Using a Gap Year for Good: HealthCorps Members Work to Conquer Diabetes

Using a Gap Year for Good: HealthCorps Members Work to Conquer Diabetes

The Institute for Family Health, which serves as the Metropolitan Regional Office of the NYS AHEC System, sponsors a Community HealthCorps program - a national AmeriCorps program that provides access to health care for the underserved while developing future health care workers. The Institute places 13 to 15 full time members per year at its health centers across Manhattan, the Bronx and the Mid-Hudson Valley. Now in its fifth year, almost all of the Institute’s 53 graduates have gone on to pursue further training in health care. For many, their HealthCorps experience solidifies their commitment to work with high need communities.

Diabetes is one of the most pressing health issues for underserved communities today. More and more communities are affected by this epidemic, and the Institute for Family Health is doing all it can to educate its patients about diabetes and what can be done to prevent it and manage it effectively.

As part of this effort, the Institute has recruited three HealthCorps members to work on its diabetes initiative. HealthCorps members help educate patients who need information and support to make lifestyle changes or successfully lose weight. Members teach patients to manage their ABCDs- their Hemoglobin A1c, Blood pressure, Cholesterol levels, and Dental care.

HealthCorps members also play a key part in the Institute’s Diabetes Days. These “one stop shopping“ days offer patients a chance to come in and to talk to a doctor, a certified diabetes educator, a social worker, a HealthCorps team member, and a pharmacist – all in one visit. It may sound overwhelming, but for patients who have uncontrolled diabetes, it has been extremely helpful.

Additionally, HealthCorps members organize diabetes groups for patients. These groups provide an important place for patients to find support and learn how to manage their diabetes, alongside others from their own community. The groups have been especially successful and have allowed the HealthCorps members to use their creativity. The Manhattan diabetes team member, Eleonor Leger, found that many of the patients in her group were struggling because so many people told them what they should and shouldn’t eat. Eleonor has since started a recipe contest in one of her groups. Patients will submit their best recipes and then the group will work together to make them diabetes friendly! Erinn Rieser, the Bronx diabetes team member, said she really enjoys leading these groups because “they let me make real connections with the patients as people.” Project coordinator Christina McGeough, CDE, adds, “It would be very difficult to provide the volume of services that we offer without the help of the HealthCorps team members.”

Working as diabetes educators with underserved communities has helped shape future career goals for the young people in the HealthCorps program. Although many members come to the program aspiring to go to medical school, they leave with strengthened views about the many ways they can make a difference and the variety of health care careers available to them. Ms. Leger, who also works with the Bronx Health REACH, a CDC funded program designed to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes, stated, “Working as both a diabetes educator in the clinic and as a program assistant for Bronx Health REACH has really pushed me to consider an MD/MPH, rather than just an MD. My work has made me realize that care involves so much more than individual treatment.”