Public Transportation as a View into Public Health in Chicago

 

 

 

 

Post written by CHC member Jenny Carson

Jenny is serving as a Colorectal Cancer Screening Health Educator with the  American Cancer Soceity's Statewide Colorectal Cancer Screening Initiative




 Serving as a Chicago Health Corps member, I feel a commitment to better understand the vast communities and cultures that make up the social fabric of the Chicago Metropolitan area.  Since moving to Chicago, I read about the history of Chicago’s neighborhoods, in order to better understand why “the neighborhood effect” and disparities continue to exist.  The conditions of each neighborhood have major effects on that community, impacting mortality and chronic disease rates, health behaviors, and violence. 

One of the most apparent, yet often overlooked, public health challenges can be observed during my daily commute. I witness how neighborhoods shape behaviors and influence the health of the diverse population getting on and off public transit. I wrote a sequence of words that describe what I see out my window on my daily commute as I move  from a Chicago northwest neighborhood off the CTA Blue Line to the free clinic I serve at off the green line in a Chicago southwest neighborhood. 

Coffee steam, Hipsters, glasses,  Newspapers, Greek Yogurt, Pea coats, scarves, brief cases, Students, human sardines, tunnels, escalators, stairs,pigeons,my watch, head phones, Bulls hat, Hip-Hop, Dunkin Donuts, trackssss, feel the sway, skyline, U.S. Cellular Field, my skin color, FlaminHots, grocery store?, corner stores, strollers, Cop Cars, parking lots, security guards, sliding doors. . .  Medical Home      

The health of a community starts with an assessment of how the physical, social, and service environment of the neighborhood affects health behaviors. The physical environment of a neighborhood, which includes the “built environment” (i.e. infrastructure) and natural environment (i.e. trees, flowers), combined with the social environment (i.e. relationships among residents), affects the neighborhood residents’ health risks and behaviors. For example, pollution and high crime rates in a neighborhood often leads to low exercise rates, increased drug and alcohol use, and lack of healthy role models.  A neighborhood’s service environment, including availability of employment, good schools, and transportation resources, can affect whether residents smoke, have healthy diets, and practice safe sex.

HEALTH is all around us, including much more than feeling ill and trying to exercise.  The next time you commute, or simply sit in a public space, look up and take in your environment.  In order to preserve the health of future populations, we must change our daily behaviors and evaluate the health of every community with a holistic assessment.  What will you notice?  

For more information on the neighborhood effect in Chicago, check out this book from the University of Chicago press “The Great American City: Chicago and the enduring neighborhood effect.”

Projects such as the Smart Chicago Collaborative: Chicago Health Atlas will help us evaluate communities to improve care.

Also check out a study of 77 of Chicago’s Neighborhoods conducted by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in collaboration with Chicago Department of Public Health and Aetna, Inc., documenting the health of residents and resources in Chicago neighborhoods.   

Shopping for Health

Post written by CHC member Casey Strickler

Casey is a serving as a Health Educator at Erie Family Health Center in Humboldt Park

Diet and nutrition are some of the most important yet challenging aspects of our health. However, a healthy diet is vital to preventing or controlling diabetes. However, for anyone who has tried to break or change a habit, changing a diet can be one of the most difficult aspects of life to change. To help facilitate this change, I lead the program Shopping Matters at Erie Family Health Center in Humboldt Park. This program brings individuals to grocery stores to help them understand easy ways to make healthy decisions while shopping. At the end of this 2-hour program, we give participants $10 to spend at the store to test their new knowledge.

Most Erie Humboldt Park patients are best served in Spanish and have moved to the U.S. from other countries. This creates a challenge when navigating grocery stores and managing diet and nutrition. In their home countries, patients may have had access to space for a garden, but when switching to U.S. food sources, patients begin to replace their natural vegetable garden with processed sodium-infused fast or frozen foods.

Those recently diagnosed with diabetes often report that they have never read a food label before in their life and are on a tight budget when shopping for food. During Shopping Matters, we aim to address both the nutrition and financial challenges. We discuss with participants how to buy fruits and vegetables in season, so they can save money while still getting 5 servings of vegetables and fruits every day. We also explain that participants should only buy bread or tortillas where the very first ingredient is “whole grains” in order to get all the nutrients one’s body needs. In the dairy aisle, we compare low fat cheeses and milks, showing participants that skim milk, unflavored almond milk, or unflavored soy milk are the best options to avoid high levels of fat and maintain low amounts of sugar.  Similarly, knowing to buy beans without added salt, or unflavored yogurt to avoid high levels of sugar are all vital steps to both prevent and manage diagnoses like diabetes or hypertension. Thanks to programs like Shopping Matters, we can help patients change their habits and navigate more healthy choices.

