The steps to healthy New Orleans neighborhoods are elementary, says Timolynn Sams, executive director of the Neighborhood Partnership Network.
Explaining what she's coined as the "Sesame Street Methodology," Sams said a simple yet holistic approach is vital to developing healthy neighborhoods in New Orleans during the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship's State of Our Health in New Orleans symposium, which was hosted by Xavier University of Louisiana on March 24.
According to Sams, neighborhoods consist of Sesame-Street type characters and places like: Mr. Hooper's store (central locations); Bert & Ernie (environmentalists & preservationists); Oscar the Grouch (government); Big Bird (social services); Mr. Snuffleupagus (the invisibles in the community like youth and the elderly); and Kermit the Frog (media).
The key to a healthy neighborhood is getting those contributors to network; otherwise, the neighborhood will suffer as a result of individuals believing they have no stake in the area, Sams said.
Individuals living in healthy neighborhoods, according to Sams, will share a common "image" of confidence in their neighborhood, take pride in the physical conditions of their neighborhoods, exercise neighborhood management, and implement an effective market, which will steer investments to the area.
Social inequalities
Addressing New Orleans' health from the academic perspective, Dr. Leonard Jack, director of the Xavier University Center for Minority Health, Health Disparities Research and Education, said an examination of neighborhood characteristics must be factored in when analyzing social inequalities in health care in New Orleans.
"We cannot only focus on the clinical outcomes," Jack said.
With issues like high cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure drastically affecting Black communities, Jack said, "We have to do more to explore the relationship between the neighborhood and the outcome."
He suggested assessing neighborhood personalities as well as the views that outsiders may have of the neighborhood and how those views affect investment and economic ventures within those areas.
Learned and learning
Students, faculty and staff at Tulane University's School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, learned self reliance, creativity in collaborative efforts, resources and solutions, transparency as well as the benefits of a positive demeanor following Hurricane Katrina, said Dr. Janet Johnson with Tulane's psychiatry department.
But nearly four years after the catastrophic storm, the healthcare field steadily faces external and systemic challenges such as individuals living in toxic FEMA trailers, increases in suicide, crime and domestic violence rates, decreases in psychiatric in-patient resources, and the loss of over 50 percent of pre-Katrina physicians who are no longer in practice. In addition, faculty at medical schools has decreased throughout the area while student enrollment continues to rise, leaving an air of uncertainty around the future of health education in New Orleans.
According to Johnson, much work remains to be done in revitalizing New Orleans healthcare; however, medical students are benefiting from training opportunities at non-traditional sites, and collaborative efforts on the part of non-governmental organizations are providing health care services where needed.
Dr. Kevin Stephens, Director of the New Orleans Health Department, Dr. Larry Hollier, chancellor of the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, and Joseph Kimbrell, chief executive officer at the Louisiana Public Health Institute, also participated in the symposium.
Third year Xavier pharmacy student and Schweitzer fellow DeShawn Stevenson and Valerie Fontenot, Shweitzer fellow and student at Louisiana State University's Health Sciences Center, coordinated the event.
This article was originally published in the April 6, 2009 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper |
