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I want to take advantage of this opportunity to share with you all my experience as President of one of the greatest organizations in our community: the Dade County Medical Association (DCMA). Thinking about this experience brought to mind one of the affirmations that I usually share with people that work with me. Affirmations that have helped guide me in my moments of uncertainty. The Affirmation that came to my mind was given to me by a Past President of the National Medical Association (NMA) and the DCMA, Dr. Nelson Adams.
“Good, Better, Best. Never let it rest until your good becomes your better and your better becomes your best”.
It is with this affirmation as the foundation, I want to share with you one of the projects that we have accomplished during my Presidency that shall serve this community for years to come, the creation of the DCMA Community Outreach Committee.
As a result of my participation in the Physician Leadership Academy (PLA), my colleagues and I developed the Community Outreach Committee initiative as a social outreach program for the DCMA. The PLA is an extremely rewarding experience that has contributed to my personal and professional growth. I was blessed to participate in the second class of the Academy. I look forward to the initiatives currently being developed by the third class as well. I would highly encourage my peers to consider participating in this program in the future.
The idea behind the Community Outreach Committee is to collaborate with other organizations already involved in the community. In order to execute this initiative, one of my first actions as President was to appoint a Committee and named Dr. Rudy Moise as Chair. The Outreach Committee started to work right away and I am proud of what they have achieved to date. As one of our first collaborative projects, we selected the Trayvon Martin Foundation.
The experience of working with the Foundation gave us an opportunity to provide health care screenings and education for participants of the Trayvon Martin Foundation Peace Walk. With the assistance of several dedicated medical students from the University of Miami and residents from Westchester General Hospital, Dr. Rudy Moise, provided his Mobile Unit so we could deliver screening services to the attendees. Several of our leaders were also able to assist the Foundation through participation in their Remembrance Gala.
We are currently working on the third project for the Outreach Committee, the STEM Program. The STEM program is its final stages of planning and we hope it will be finalized by summer time.
At the same time we were working with the Trayvon Martin Foundation, a request came to the Outreach Committee from the North Miami Police Department (NMPD). They wanted us to be a part of their training program. The new Chief of the NMPD, Larry Juriga shared with the committee some concerns that he had about the amount of stress his officers endure and the training available for them to help manage people they may encounter that have behavioral issues. The Committee accepted the request to find assistance for the Department and has to date conducted three formal training programs for the officers on stress management as well as how to identify mental health and behavioral disorders that may influence the actions of citizens they come across when serving the public.
The training with the NMPD started in January and is scheduled to be completed in June, 2019. During the sessions Dr. Delvena Thomas shares with participants the tools to manage behavioral situations such as stress, autism, ADHD, burnout, among others. These useful tools can make a major difference when encountering behavioral issues either while on the police force or through the citizens they encounter. Each session is 4 to 5 hours in length and we plan to offer one session per month. During the sessions participants are encouraged to share their experiences with their peers and review best practices and lessons learned from what they encountered. Dr. Thomas is also available to share ideas with how to improve handling those difficult situations.
The DCMA Community Outreach Committee is constantly evolving and is composed of physician volunteers of the DCMA who believe that we have to give back some of the blessings that we have received. That we believe that good becomes your better, and your better, becomes your best.
I want to publicly thank the Committee Members for their work and dedication to the community; Dr. Rudy Moise; Chair, Dr. Enrique Fernandez and Melissa Smith from Ross University. I also want to thank Dr. Delvena Thomas for her expertise and willingness to lead these training sessions for the NMPD.
I wanted to share this story with you for a number of reasons. First, organized medicine is willing and able to work with and for the community. Second, physicians remain committed to our patients and the people of this community. Taking care of people is the reason so many of us joined this profession. Finally, let’s promote that good becomes your better and your better becomes your best and become an agent of change in your community and your profession.
