Member Profile: Diabetes Health Educator and Bronx Health REACH Assistant

The Community Healthcorps team at IFH has 15 full time members. Each month we profile one or two members on the blog so you can get to know them a little better!

This month, meet Eleonor!

Name: Eleonor
Position: Diabetes Educator/Bronx Health REACH

Brief bio:
I have lived and breathed Brooklyn it seems all my life. I have four siblings, one that looks my doppelganger even though we are two years apart, and just got my driver’s permit a couple of months ago. Yeah me! My future goals are to finally have the courage to recite one of my stories or poetry in front of a live audience, family does not count, kick my chocolate habit to the curb and one day run a race in the city. My most immediate dreams though are to go to medical school and work on health issues facing minority communities.

What is your hometown?
I was born in Brooklyn, raised in Brooklyn and can not wait to get out of Brooklyn. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Flatbush Avenue hair and nail salons, my Park Slope restaurants, and my Mill Basin parks. I do feel that there is more to the world and can not wait to explore it.

For those in NYC: What is the best part about living in NYC? What is your favorite place in the city?
The best part of living in the city is finding the green spaces, like parks and gardens in the city and spending the afternoon talking to people or visiting museums and art shows for FREE. I love that here, there are so many artistic outlets for young and old which are not terrible expensive. All it takes is some key strokes and you can find yourself in a museum learning about Ghandi.

Where do you work and what kind of tasks do you do each day?
I work in the 16 St clinic, Phillips Family Practice on the 1st floor, as a Diabetes Educator and also part-time with Bronx Health REACH working on various projects. As a Diabetes Educator, I counsel patients who are diabetic, hypertensive, overweight and/or have high cholesterol on how to make healthy lifestyle changes. Day to day I use goal setting techniques and motivational interviewing to get people to think about their health. Instead of telling patients what they should do to be healthy, I ask them to think about why it has been hard to eat healthy or be physically active. Then I have the patients brainstorm ways to overcome these barriers and finally set a goal, something that they want to change in the coming weeks. Usually I call them to see if they have accomplished their goals by the next week. I also help lead a Diabetes Support group, a Diabetes Education class and a new Chronic Disease Self-management class.

As a Program Assistant for Bronx Health Reach, I work on several projects ranging from designing and starting up a diabetes self-management support groups in churches, doing diabetes presentations in the community and working on a grant to make after-school program’s food environment healthier. On most days it’s keeping track of the nurse facilitators for the support group, who are sweet hearts and are like the grandmothers I never had, working on the support group curriculum and learning more about community health.

What is your favorite part of the job?
Hands down my favorite part of my job is talking to the patients. It’s one thing to know that diabetes is an epidemic, but it’s another to see the faces of the people affected by the disease. It makes the disease so much more real and difficult to deal with when patients tell you why their sugars are out of control, and how the retinopathy or neuropathy has made their life so burdensome. My job is then to give them a place and space for them to share their experiences and offer advice on how to deal with their condition. It’s encouraging to have that one patient come back with their sugar levels under control and know that your work serves a real purpose and makes a difference in a person’s life.

What is the most difficult part of what you do?
Outreaching and getting people to come to the clinic. In some cases patients talk to you on the phone asking about our programs or telling me why they can or can not make it to class that day. The majority of the time, it is sending tons of letters and emails and leaving voice messages, and crossing your fingers that one person from the thirty attempts will call you back. It is sometimes frustrating because so many people need the information or support the Institute provides to control their diabetes, but even more people are just not interested, or have too busy lives to come in.

Why do you enjoy being a Healthcorps member?
I have enjoyed being a Healthcorp member mostly because of the diverse group of people I have met in the past six month, both the patients, my fellow Healthcorp members and staff people here at IFH. I have learned so much about healthcare, watching people’s passion for their work, learning more about my own country (like I said-born, raised and can not wait to leave Brooklyn) with its diversity and finally making such great and supportive friends. I love the experience of working so directly with diabetic patients as well, because I have seen first hand in my family how much earlier intervention can help save lives. It has been both a difficult and rewarding process being a Healthcorp, because I have seen so many approaches to care and I know that it will reflect in the choices I make in the future.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
My passion lies in medicine. I hope to be a doctor when I grow up. Specifically I hope to work with older populations and on community health initiatives.