Juneteenth Black Health Counts
Child Guidance staff TSHA holiday event for those with hearing loss
WIC
• The WIC/Peer/LBL team are currently compromised of 42 team members. Over 2/3rds of the staff are bilingual in another language. There are 26 staff bilingual in English/Spanish and 2 bilingual in English/Zomi. Staff are strategically placed in clinics to meet the needs of Latino and Burmese families. Staff have also been able to continue to provide service by phone as needed to meet the needs of clients with transportation issues or other barriers to coming into the clinic.
• The Little By Little developmental handouts are available in 3 languages; English, Spanish and Zomi. During the WIC appointment these handouts allow for open dialogue with caregivers about developmental milestones and the importance of early literacy.
Children First
• Participated in the Black Maternal Health Week community event at Lacey Park on Saturday, April 16, 2022. Children First also began collaborating with the Tulsa Birth Equity & Inclusion Program during 2021, referring clients for Doula support during Labor and Delivery.
Epidemiology
• To better serve our Hepatitis C (HCV) clients, the Tulsa Health Department (THD) has partnered with Unite Us and Tulsa Cares. Tulsa Cares provides wraparound services to HCV-positive Oklahomans to support them throughout the treatment and recovery process. This partnership allows THD to make referrals directly to Tulsa Cares to sustain medical access and continuity of care throughout the duration of their treatment.
• To reach our adolescent community, we have developed a partnership with It’s All About Kids to build a curriculum for schools and programs tailored to hand washing/hygiene, disease investigation, and disease prevention. The curriculum focuses on family engagement events, after-school programming, and early childcare/daycare settings to provide educational resources to better reach our community.
Immunizations
• Community outreach and events are targeted to the LatinX populations with events scheduled at churches, community partners and places of business. THD has set up clinics in the evening in LatinX nightclubs to serve individuals after their work day.
• THD has partnered with Burmese community leaders to set up clinics in churches. Staff are available to interpret for both Burmese and Zomi-speaking clients.
• Educational material and information is available in English, Spanish, Burmese and Zomi. Vaccine information statements can be printed in numerous other languages, ensuring clients have accurate information in their preferred language.
Child Guidance
•Increased the Spanish interpreter position to a full-time position, allowing us to serve more Spanish-speaking clients, including those that cross-over to services between Child Development, Speech-Language and Behavioral Health.
• Our Audiology program is one of two programs that provide DME services for Medicaid clients (hearing aids) for the entire east side of the state.
• Several of our staff participated in TSHA’s Holiday Carnival last December. Approximately 100 children with hearing loss, as well as their families, attended the event.
Healthy Start
• In order to address those populations at highest risk for health disparities and poor birth outcomes, Healthy Start focused its perinatal case management efforts on the eight Tulsa County zip codes immediately north of Admiral Boulevard (74106, 74110, 74115, 74116, 74117, 74126, 74127, 74130). Within that served population, 91.1% of pregnant Healthy Start participants received prenatal care beginning in their first trimester; 95.3% of children enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP received at least one well care visit during the year; and zero infant deaths occurred.
Healthy Living Program
• Working in the highest-risk zip codes to combat heart disease and obesity. Four unhealthy behaviors (tobacco use, poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, and excessive alcohol) influence five chronic diseases (Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, Diabetes, Lung Disease, and Alzheimer’s Disease) that account for 61% of all deaths in Tulsa County. Services are directed to the most needed areas (hot spots) to move the needle on health equity.
CDC Health Equity Grant
In May of 2021, Tulsa Health Department was awarded a grant of $5,975,146 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The focus of this grant is to mitigate COVID while putting in place long-term strategies to improve preexisting health inequities that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the achievements accomplished through this funding in the 2022 Fiscal Year have been:
• Renovation of the former Dental Clinic at 3rd and Utica to create office space to stand up the new Health Equity Office
• Hiring of Kandy Whitley-White as the new Health Equity Director
• 4,060 COVID tests provided free of charge to uninsured clients through partnerships with Access Medical Center and Mobile COVID Testing. Partnerships with these two organizations have allowed for COVID testing during evenings and weekends and in non-traditional locations.
• Partnership with Be Well Community Development Corporation made it possible to provide health screenings at the Men’s Health and Wellness Expo in June 2022. The event was attended by more than 200 community members.
• A partnership with the Uma Center of Tulsa was formed in February 2022. Uma Tulsa has a presence at vaccination clinics and educational events monthly to provide education about COVID-19 and related comorbidities to the Spanish-speaking population of Tulsa County. Through these efforts, 573 adults and children were vaccinated against COVID-19, and 183 adults were screened for comorbidities including high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high BMI.
Center for Community Health• After COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, the Center for Community Health program started recruiting patients from the hospital floor again. Each CHW is assigned a specific floor and attends a morning nursing huddle to identify patients with potential social service needs. These patients are approached bedside and screened for the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH). The SDoH are conditions that influence health and underlie health disparities between communities. The determinants include factors such as socioeconomic status, structural and interpersonal racism, education, neighborhood/physical environments, employment, social support networks, and access to health care. Our team strives to promote health equity and serves the most vulnerable patients.
• One patient shared that he was homeless and felt hopeless as the wait time is about two years for a home. Our CHW discovered that individuals who have a diagnosed disability can receive preferential treatment in the housing application process if their disability is verified by a doctor. He then built a rapport with a doctor willing to sign the paperwork. In doing so, housing was obtained within weeks not years. The doctor expressed gratitude for the important work our program provides and agreed to help in future cases.
• Often patients do not have access to transportation and rely on costly ambulance services. Our team enrolled a patient scheduled for a surgical procedure that could only be performed in Oklahoma City. She did not have transportation and thought she only had one option using non-emergency medical transportation services. The CHW coordinated transportation for this patient via Send-A-Ride, a service the Center for Community Health provides to every patient. Car services are much less expensive than ambulance use. After the procedure, Send-A-Ride transported her home. She shared with the CHW, “You were an answer to my prayer. I did not know how I was going to get there.” Once the patient returned home, the CHW placed orders for food boxes from Iron Gate and, on two occasions, brought them to the patient’s home. She expressed her sincerest gratitude for the additional support and assistance during recovery.
• The Center for Community Health team has joined the Oklahoma CHW Coalition and participates in monthly meetings. We are engaged in developing a strategic plan, the Oklahoma State Plan for a Sustainable CHW Infrastructure. This coalition provides our CHWs an opportunity to meet other CHWs and contribute to the development of certification components. This collaboration allows CHWs to share their ideas and expertise.
• 733 patients were enrolled, 4,726 patient contacts were made and 2,725 patient referral were completed.