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Dental Branch
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Medical School
School of Nursing
School of Public Health
UT Harris County Psychiatric Center
Dental Branch
Dental Branch community outreach efforts are extensive and are part of the educational programs offered in the school. The Dental Branch has affiliations with 48 HISD schools and over 30 clinics, community agencies and long-term health care centers where students provide oral health education and clinical care. The Dental Branch is one of the primary sources of charity care in the Greater Houston Area – providing over $750,000 of free dental care in FY 2002.
The Dental Branch’s Dental Hygiene Program also has active outreach programs. Their off-site activities include both educational projects and clinical care. Beginning in 1998, the second year hygiene students were invited by The Brookwood Community Center to present an oral health workshop for both caregivers and residents. In one group, students worked with the caregivers of the center to help them recognize dental disease and teach them how to assist the residents with dental cleaning. Another group of students made an oral health/prevention presentation for the residents.
Source: Janice Bilan, Dental Branch
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) outreach program continued its now 10-year alliance with HISD’s Alcott and Brookline Elementary Schools by interacting with students in the third, fourth and fifth grades. These schools serve predominantly disadvantaged communities. In the reporting year, the GSBS outreach program served 268 students at these schools. Through these partnerships, GSBS graduate students and faculty raised the understanding and enthusiasm for science through numerous initiatives. The projects included coaching teams of students in scientific methods and giving class demonstrations to supplement science teachers’ lectures. The Benny Garcia Young Scientist Award was presented by GSBS for the third year at Brookline Elementary.
In 2001-2002, the GSBS outreach program provided judges for eight local school science fairs plus a regional science fair; hosted two visits of 40 students participating in the annual National Youth Leadership Forum; provided lectures for 27 science teachers at UT Pan American; hosted 28 elementary and 63 high school students for tours of research labs; provided round table discussions of science careers and graduate education; and provided guest speakers at two HISD middle schools, the Museum of Health and Medical Science, the University of Houston-Downtown and the Hispanic Students Association.
Expanded participation in the Houston Hispanic Forum Career and Education Day included Hispanic graduate students as panelists for discussion of the topic Why I Chose Graduate School, as well as panel speakers who discussed careers in biomedical research.
Source: Linda Carter, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Medical School
The Medical School’s Office of Community Affairs and Public Education is involved in a variety of community outreach functions. It works with and supports the Medical School’s Office of Women’s Health, the Office of Public Affairs and University Care Plus. The staff also works with the Medical School’s Office of Continuing Medical Education to coordinate flyers, public relations and written material for publications.
Editorial and writing support and strategic planning are focus areas in the community education initiative of the American Heart Association, Houston Division. The office organizes and participates in community presentations featuring Medical School faculty and health promotion topics. Additionally, community affairs staff participate in UT-Houston’s Speakers Bureau.
The UT-Houston Medical School Office of Women’s Health coordinates several projects: the Updates In Women’s Health Conference Series, the Women’s Health Newswatch newsletter, research on women’s health and a Speakers Bureau. The goals are to establish UT-Houston as the premier information source for women’s health; to encourage political leaders, government agencies, educational institutions and private foundations to increase support for programs of education, clinical service and research for the improvement of the health of American women; and to provide current and reliable health information to and for women.
The Women’s Health Watch community outreach program provides women in the Houston community conferences that offer up-to-date health information. The multidisciplinary program gives the participants a broad spectrum. The topics are geared to modern women’s needs and interests. For information call 713 500 6394 or email Loretta Roy at loretta.f.roy@uth.tmc.edu. Web site: womenshealth.med.uth.tmc.edu/watch.
Source: Darla Brown, Medical School
The Children’s Assessment Center (CAC) is a collaboration of the Harris County Commissioners Court and The Children’s Assessment Center Foundation. CAC provides a professional, compassionate and coordinated approach to the treatment of sexually abused children and their families, and serves as an advocate for all children in Harris County. The center houses professionals from 15 partner agencies, which include law enforcement, the UT-Houston Medical School, a psychological/psychiatric school and governmental investigative entities. The following services are provided: forensic interviews, sexual assault medical exams, a variety of therapeutic services and psychological evaluations. Faculty members from the Medical School provide medical care at the CAC under the direction of a Medical School director. Students and residents (family practice and pediatrics) from the Medical and Nursing Schools as well as social work students from the University of Houston take rotations at the center. In October 2002, a 24-hour clinic for sexual assault victims was opened.
