope practice and preparing healthy pizzas. The HIPS team targeted adult students at Academy of Hope Community of Hope – Transitional Housing (COH-TH) with curricula that would boost GED prep, health knowledge, The COH-TH team started the semester by evaluating the needs and understanding of health resources. Sub-teams of 2-3 of COH clients. After conducting literature reviews and students developed class objectives, lessons, and evaluations, shadowing their community preceptor, they chose to integrate and presented them at team meetings. Adjustments were into the established LifeSkills program at Girard Street. Topics made through team input and then sub-teams presented the were selected and prioritized based on client polls. Classes lessons to AOH students at weekly classes. Team members focused on hand washing for flu prevention, exercise, and the reported on and evaluated lessons at the next team meetings. epidemiology and prevention of HIV. AOH student learning was evaluated through pre- and post-tests and games. AOH students also filled out evaluations to provide Department of Health – DC Healthy Start feedback for next year. Student feedback from the first term This team focused on DC Healthy Start’s mission by tapping into was also implemented in the second term. a newly developing best practice: expectant father education. St. Mary’s Court With the help of their community preceptor, they determined This team addressed this senior community’s need for health that there was an unmet need among these men for widely disseminated, comprehensive, user-friendly, medically accurate, education and companionship. They visited with the residents health education print materials as last year’s team focused only during meals and distributed a survey to determine their health on expectant mothers in their own materials development. education needs. Subsequent classes on hypertension, diabetes, Following in similar footsteps to last year’s team, this team first cholesterol, and osteoporosis were prioritized, prepared, and created and implemented a needs and assets survey to presented. The year culminated with a health fair that featured determine what resources would be most valuable for their information and activities centered on the aforementioned plus target audience. Subsequently, they created a guide that helps skin care, sleep, sex, arthritis, blood pressure checks, and direct fathers to these local, often untapped resources. personal well-being.
Academies of Anacostia The Academies of Anacostia team first identified the priority needs of senior students attending this high school as building college/job/life readiness and increasing general health knowledge. Several workshops addressing nutrition, sexual health, and mental health were planned, but implementation was inhibited by many unfortunate environmental circumstances, including the heartbreaking death of one of the high school students. Instead of walking away, the team and this new partnership not only survived, but managed to thrive through an arrangement that brought these high school students to GW to learn about health professional education and career paths as well as about the multi-cultural environment at the university. This team has paved the way for many more good things to come!
Bread for the City (BFC) BFC recently completed an expansion of their medical clinic. The new clinic includes a Health Resource Room (HRR), a designated area in which clients can use the Internet to access high quality websites with answers to their health questions with the help of a trained volunteer. The HRR is intended to empower patients to explore more detailed information about topics including management of diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic diseases. This team worked first to identify, vet, and finalize a database of these resources in the variety of languages spoken by BFC clients. Subsequently, they helped with staffing the HRR. Moreover, they helped develop and test an encounter form to track patient satisfaction with and Lederer Environmental and Education Center(LEEC)/Deanwood utilization of the HRR. Finally, they developed and pilot tested a As a means of building a new collaborative partnership between presentation and orientation packet based on their experiences the LEEC and the Deanwood Recreation Center (DRC), this team to use for training future HRR volunteers who will be recruited focused on educating young people at DRC about healthy food, by BFC. The intense and intentional involvement of this team’s including how it’s grown in nearby community gardens like the community partner throughout the aforementioned ensures LEEC. Through interactive, fun, bi-weekly lessons, these children that these substantial efforts will be sustained and improved prepared and sampled a variety of healthy foods. Future over time. ISCOPES teams can nurture this partnership so community members can utilize the LEEC to its full potential, particularly important given the food desert design of this community.
