At the non-profit Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, our mission calls us to serve as a compassionate, transforming and healing presence in our communities.

 

I joined Holy Cross Hospital in 1997 to start a school nurse program and now direct a community outreach program that has grown to provide health-related programs to more than 35,000 lower income, vulnerable women, children and seniors each year.

 

As we develop new initiatives, we target community-based programs that are population-specific and address the differences in the presence of disease, health outcomes or access to health care.

 

At the start of the new school year, we will launch the Partners in Health Literacy Project with a target of 30 child daycare centers in the first year. The program will provide on-site access to a mobile traveling health literacy library from which caregivers and parents may “check out” learning materials to utilize with their students and children.

A 2006 report by the U.S. Department of Education found that adults who self-reported the worst health also had lower literacy, numeracy, and health literacy skills. Several studies have also reported an association between low literacy and reduced self-management of chronic health conditions as well as adverse health outcomes.

To offer the Partners in Health Literacy Project, Holy Cross Hospital will partner with preschool centers with high enrollment of lower income, government subsidized children to serve its students and their caregivers, parents and grandparents.

 

Access to learning materials is a tremendous barrier for parents and providers who often cannot afford to purchase literacy materials, have limited or no transportation to lending libraries and are unable to accommodate shortened hours of community libraries.

 

The Partners in Health: Literacy Library Van will routinely visit daycare sites within the targeted community and allow for new material check-out and returns.

 

We expect the program to build on the success of the hospitals’ Goodstart Program, which provides health education classes for socio-economically challenged childcare centers and pre-schools. One aspect of the program is a school-based reading readiness program and monthly children’s book club at the Jan Moran Collier City Learning Library.

 

As part of the Goodstart program, Holy Cross Hospital holds a Dr. Seuss-themed celebration every 2 years. At our last one, more than 137 underprivileged children attended the event to promote literacy and bring joy to reading. After a breakfast of green eggs and ham, children brought the Cat in the Hat to life by making fun face masks, enjoyed One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish with an art project and edible fish bowls, had their feet painted to personalize their own books, and were entertained by a puppeteer.

 

Holy Cross also has seen the tremendous impact of mobile units. Operating six days per week in targeted areas, our mobile health unit served 2,497 people last year, many of whom were homeless and from minority populations. The unit offers health exams and screenings, rapid HIV and hepatitis C testing, care management, flu shots and childhood immunizations.

 

To measure the outcomes of the Partners in Health Literacy Project in its first year, we will administer the San Diego Quick Assessment to students enrolled in the program as a baseline at the beginning of the program and at the end of the school year. We also will track the frequency of literacy van item check-outs and analyze user activity reports.

 

At Holy Cross Hospital, our vision is to be the trusted health partner for life and, in this case, that begins by supporting the literacy skills of some of the youngest members of the community to enable them to have better health literacy skills and overall health throughout their lives.