March 2000 • Volume 6 • Number 3
• Grassroots Advocacy •
Residency finds partners to promote rural health
Rural America is prime territory for public health initiatives like those of the Carbondale, Ill., residency.The Carbondale, Ill., family practice residency has taken on three projects that mix advocacy with public health.
The residents will present a one-day farm safety program this month at a family farm close to Benton, Ill.
Several residents will start a boat factory project this year at a West Frankfort, Ill., factory with 525 employees. "The company wants us to help the employees prevent accidents," says Penelope Tippy, M.D., residency director. In addition, the residents will conduct cardiopulmonary resuscitation and smoking cessation classes.
The residency is also involved in mental health support, responding to a county health survey that identified the need to address heart disease, dysfunctional families and mental health.
During a meeting with community members to start developing a federally funded, community-oriented primary care curriculum at the residency, Tippy asked the school superintendent what she most needed. "A counselor," said the superintendent. "I've got funding for one half-time."
Tippy laughed and said, "So do I," and they struck a deal. They hired a counselor in November.
In the next few months, residents and the counselor will analyze data from an adolescent health risk survey the school system just gave. They will decide how to start addressing the health risks, including the teens' mental health needs.
The counselor was hired none too soon. While working at the clinic in December, he got an emergency call to come to the high school. He counseled a new student who left "home" after being repeatedly shifted from one far-flung relative to another. The counselor placed the student with a foster family within a week.
That was possible only through the residency's pursuit of the federal grant, the collaborative meeting on the curriculum and the decision to share the counselor.
In other words, administration as advocacy.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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