Source: Margaret McNeese, Medical School
School of Nursing
Maintaining strong ties with area health providers, agencies and community leaders is an important part of the educational outreach efforts at the School of Nursing (SON).
The school offers an innovative and collaborative work/study/scholarship program with seven local hospitals. Through employment as patient care assistants, students receive valuable clinical experience and, after completing one successful semester, they receive a scholarship for their remaining semesters of full-time undergraduate study. The program has expanded involving over 40 percent of the entering class.
SON faculty and students provide outreach service to families and individuals in several affiliated clinics throughout the Houston area and selected schools in the Houston Independent School District.
Source: Gwen Sherwood, School of Nursing
The Office of Health Promotion and Health Education is a service of the UT Health Services-Houston. The office provides high-quality health education services as well as research opportunities for UT-Houston students. Medical nutrition therapy is available, including nutrition plans for preventive care and conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The Smart Weight Management Program focuses on teaching clients strategies that effectively manage their body weight during their lifetime. Clients can have their body fat assessed with a bioelectrical impedance analyzer, and may be referred to the UT-Houston Recreation Center for counseling about physical activity. In addition, all student and employee tobacco users are eligible for free behavior modification to help them stop smoking.
UT-Houston students and employees are offered presentations related to making positive changes in their lifestyles. Presentation topics include development of environmental interventions, nutrition, tobacco-use cessation and women’s health. The office also conducts staff and student training programs concerning preventing occupational injuries. The dietetic interns from the UT-Houston School of Public Health rotate through the office as well.
UT-Houston students are invited to collaborate with the office on investigations regarding the effectiveness of health promotion and health education methods. Acquisition of grant funding for interventions related to the health education needs of UT-Houston students and employees is an ongoing process, as is the submission of manuscripts to scholarly journals. For more information about the services offered, contact Karen Calabro, MS, MPH, RD, coordinator of health promotion and health education, at 713 500 3242.
Source: Karen Calabro, School of Nursing
School of Public Health
Faculty and students of the School of Public Health (SPH) in Houston and at the school’s regional campuses in Brownsville, Dallas, El Paso and San Antonio are actively involved in a large number of community outreach projects and activities.
Students in the MPH and DrPH degree programs complete an internship or practicum as part of their curriculum. This is an assignment to a community agency or organization where the student has the opportunity to learn about community health practice in a real world setting. Students work in a wide range of public and private sector settings. Special extended internship programs include: Health Policy Fellowships wherein fellows serve as full-time staff to members of the Texas Legislature; Comparative Health Care internships with Richmond College, International University in London; and Industrial Hygiene and Dietetic internships with various industries and organizations. Students complete tasks jointly assigned by an agency preceptor and a faculty sponsor. Currently there are over 350 assignments available to students. Since 1995, 904 students have participated in the internship program.
The Texas Public Health Training Center is an initiative funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration. This is a collaborative project which includes the Texas A&M University School of Rural Public Health and the University of North Texas School of Public Health. The Texas Department of Health, local health departments, state public health associations and community members participate as members of an Advisory Council to the Training Center. The Training Center provides a wide range of training services to the staff and board members of local health departments and the state health department as well as to local and state elected officials.
Community-based projects currently underway in the regional campuses include:
Brownsville Regional Campus
- Conducting a teen pregnancy prevention project jointly with Cameron County Health Department and Brownsville Healthy Communities to identify risk factors and provide training.
- Administering a newly formed bi-national tuberculosis consortium to address the problems of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. Members, in addition to the Brownsville Regional Campus, include the Cameron County Health Department, Hidalgo County Health Department, Webb County Health Department, the Regional Office of the Texas Department of Health, and Mexican tuberculosis authorities in Reynosa, Matamoros and Monterrey. The purpose of the project is to improve databases, generate a geographic information system map of cases and conduct research to improve surveillance and case finding.
- Consulting to a community HIV prevention project training center.
- Developing a broadly representative community coalition to promote and support community medicine and public health planning and interventions in the Dallas area.
- Assisting the American Cancer Society Project Amigas to produce a bilingual video promoting cervical cancer intervention.
- Assisting the El Paso Diabetes Association to develop evaluation and assessment methods for diabetes in the local population.
- Conducting a National Institute of Health funded assessment of the extent of H pylori infection in the El Paso-Juarez communities.
- Working with Safe Communities, a local non-governmental organization, to develop a surveillance system for detection of risk behavior associated with substance abuse in the local community.
