Center for Excellence in Rural Health-Hazard

South Central AHEC demonstrates the power of partnerships

BY LUCY JUETT − SOUTH CENTRAL KENTUCKY AREA HEALTH EDUCATION CENTER

BOWLING GREEN − “Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning.” − Bill Gates

If it is good enough for business magnate Bill Gates, then it is good enough for the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) program. AHEC has always relied on partnerships to accomplish goals. In fact, it is one of the strengths of the Kentucky AHEC program.

The mission statement for the South Central AHEC includes partnerships: “… to promote healthy communities through innovative partnerships.” All of the programs sponsored by the South Central AHEC involve at least one partnership and some include several collaborations. The benefit of utilizing partnerships is the synergy realized when two or more groups voluntarily agree to collaborate to achieve a common goal by sharing risks, resources, responsibilities and, most importantly, benefits. This article highlights three partnerships of the South Central AHEC.

Let’s Immunize Very Early (L.I.V.E.) Coalition

L.I.V.E. was the first immunization coalition in Kentucky. It was organized in 1997 at the Barren River District Health Department in Bowling Green. Our partners include the Bowling Green-Warren County Health Department, Western Kentucky University’s (WKU) Institute for Rural Health Development and Research, local school systems, the Kentucky Immunization Program, various pharmaceutical companies, and the Bowling Green Noon Rotary Club. This group functions as a true coalition, in which all partners pool their resources to accomplish a goal and no one partner takes credit for the accomplishments.

L.I.V.E. has two goals: 1) to promote immunization awareness through community events and use of media; and 2) to provide educational opportunities for professionals and the general public. In the beginning, the focus was on infant immunizations because in 1999 only 72 percent of children age two and under in Warren County had received all of the recommended vaccinations. By 2005 the number of children age two and under in Warren County who had received all of the recommended vaccinations had exceeded the Healthy Kentuckians 2010 recommendation of 90 percent. This was the result of the work of L.I.V.E. and the Bowling Green-Warren County Health Department.

In 2006, L.I.V.E. expanded its focus to include adolescent and adult immunizations. The following two projects have been very successful and could be replicated in other communities.

• Vaccinate Your Staff Contest: The goal of this project was to increase the number of faculty and staff in the Warren County Public Schools who received the flu vaccination. This project was started in 2009 and has been repeated each year. The incentive to participate is money. All participants are entered into a drawing for 11 Wal-Mart gift cards of $50 each. And any school that is successful in getting 90 percent of its faculty and staff to participate is entered into a drawing for two Wal-Mart gift cards of $250 each.

  Unfortunately, no school has achieved the 90 percent participation rate. The highest participation the first year was 69 percent and 65 percent the second year. A total of 48 percent of all eligible faculty and staff participated the first year, but only 42 percent participated the second year. This can be explained in part by the increased publicity of the H1N1 flu virus the first year.

  This project has been successful for several reasons. It is convenient. The vaccinations are given on site and they are free. The contest and money also provided incentives for participation. The cost of the vaccine was funded through grants and the total cost for the L.I.V.E. Coalition was $550 each year. Some people who sign up to participate end up getting their flu shot somewhere else due to the time it takes to schedule on-site visits to each school. Year 3 of the Vaccinate Your Staff Contest is currently under way.

• Meningitis Awareness Campaign: The L.I.V.E. Coalition used the same contest concept used with Vaccinate Your Staff to promote awareness of meningitis among high school students in Warren County. All five high schools were asked to identify a student group or organization that would coordinate promotional activities in their school about meningitis. L.I.V.E. provided an educational program for each group about meningitis and the vaccine and provided approved Web sites for them to obtain more information.

  The methods for promoting awareness were left up to each student group and their promotional campaigns included posters, social media, bulletin boards, morning announcements, school newspapers, principal’s newsletter, classroom presentations and a YouTube video. Success was measured by the number of students from each school who responded to a Survey Monkey questionnaire about meningitis. A total of 269 students participated and the percentage of correct answers ranged from a low of 82.9 percent to a high of 97.4 percent.

