Community Outreach

Dr. Anyanate Gwendolyne Jack and Regina Hanna, a clinical nurse specialist and certified diabetes care and education specialist, are members of a task force in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism that delivers outreach and education designed to improve health equity across New York City. One of its community partners is Masaryk Towers, a naturally occurring retirement community (NORC) on the Lower East Side. NORCs are housing developments or apartment buildings that, over time, become home to many older adults and offer health and other programming to support aging in one’s home. There are an estimated 60 NORCs across the city, including Masaryk Towers.

Delivering Diabetes Education at Masaryk Towers

Hanna: Diabetes and prediabetes are highly prevalent health conditions in aging New Yorkers, and Masaryk Towers has a high population of older residents. The number of older adults living with these conditions is expected to increase rapidly in the coming decades.

The Masaryk Towers NORC has a community health center on-site that hosts speakers, classes and workshops. Because other chronic diseases seniors might have can make diabetes difficult to manage, our initial thought was that Dr. Jack and I would do one talk about diabetes and self-management. But soon we realized that, particularly with an elderly population, we really had to break down the information, revisit it and come back several times over the course of a year to reinforce and supplement the support residents may be getting from their own health-care providers.

Our team, including nurse practitioner Debbian Reid and staff associate in medicine Karen Hyams, did three lecture-type community programs last year that addressed topics such as medication management, diabetes technologies like blood glucose monitors, meal planning and how to prepare for diabetes doctors’ appointments. Between 30 and 40 participants attended each session. Some went for an hour-and-a-half or two hours between the content and the Q&A. We concluded the series with a community fair where the residents rotated through five educational sessions in small groups to ask us questions about things like nutrition, meal planning and weight management.

Dr. Jack: Some of the participants told us how they were incorporating what they learned in each session and came back with questions. In post-program surveys, the participants indicated they appreciated the hands-on workshops, discussions about diabetes and its treatment. They also appreciated receiving written materials that they could share with loved ones. One comment from the survey said, “This series made a difference in the community. Families need to hear more about diabetes and the impact of the family.”

Building Health Equity Through Community Engagement

Dr. Jack: By going out into the community and stepping out of the four walls of the clinical office, it helps us understand what some of our patients’ challenges are. Whether it is transportation challenges that make it hard to get to their appointments on time, or patients not having access to nutritious, healthy foods, it is hard to get the full impact of these variables without engaging with the community — especially with the aging population — in their own environment.

By leveraging our internal community within Weill Cornell Medicine, we’re able to do more community engagement. We’ve collaborated with Weill Cornell Medicine Government & Community Affairs, the Cornell Center for Health Equity, Weill Cornell Medicine Friedman Center for Human Nutrition and the NewYork-Presbyterian Choosing Healthy & Active Lifestyles for Kids team. With their support, we’ve partnered with not only Masaryk Towers, but also Pleasant Village Community Garden in East Harlem, the New York City Department for the Aging, the New York Public Library and other partners for our community engagement initiatives.

A Transformative Experience for Clinicians

Dr. Jack: I think this experience really highlights that when clinicians are engaged in the community, it can transform us in meaningful ways. Our team had the opportunity to learn about what this aging population faces and how their cultures, lifestyles and customs must be considered when developing and implementing diabetes management plans.

Hanna: We also attend the Third Avenue Fair [a community event on the Upper East Side] every year, and we always bring a multidisciplinary team with us. That’s great for getting clinicians on board with community outreach. We volunteer our time to do a lot of these extra activities. But you come away saying, “Wow, we really made an impact.” That’s a point we hope everyone on our team can experience.

Dr. Jack: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the importance of integrating this into medical education. At the Third Avenue Fair last September, we had fantastic Weill Cornell medical students who were at the table sharing information about health, nutrition, diabetes and having discussions with the people attending the event. It is important that there is an early exploration and integration of community engagement in medical education, because we learn from patients not only in the clinical setting but also in the community.