Immersion trip to charleston, wv
For my immersion experience, I participated in the trip to West Virginia on Nov 9 -11th, 2012 to learn more about healthcare there. We worked with West Virginia Health Right, a free clinic in the heart of Charleston. They provide healthcare, including medical, dental, pharmaceutical, and health education, to those that are uninsured and under-insured 18 years and above. Health Right has a small paid staff, but volunteers are their main foundation, having a staff of more than 500 medical and nonmedical volunteers. They are funded not by the state, but through donations and the AstraZereca “Pathways to Cardiovascular Health” HealthCare Foundation.
Heading into Health Right, I really had no idea what service medically untrained college kids could contribute, but luckily, for us, the clinic wasn’t open, except for appointments on Saturday. I was a little disappointed though because I would have loved to talk to the patients, find out their feedback about the clinic. We did talk to an amazing woman named Ann. She had been working with Health Right for quite some time and informed us about their history, their services, and the health in West Virginia. Apparently, West Virginia is the among the worst for any medical condition, including obesity, diabetes, strokes, etc. Charleston is also among the poorest. One of my favorite parts of the trip was driving around Charleston. Not only was it awesome to see the gold covered roof of the capitol building, but it was obvious to see the socio status there. There were hardly any restaurants or grocery stores, but plenty of fast food chains and dollar generals. Ann informed us that the dollar generals were for most people, where they got their groceries. It was the only way they could get a sufficient amount of food for the money they had. Dollar General doesn’t carry fresh produce, only processed food, which we all know, isn’t the healthiest. It made sense as to why they had the worst health conditions.
Health Right is trying to change that though. They offer classes designed to teach adults how to live actively and change to a healthier lifestyle. That was one thing I liked about Health Right. They didn’t just try to treat the patients in that moment, but cure them for life. They were also very passionate about making the patient feel comfortable. Each patient saw the same doctor so they developed a relationship over time. That encouraged them to continue coming back and getting treatment.
As far as our services to Health Right, we cleaned their building, inside and out. At first, it seemed like we weren’t really helping or contributing to the clinic at all, that our aid was small, but service isn’t about the size, it’s about what is needed at the time. They needed the building cleaned, and we were there to lend a helping hand. Whether it was sweeping, dusting, cleaning out the fridge, or picking up trash outside, we made sure to do it right. Looking back on it now, we were most likely helping more than we realized because not only did we save them time, but also having a clean facility is essential in helping treat patients. Of course, I would have loved to been able to do more with them, but I was thankful to help in any way I could.
While cleaning Health Right, I found it really interesting that they had very blunt ads about causes of dental problems. In our dentists, we wouldn’t normally find such grotesque ads, but since Charleston is known for their worst health conditions, these displays are necessary to get people thinking and worried about their own well-being. Some were encouraging, but most included disturbing pictures and hard-hitting facts. I didn’t even know some of the information!
We also had the privilege of staying at Rock Mountain Community Center and lending our hands and talents to their building. This community center has so much history. It used to be a community swimming pool, complete with slides from the natural rock wall in the back. Once that was shut down for obvious safety reasons, it was left vacant for a while. Martin Luther King Jr visited it on his sit ins during this time. It was then purchased by putt-putt, where a mini golf course was set up, as well as an arcade installed inside. It eventually went out of business, until a man bought the building and had dreams of creating it into a community center. This is the state it is now, in renovation. We were able to help with the renovations by painting a wall and clean up a tad.
Overall, I felt like this trip was worthwhile. Even though our services weren’t as large scale as building a house or feeding homeless people, we were still able to perform meaningful acts, subtle service, that is just as important. I also learned a lot about the health conditions in West Virginia and saw how driving around a city can show a lot about the socio-status there.
Heading into Health Right, I really had no idea what service medically untrained college kids could contribute, but luckily, for us, the clinic wasn’t open, except for appointments on Saturday. I was a little disappointed though because I would have loved to talk to the patients, find out their feedback about the clinic. We did talk to an amazing woman named Ann. She had been working with Health Right for quite some time and informed us about their history, their services, and the health in West Virginia. Apparently, West Virginia is the among the worst for any medical condition, including obesity, diabetes, strokes, etc. Charleston is also among the poorest. One of my favorite parts of the trip was driving around Charleston. Not only was it awesome to see the gold covered roof of the capitol building, but it was obvious to see the socio status there. There were hardly any restaurants or grocery stores, but plenty of fast food chains and dollar generals. Ann informed us that the dollar generals were for most people, where they got their groceries. It was the only way they could get a sufficient amount of food for the money they had. Dollar General doesn’t carry fresh produce, only processed food, which we all know, isn’t the healthiest. It made sense as to why they had the worst health conditions.
Health Right is trying to change that though. They offer classes designed to teach adults how to live actively and change to a healthier lifestyle. That was one thing I liked about Health Right. They didn’t just try to treat the patients in that moment, but cure them for life. They were also very passionate about making the patient feel comfortable. Each patient saw the same doctor so they developed a relationship over time. That encouraged them to continue coming back and getting treatment.
As far as our services to Health Right, we cleaned their building, inside and out. At first, it seemed like we weren’t really helping or contributing to the clinic at all, that our aid was small, but service isn’t about the size, it’s about what is needed at the time. They needed the building cleaned, and we were there to lend a helping hand. Whether it was sweeping, dusting, cleaning out the fridge, or picking up trash outside, we made sure to do it right. Looking back on it now, we were most likely helping more than we realized because not only did we save them time, but also having a clean facility is essential in helping treat patients. Of course, I would have loved to been able to do more with them, but I was thankful to help in any way I could.
While cleaning Health Right, I found it really interesting that they had very blunt ads about causes of dental problems. In our dentists, we wouldn’t normally find such grotesque ads, but since Charleston is known for their worst health conditions, these displays are necessary to get people thinking and worried about their own well-being. Some were encouraging, but most included disturbing pictures and hard-hitting facts. I didn’t even know some of the information!
We also had the privilege of staying at Rock Mountain Community Center and lending our hands and talents to their building. This community center has so much history. It used to be a community swimming pool, complete with slides from the natural rock wall in the back. Once that was shut down for obvious safety reasons, it was left vacant for a while. Martin Luther King Jr visited it on his sit ins during this time. It was then purchased by putt-putt, where a mini golf course was set up, as well as an arcade installed inside. It eventually went out of business, until a man bought the building and had dreams of creating it into a community center. This is the state it is now, in renovation. We were able to help with the renovations by painting a wall and clean up a tad.
Overall, I felt like this trip was worthwhile. Even though our services weren’t as large scale as building a house or feeding homeless people, we were still able to perform meaningful acts, subtle service, that is just as important. I also learned a lot about the health conditions in West Virginia and saw how driving around a city can show a lot about the socio-status there.