  All students who took the Survey Monkey test were entered into a drawing for 10 gift cards (two for each school) in the amount of $50 each to Best Buy. Warren East High School was judged to have the most successful campaign and its student organization received a pizza party.

  This project was successful because most of the work was done by the students and because it was measurable by using Survey Monkey.

Kentucky Partnership for Farm Family Health and Safety, Inc. (KY Partnership)

The KY Partnership was organized in 1996 to sustain the efforts of a Kellogg grant that was received to improve health and safety for farm families. One of the projects the KY Partnership and the South Central AHEC collaborate on is the annual Ag Safety Day. This event is sponsored nationally by the Progressive Agricultural Foundation and is offered in many counties across the United States. The focus is on students in the fourth grade and the Warren County Schools are also a partner. The schools use this event as an educational field trip and they provide transportation and lunch for their students.

This year, four elementary schools participated with a total of 356 students. Each student attended 10 different safety sessions related to rural and agricultural health and safety issues. Some of the topics included electrical, tractors and large equipment, large animals, lawn mower and weed eaters, chemicals, water safety and first aid, fire, roadway, healthy lifestyles, home alone, meth awareness, grain bin safety, sun and water safety. The WKU School of Nursing is another partner and its students teach some of the safety sessions and serve as group leaders. The primary role of the AHEC is organization for the event. The KY Partnership provides leadership and volunteers for the event.

The Ag Safety Day has been held in Warren County since 1995. The first 10 years it was held during the summer and since 2005 it has been held in September in order to include the Warren County Public Schools as a partner. Nearly 4,000 students have benefited from the partnerships that make Ag Safety Day possible.

Student responses to the question “What are the most important things you learned at Safety Day?” have included:

• “Don’t forget to put your car or tractor in park,” from a nine-year-old girl;
• “To wear a helmet when you ride a bike,” from a nine-year-old girl;
• “Never get too close to an electric wire, and always wear protective gear,” from a nine-year-old boy; and
• “That you need to wash your hands before you eat and after you pet a pet,” from a nine-year-old girl.

Barren River Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program

The Barren River Long-Term Care Ombudsman program is funded under the federal Older Americans Act. The program provides advocates for residents of long-term care facilities in the 10-county Barren River Area Development District. The program’s goal is to identify and resolve problems of individual residents and to foster changes at the local, state and national levels to improve the quality of care and life for residents living in long-term care facilities.

The South Central AHEC has served on the Advisory Council of the Barren River Long-Term Care Ombudsman program since its inception in the early 1980s. The AHEC has partnered with the Ombudsman program on two projects. The first is the printing of the annual resource guide entitled “Everything You Need to Know about Finding Long-Term Care in the B.R.A.D.D.” The AHEC has provided funding for this resource guide and the Ombudsman develops the guide and distributes it throughout the 10-county service area.

Our second partnership with the Ombudsman program is the annual Long-Term Care Resident Conference. Each year the Ombudsman program invites residents who serve on their resident councils and their escorts to attend this conference. It is held at Warren Central High School during its fall break. The residents arrive and receive a welcome from the mayor and other dignitaries. Then they break into small groups and discuss issues affecting their lives in long-term care facilities.

While they are in their group discussions, the cafeteria is transformed by numerous volunteer groups who decorate the tables with linens, china, silver and center pieces. The residents are treated to a luncheon served by the volunteers. The tables are judged and prizes are awarded for the first-, second- and third-place winners and the competition is fierce. Each year there is a contest for the residents and this year it was an essay contest. Following the luncheon, each group provides reports from their discussions and then door prizes are drawn. It is a wonderful day for the residents.

The role AHEC plays in this event is to serve on the planning committee and handle all the registrations. In addition to the many community groups that volunteer to decorate the tables, faculty and students in WKU’s Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, Hospitality Management and Dietetics major, prepare and serve the food, which is donated by Southern Foods. This year, 13 long-term care facilities brought 47 residents and 23 escorts. In the past, as many as 75 residents have participated.

Partnerships are key to the success of the South Central AHEC. Partnerships have allowed us to do more than we could do alone. In true partnerships, everybody wins and success breeds new partnerships.