- Providing leadership for the Health Education Training Center Alliance of Texas, a federally funded (Health Resources and Services Administration) technical assistance and training support project for communities that coordinates the efforts of multiple health care and educational institutions throughout the state.
- Conducting a recent Bexar County community based environmental health assessment and a comprehensive community health assessment; the latter now available on the Internet.
- Providing technical assistance to San Fernando Cathedral annual Health Fair.
Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH) Program is an elementary school nutrition and physical activity program designed to prevent chronic disease, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The goals of CATCH are to help schools, children and families adopt healthy eating and physical activity habits. The CATCH program consists of four main components: a classroom health education program for third through fifth grade students, a physical education program, a school food service program and a family component. More than 1,000 schools have adopted the program, and over 2,000 teachers and staff have been trained. For further information contact Steve Kelder, 713 500 9636; email: Steven.H. Kelder@uth.tmc.edu.
Source: Steven Kelder, School of Public Health
UT-Houston has been instrumental in establishing the Rusk School Health Promotion Project as a model school-linked primary care clinic. Using an interdisciplinary model, UT-Houston faculty and students provide preventive and curative care, health assessments and dental care to the predominantly poor Hispanic students. Colleagues from the University of Houston also provide help with curricula development, optometry services, as well as social support to the students and their families. UT-Houston and project staffers continue to work with the faculty of the school to integrate health promotion and wellness concepts into the elementary school curriculum.
Source: Mark Hormann, Medical School
UT Harris County Psychiatric Center
The University of Texas Harris County Psychiatric Center (UTHCPC) provides leadership in the area of community outreach through participation in a variety of community activities. UTHCPC develops and disseminates mental health information to the community and acts as a catalyst in creating an environment that promotes the exchange of ideas in topics of high priority and relevancy to the public mental health system of Harris County. During FY 2002, UTHCPC participated in a record number of health and community education fairs providing mental health information to more than 50,000 people.
UTHCPC works in cooperation with mental health consumer groups, such as the Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the Depressive and Manic Depressive Association, the Mental Health Association and service providers such as the Harris County Mental Health Mental Retardation Authority. The center provides printed materials, plans community education symposia and seminars, conducts hospital tours and coordinates a Speakers Bureau, thus making UTHCPC’s professional staff available to Houston area community and school groups.
UTHCPC continued its innovative tele-education project that provides HISD teachers with the opportunity to consult regularly with UTHCPC psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers trained in children’s mental health problems. More than 800 local school teachers, social workers and guidance counselors participated in training sessions regarding youth violence and recognizing signs of behavior disorders. They also received contact information regarding services available to children and adolescents suffering from mental illness.
The center participates in the Head Start and Neighborhood Centers, Inc. Faculty members from the Medical School conduct semi-annual class room observations and offer feedback to Head Start staff regarding behavioral management relating to children’s behavior and classroom management. They also provide consultations and/or training for parents and staff members, and assessments and short- term therapy for children and/or families. A goal is to assist Head Start staff with integrating mental health into classroom curricular.
The Wesley Community Center benefits from UTHCPC faculty providing psychiatric assessments, evaluations, consultations and recommendations for treatment for adult patients. Follow up visits are provided by MDs or nurse practitioners in individual, group and family therapy sessions. The staff also provide educational services to the community center.
The Houston Recovery Campus (HRC) is an extension of UTHCPC and provides substance-abuse treatment to adolescent and adult residents of Houston and Harris County. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the HRC offers services that include intake and assessment, medical evaluation, mental health screening and referral, detoxification, basic skills training, adult and adolescent education, Job Quest training, HIV education and case management and housing assistance. Affiliated with UT-Houston since 1995, the HRC provides treatment to more than 3,000 Houston and Harris County residents annually.
The after school program for children and adolescents with emotional problems PASS: Partners in After School Services began operation in September, 2002, with grants from the Hogg Foundation and the Meadows Foundation with additional funding and in-kind services from UTHCPC and the Houston Independent School District. The pilot program is located at Lockhart Elementary School in HISD and serves 24 at-risk students with counseling, mentor training and parental involvement activities.
UTHCPC provides a sub-acute program that includes assessment, treatment and family counseling for juvenile offenders. Funded through Harris County and the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department, the program serves 16 adolescents, who have an average length of stay of 30 days.
Source: Geri Konigsberg, UT Harris County Psychiatric Center