Community and Public Health Programs
Community Outreach
The Department of Public Health and the Division of Community and Public Health Programs have played a major role in improving the health of urban populations and addressing health disparities.
These efforts are examples of Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR), the type of work supported by the National Institutes of Health's Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) award to Weill Cornell Medical College through the Center's Community Engagement and Outreach Program.
We have developed partnerships with key community stakeholders such as local politicians, community-based organization leaders and their clients, and faith-based organizations. We have used these partnerships to develop novel approaches to recognizing, preventing, and treating chronic conditions. Our goal is to utilize the natural resources that exist within communities and to enable them to develop their own capacity for change and to fully participate in translational scientific research.
The following are examples of some of the community programs developed by faculty in the Department. These programs have helped to inform research into major public health concerns such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and HIV/AIDS.
American Heart Association
We are involved with two initiatives of the American Heart Association: Power to End Stroke, and Search Your Heart. These projects work with faith-based leaders to increase awareness and knowledge about cardiovascular disease and stroke, including early warning signs, symptoms, and outcomes. The main focus is to develop capacity within faith-based organizations to take on these initiatives themselves.
School Partnerships for Prevention Programs
The Department has initiated educational programs for children and adolescents to enhance their knowledge of the most pressing health care issues affecting their age group. One example is a partnership with a middle school in East Harlem. The novel aspect of this program is the use of various aspects of popular culture as a vehicle for disseminating health messages about HIV and AIDS. A recent pilot study called "Reducing HIV & AIDS Through Prevention Program (RHAP): Teaching HIV Prevention to Adolescents Through the Exploration of Popular Culture," engaged sixth and seventh graders in examining rap music lyrics to identify positive, as well as derogatory or violent, images of sexuality and identity. The goal is to help empower students to make discriminating choices in their own lives.
The Cornell Science Institute for Teachers
The Department is collaborating with faculty on the Cornell Ithaca campus, under the leadership of Dr. Steve Hamilton, to devlop a joint science enrichment program with the United Federation of Teachers. This continuing education program for middle school teachers is designed to foster their interest in the health sciences and provide them with creative strategies for incorporating lessons on physical and biological sciences in their school curricula.
Urban Semester Program
The Urban Semester Program, based at Cornell University in Ithaca, has been in existence for 20 years under the directorship of Dr. Sam Beck. The goal is to provide undergraduate students in their junior or senior year with an enriched experience in urban and community health through service learning, community outreach, and research, and to help them gain a better understanding of the social and environmental underpinnings of health disparities. During the past summer 30 students were partnered with community organizations in New York City to do projects that focused on health disparities.
Weill Cornell Community Clinic
The Weill Cornell Community Clinic is a student initiated and student run program that offers medical and psychiatric services to uninsured New Yorkers. Dr. Carla Boutin-Foster, Dr. Ann Beeder, Dr. William Borden, and Dr. Emilio Carrillo are advisors. The mission is to provide quality care for patients who are uninsured, through education, counseling, diagnosis, and treatment. In this service learning model, students work with community-based organizations to identify patients who do not have health insurance. Patients who are referred to the clinic are interviewed by a medical student and then evaluated and examined by a volunteer faculty attending physician. The program now also provides health services in several New York City communities. Students who successfully complete this program are eligible to prepare a research paper on community health and compete for honors in community service and outreach.
BBKH: Building Bridges, Building Knowledge, Building Health Coalition
The BBKH is a coalition of partners in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx that includes four churches, a community college, and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and both of its associated medical colleges. The Coalition has been active in developing community based programs to address health disparities in diabetes, which is epidemic in these communuties, and other chronic conditions. It received a grant from the New York State Department of Minority Health to conduct and evaluate a program that employs community health workers in the care of patients with type 2 diabetes. It hopes to see concrete results in reducing the incidence and impact of this disease, as well as in increasing community members' enthusiasm and participation in their own health care. Dr. Carrillo, who founded the coalition, is the Principal Investigator and Chairman of its steering committee. Dr. Boutin-Foster is directing the project's process outcomes.
The program links patients with uncontrolled diabetes to community health workers (primarily affiliated with the churches) who are trained to provide instruction in diabetes self-management, increase diabetes knowledge, and improve self-efficacy. Medical treatment is provided by doctors and nurses in the hospital's clinics; medical student interns work with attending physicians. The program includes cultural competency training to enhance doctor/patient communication, as well as the development of a web-based interface for doctor-patient communication. The coalition also hosts community workshops and informational/enterainment events such as United Community Methodist Church's Diabetes Jazz Sundays. It also works to promote the availability of healthy foods in the communities it serves, such as its "green cart" program for fresh produce.
BHHC: Brooklyn Heart Health Council
We have also partnered with the Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn to establish a community academic partnership: the Brooklyn Heart Health Council. This group meets on a quarterly basis to develop community based programs in cardiovascular disease. This committee has developed workshops with the Greater Southern Brooklyn Health Coalition and at the Brooklyn Borough President’s office.
Redes en Acción
The Department of Public Health is contributing to this national project, funded by the National Cancer Institute, to combat cancer in Latino women. It is also being carried out in San Francisco, San Diego, San Antonio, Houston, and cities in Florida. Although the overall incidence of breast cancer in Hispanic women is lower than that of the general U.S. population, treatment is often delayed and outcomes are worse. The incidence of cervical cancer is higher in Latino population than in the general population. The Redes project is initiating a patient navigator program, in which a trained patient navigator in medical clinics teams up with women who have abnormal mammograms to help them through the follow-up process.