Prioritizing Sustainability Building foundations for the future was also the focus of many of the ISCOPES teams this year. Projects that will better situate sites and future teams were planned, tweaked, executed, and evaluated – sometimes with a special sigh of relief that comes particularly when unknowns, roadblocks, and seemingly insurmountable odds are more often the norm than not. A few of these teams endured substantial adversity; nevertheless, they all endured and completed big picture projects that reinforce the ISCOPES commitment to making an ongoing positive impact. La Clínica del Pueblo The La Clínica team created and administered a survey addressing language access resources and barriers in primary care clinics in the DC metro area as a follow-up to last year’s project, which surveyed hospitals in the same region. The analyzed results will be sent to La Clínica to identify and implement strategies that will help community health centers in D.C. expand their capacity to provide language services. The team also hosted a lunch for health professional students in an effort to raise awareness of language access barriers, patient rights, and the responsibilities of health care providers.
N Street Village The N Street Village Team built on the efforts of last year’s team by testing, revising, and reflecting on appropriate and effective pedagogy for a wellness curriculum targeting the ladies of N Street Village. They also improved content specifically pertaining to stroke, menopause, smoking cessation, and sexual health based on the current women’s needs. Finally, this team helped organize a health fair around these topics that permitted collaboration with many other women-focused organizations. Their efforts will allow future teams to teach more effectively and polish the curriculum in an effort to ready this resource for utilization at other women’s homeless centers.
Mary’s Center Whitman Walker Clinic This team identified three specific needs to address: Insurance The Whitman Walker team identified the ongoing need for a education, pharmaceutical education, and patient flow analysis. treatment readiness assessment tool for patients newly The insurance education sub-team developed materials to diagnosed with HIV as a means of improving treatment distribute to patients with basic insurance information. The adherence. After conducting a literature review, the team pharmaceutical education sub-team provided information on medication safety to patients and taught patients how to have developed a Treatment Readiness Survey that was subsequently pilot tested, edited, and finalized for use in a paper format. an active role in their health care. The patient flow sub-team Future steps are projected to include transition into an online observed the check in process, interviewed staff and patients to format. Additionally, this team started drafting complementary determine key challenges in the patient flow process, and health education modules that can be further developed by provided recommendations for improvement over time. Despite future teams. The Treatment Readiness Survey is unique and language barriers, this innovative team worked collaboratively in will likely develop into a means for improving secondary HIV projects that could ultimately affect multiple locations. prevention and quality of life for those living with HIV.
ISCOPES 2010 – 2011 TEAMS Academies of Anacostia
Department of Health – DC Healthy Start
Lederer Environmental Education Center/Deanwood
Chidimma Acholonu TF, MVP Shilpa Bansal PR Christan Bartsch Rina Dave Anne Giles Jeannette Green Dianne Harris CP Yolanda Haywood FA, S1 Hillary Martinez Shana McClendon MVP Nia Nicholas CP Ian Roberts CP Seth Rosenblatt Anne Swett TF Shyrea Thompson Robinson FA Stephanie Waggel PR Cristina Wright
Fran Dayao Twana Fortune Jones Mellie Hock PR Hana Kelele Kimberly Ogden Aishat Olatunde Maggie Richards MVP Cheryl Roberton FA Kelsey Sanford TF Eszter Varga
Jack Bal Julie Barrett TF, MVP Kimberly Brown Allison Gould Vindya Gunawardena Jean Gutierrez FA David Justus Celeste Leong Kelly Anne Melsted CP Lauren O’Shea Dana Rosenfarb TF Alex Tauras PR Anique Walters Abbey Wawrzynek
Bread for the City Randi Abramson CP Shazad Ahmed TF Rachel Barish Jenna Bythrow MVP Alison DeLeo FA Tonya Hamilton CP, S2 Ikechi Knokwo PR Liz Nafziger CP Lizzy Reinbold Yelda Salih Laura Sullivan Tony Torres Najla Wahid TF
Coalition for the Homeless – Emery House Herb Baylor CP Kelly Bree TF, MVP Renee Cordrey FA Joey Fielding Katie Kamara Meg Knapick Fafa Kumassah PR Becky Peters Steve Robie Scott Schroth FA Jenny Smith
Community of Hope – Marie Reed Susan Blake FA Colleen Boselli Ashley Hartman CP Laura Hodges Karishma Katti TF Kate Kleene MVP Alyssa Krepela Suzanne Molloy FA, S1 Aaron Roberts Amy Shah TF Michelle Spears Zainab Thomas Val Vasquez
Community of Hope – Transitional Housing Ashley Chadwick TF, MVP Jesse Lewis Beverly Lunsford FA Cristin McGetrick Kim Quyen Nguyen Christine Pattison MVP Assata Tafari CP Kathleen Viado Lisa Walker Ying Wang TF
Department of Mental Health – Primary Project Olga Acosta Price FA Maureen Banigan Kelly Carter TF, MVP Donna Coakley CP Jenna Frkovich PR J’wan Griffin CP Meg Hopkins Cristina Lange Barbara Parks CP Lalaine Ricardo TF Rikin Tank Jen Treat
GW Veterans Collaborative Kelly Clark Mary Compton Julie Cummings Holli Finneren PR Ashley Frese Becky Gullberg TF Natasha Rabinowitz TF Jackie Ross Chelsea Slade S1 Janice Speer MVP Stacey Stuart Paul Tschudi FA
Health Information Partners – Academy of Hope Elizabeth Arnell Praneet Boparai TF, S1 Patricia de Ferrari CP Adele Hagen Nikki Hawkins CP Elizabeth Laidlaw MVP Tinika McIntosh Omoro Omoighe TF Karyn Pomerantz FA Gurvaneet Sahota Elliott Stubbs Austen Stutsman
La Clínica del Pueblo Nikova Bispham PR Lauren Bruns TF Lani Gallagher Leah Gustafson PR, MVP Jessie Hallerman Christine Helou Sandy Hoar FA Iréal Johnson Elizabeth Odoom Janet Thompson Isabel van Isschot CP Katherine Verbyla
Mary’s Center Courtney Bartlett PR Nivedita Betkerur TF Toya Buchanan CP Menolly Hart TF, MVP Eun Kim Katherine Krueger Kara Mayfield Annie Mooser Elise Nash Gloria Rogers FA Mary Walters Joan Yengo CP Chanel Zelaya
N Street Village Christina Aplin-Kalisz FA, S1 Jacky Fontanella Hirut Gebre Lindsy Godair TF Bethany Ignatenko MVP Julia McPeak Mariama Nixon FA, S1 Viviana Reyes Liz Stacey TF Sharon Watkins CP Yi Zhang
St. Mary’s Court Sarah Brady Priya Chatterjee TF, MVP Will Drew PR Alex Gentile Jie Howe Kate Hughes Tessa Johnson CP Cathy Kopac FA Katrina McLean Nancy Nicolson Regina Toto MVP Diana Zaato TF, S1
Whitman Walker Chi Chi Anyanwu PR Kristine Brook Danielle Geruso MVP Justin Goforth CP Li Huang TF Andrew Kerkhoff Susan LeLacheur FA Rachel Mackessy-Lloyd Ashley Schoenwetter Domenic Simeoni Jill Sturges
…ripples of hope…
CP = Community Preceptor; FA = Faculty Advisor; MVP = Most Valuable (team) Player; PR = Program Representative; S1/S2 = Semester 1 or 2 only; TF = Team Facilitator
Give, Get Help, Get Involved…TODAY ISCOPES can only do what it does because people like you pitch in! Whether you define service as donating your skills, recruiting others, spreading the word, or something else altogether, we have an opportunity to serve that fits you! Join us and our efforts by completing and mailing us the form below or by emailing us at iscopes@gwu.edu.
Suggest a Site
Give in-kind services/gifts
Suggest a Community Preceptor
Health Education Resources
Build Readiness – Help with events/training
Help with Evaluation
Volunteer as a Coach Be a Content Expert (List expertise): ____________________________ Donate tangibles to our sites (contact us for specifics)
Make a financial contribution Sponsor a student to present on their ISCOPES project at conferences Sponsor a site Help us purchase health education tools
Lend us your Marketing Expertise Participate in Publicity Host a fundraising event Help recruit students Volunteer at one of our sites Suggest Faculty Advisors Suggest Coaches Serve as a mentor
Name: ____________________ Email: _____________________ Phone Number: _____________
2300 Eye Street, NW. • Ross Hall Suite 316A • Washington, DC. 20037 • (202)994-3274 • iscopes@gwu.edu