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It
is easy to slip through the safety net
for those who have lost or never found their voice: those who are
homeless because of problems with mental illness or the relentless
grip of addiction, for example, or those struggling to put food on
the table in a land whose language and ways are still mysterious.
For these thousands of voiceless, a few moments of understanding and
dignity can
seem as important as health care. The Woodruff Health Sciences Center
tries to provide some of both to these vulnerable populations. In
return, these voiceless do speak—and become some of the center’s
most important teachers. Lessons learned in these exchanges, about
looking below the surface, about the healing power of touch and respect,
help Emory’s future doctors, physician assistants, nurses, and
public health practitioners provide the kind of care most needed.
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Georgia’s
migrant farm workers have little time, less money, and zero coverage
to seek out health care. That’s why each summer, faculty and
students from the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of
Nursing go to them, in the rural areas in South Georgia where they
work. Thanks to a Farm Worker Family Health Program founded 12 years
ago, each year 1,000 migrant workers and their children receive free
health assessments, including pap smears and treatment for problems
such as muscle strains, foot fungus, eye infections, skin rashes,
and diabetes.
For years, faculty and students crammed
all their care into a two-week period. Now, thanks to a grant from
the Georgia Health Foundation, students are able to return during
the year. For many of the workers and their children, this is the
only health care they ever get. And for the nursing students, helping
provide that care is often their first opportunity to see what an
enormous difference they can make in the community. |
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The
special of the day at Café 458 may be chicken, pizza, or any
of a dozen other dishes, but what’s always on the menu are respect
and dignity. Those are particularly delicious dishes for many of the
customers, homeless men and women struggling with addiction, mental
illness, and severe physical disabilities but eager
to achieve personal goals that will keep them off the street and make
them more self-sufficient.
At Café 458, people for whom
so many doors have been closed, for whom meals often entail standing
in a long line, instead sit down at a table with a tablecloth and
fresh flowers, order from a menu of healthy lunch choices, and are
served by a volunteer waiter as would happen in any restaurant. During
weekend brunches, when the restaurant allows the ordinary public to
eat alongside the homeless, the feeling of inclusion in ordinary society
grows even stronger. In fact, tied as it is to so many important social
services, the café’s motto is that a choice from the
menu is simply a starting point in the process of empowerment. It
seems to be working. Since Café 458 was founded almost 20 years
ago by nursing faculty member Ann Connor and her husband, she and
many other nursing faculty and staff have spent countless hours working
in this and related programs. Nationwide, 90% of people who complete
a recovery program relapse within six months. By contrast, two-thirds
of all graduates of the café’s recovery program remain
clean and sober during the same time period, making the program a
prototype for others. |
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Volunteer efforts
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Emory and the Atlanta VA
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