 For more information on the health programs Erie Family Health has to offer click here.

Smart Health Chicago - Service Day

Blackline Review, a publication that targets start up entrepreneurs, caught wind of the Smart Chicago and Chicago Health Corps Service Day that was held Friday, November 2nd.  

We had massive brainstorm session with all of the 2012-2013 CHC members and Smart Chicago staff to improve the new IT Health Navigation Site.  Watch this video to learn more about this exciting new Chicago initiative.  Some great minds at work here!

Shout out to Casey for rocking this interview!! 

For more information check out Smart Chicago Collaborative's Website HERE!

Truck Farm Chicago Passes Out 2,000 Tomatoes During Second Season

Post written by CHC member Sydney Weydemeyer:

As a successful second season comes to a close, Truck Farm Chicago has passed out a lot of tomatoes! At almost every Truck Farm Chicago visit, truck farmers pass out freshly-picked tomatoes for people to taste.  After visiting more than 2,600 people at 60 sites over the 7 month season, that is over 2000 tomatoes! Quite a feat considering Truck Farm is a project directed and run just by one Chicago Health Corps AmeriCorps member, Sydney Weydemeyer and one Farmer Tim, with the help of a few wonderful volunteers and interns.

Truck Farm Chicago is a non-profit project of Seven Generations Ahead and Green Sugar Press. A mini farm planted in the bed of pickup truck named Petunia, Truck Farm engages both youth and adults in conversations about food and health. Truck Farm visits schools, libraries, park districts, businesses, community organizations and festivals teaching people about eating healthy, growing their own healthy food, and getting outside and staying active!

Kids trying tomatoes.

Farmer Tim at The Children's School in Oak Park discussing seed saving.

Combining numbers from the first and second seasons, Truck Farm Chicago has visited over 5,300 people in the Chicagoland area! Petunia's been all over the city, from Kilbourn Park Organic Greenhouse in Irving Park and Centers for New Horizons in Bronzeville, to Energy BBDO, Gary Comer Youth Center, Respiratory Health Association, the Kids Table, and countless Chicago schools. Truck Farm is small, but mighty!

For more information, or how you can bring Truck Farm to your school next season, visit www.truckfarmchicago.org.

Farmer Sydney, Chicago Health Corps member, sporting her AmeriCorps gear while leading a visit at Lloyd Elementary.

The kids at Centers for New Horizons give a big goofy thanks to our funder friends at Ernst & Young!

A girl laughs at a funny vegetable joke by Farmer Tim (one of the few laughs we got during the season for our veggie jokes)

CHC now on Flickr!!

Hey everyone!  We now have a Flickr - to check out our photos go here:

CHC Flickr

A Flickr link will be added to our blog soon!

The Spooky Truth

Post written by CHC member Amber Adams:

It is November 1^st and American households are now stocked with candy treats, costumes are tucked away, and the haunted and scary festivities for this holiday season have come to an end. However, for many individuals seen at Heartland Health Center’s Wilson Clinic, the reality of “spooky” and scary truths, such as intimidating doctor visits, frustrations due to the inability to understand health information, and confusing procedures and diagnoses, extends well past the Halloween holiday.  

Many of the individuals seen at Heartland Health Center’s Wilson clinic are refugees. While fleeing their homelands in pursuit of safety, they immediately undergo a strenuous resettlement process upon arrival to the U.S. Within the first 30 days, refugees are required to complete a number of tasks to promote self-sufficiency and cultural adjustment, including learning to speak English.

Due to language barriers and differences in culture, many refugees need interpretation and further explanation concerning their medical care. My service term with Heartland Health Centers provides me the opportunity to assist with this need. I offer 1-on-1 nutrition counseling to patients and create cultural competency and health literacy tools to address some of the complicated health procedures and diagnoses for Wilson’s diverse patient population. Most refugees in Chicago come from Burma, Bhutan, Iraq, Somalia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, according to the Heartland Alliance. 

To no surprise, with the cultural shock and overwhelming tasks refugees’ transition, grocery shopping for low-calorie foods or making sure to get all 5 food groups in with each meal may fall lower on their priority list.  However, the shocking reality that some patients do not understand health information and instructions given by physicians, and that information is so easily misinterpreted or lost in translation, makes my service an essential part of making sure our patients have access to the necessary healthcare information.

While I enjoy thinking up the perfect Halloween costume and anticipating the reaction to what I’ve brought to life another year, I’m glad my creativity is not limited to just this holiday season.  With much excitement and pleasure, I am able to design health educational tools, bulletin boards, and provide culturally competent resources that patients can read, understand, and act on concerning their health. This makes me proud, humbled, and happy to serve.

“The true way to render ourselves happy is to love our work and find in it our pleasure”

-Francoise de Motteville