April 2, 2002
Applying the Healing Touch
Project Health Seeks to Bridge the Shortfalls in the
Health Care System, Helping DC Families and Children Overcome Illnesses
By Greg
Licamele
Four GW students and one coordinator sit in a cramped room once a week
on the fourth floor of the Marvin Center, expressing hope and concern
for DC families. These four students and one employee of Children’s
Hospital lead Project Health DC in helping children with their asthma
and helping families seek resources.
In essence, these five people and 25 other GW students are reaching
out to the community as ambassadors of health and human services.
Project Health DC offers two distinct services: a children’s asthma
swimming program and a family help desk. Senior Amy Tilara, sophomore
Vivek Jayadeva, and six others head the swim program at the Anthony
Bowen YMCA in Columbia Heights. For Tilara and Jayadeva, bridging the
shortfalls of the DC health system is one reason they have devoted their
lives to this project since the summer.
“There are so many problems and the government really isn’t
helping much with it, especially money-wise,” Jayadeva says. “My
perspective has changed from being passionate about housing and social
issues to working with little kids and their asthma problems, which
seems to be often overlooked.”
Asthma is one of the leading causes of emergency room visits, hospital
admissions, and school absenteeism among children, although it is the
most preventable cause of hospitalization.
“Our main objectives are that they understand their asthma, take
their medication, and go home and teach their parents,” says Tilara,
who plans on attending medical school after she graduates from GW.
Funded in part by the Novartis Foundation and with organizational help
from America’s Promise, Project Health DC set up shop in the fall
after a series of meetings with area hospitals and universities. Kunal
Merchant, site director for the project, says GW was chosen for many
reasons, including enthusiasm and the need for medical service opportunities.
“The Office of Community Service felt there was a gap that needed
to be filled at George Washington in terms of service opportunities
in healthcare,” Merchant says. “There wasn’t an opportunity
for students who are trying to combine a community service interest
with an interest in healthcare, medicine, public health, even law and
advocacy.”
Merchant says the organization needs lawyers and faculty members who
would be willing to offer guidance to the family help desk, which last
semester provided advocacy and case management services to more than
60 families on issues ranging from food, cash assistance, child care,
and job training. However, Merchant says the students can only do so
much.
“There are issues we can’t do a whole lot with,” he says.
“Housing and immigration, for example, when clients who are eligible
for benefits but then were denied erroneously, come to us for help.
These are the types of cases where legal action needs to be taken and
that is beyond the scope of what we are able to do.”
Juniors Priya Varma and Andrew Choi lead the corps of volunteers at
the family help desk. Fifteen volunteers staff the desk located at Children’s
Hospital for two shifts a day.
“A lot of the families come in feeling very hopeless about not
being able to take charge of whatever circumstances they are in,”
Choi says. “I hope that by coming to us and making some phone calls,
they can get the full benefits they are entitled to or change their
housing conditions so that the next time some issue comes up, they realize
they can do something and raise hell with whoever they need to raise
hell with.”
A concept the family help desk and the asthma swimming program grapple
with is the so-called “double jeopardy,” which Merchant describes
as a vicious cycle of being in an impoverished state.
“Your socioeconomic status puts you at risk,” Merchant says.
“Let’s say you get asthma because you live in a horribly polluted
apartment. By virtue of not having much money, by virtue of your parents
not having access to resources, your condition is going to be that much
worse because you’re not going to be able to go to the hospital,
especially when you’re a kid. So you get hit twice.”
Choi says he’s been surprised at how many different facets of life
are interconnected.
“It’s been kind of a shocking experience to see how housing
relates to your health, which relates to how well children are doing
in school,” Choi says.
More than 300 volunteers across the East Coast assist in these health
and housing matters. Project Health assists children and families in
Boston, New York, and Providence. Though DC’s version only hosts
two programs, the leaders see room for growth and a demand from an ever-needy
city and its people.
“We are an incubator for social entrepreneurship,” Merchant
says. “Realistically, we’re never going to have the kind of
organization where we could run 20 swim programs across the city, even
though there is probably demand for that. We are small with nine or
10 kids in an asthma swim program at a time, but what we’re doing
once we hone it and define it can be something that could be in every
city.”
Jayadeva hopes his assistance and the participation makes an impact
for these children and their families. “I hope that some day, my
involvement with them is a little thing in their life that in the future
changes them in making decisions, especially physically, so they can
play with their friends, not miss school, and do normal things.”
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
