Core Health & Home visits

Okay, it took two more days, but I finally feel like I actually know what is going on in Community Health. So half of our rotation is with Core Health. Core Health is a Spectrum Health program that uses community health workers to follow people with congestive heart failure and diabetes. The community health workers (CHW) visit the clients in their homes for the entire year that they are in the program, usually once every two weeks. So every morning from 9-12, we go over to core health and follow a community health worker on all of their home visits. The idea is that the first week we follow them and just watch, the second week we do vitals and some teaching, and then the weeks after that we keep taking on more responsibility until we are leading the visits on our work and the CHW just kind of watches. It's pretty cool I guess. My CHW follows all patients with diabates. It's definitely different to follow someone that isn't a nurse, but I think it provides a different perspective and I'm hoping to learn a lot.

The other half of our day is spent at the Health Department. At the health department we have three of our own clients that we have to go out and do home visits with, so I called today and set up all of my appointments for next week. Hopefully everyone shows up and things go well! I also got the official okay from the children's center for us to do our project there so I'm very excited about that :)

ALSO Core Health is right across the street from Ferguson (where I did my Mental Health rotation) so I went over today and talked to some of the residents that I always hung out with there. It was really cool to see and talk to them again! :)

Below is just a summary of the Core Health Diabetes Program:

Our Diabetes Program
The Core Health Diabetes Program helps individuals with diabetes, or those at risk for diabetes, improve their health. Working with your doctor, we will:

Educate you about your disease and how to access care
Motivate you to live a healthier lifestyle

Our Services
You will receive one-on-one visits from a registered nurse (RN) and community health worker (CHW). Depending on what you need, our services will help you:

Set personal health goals
Learn about your diabetes and how to better manage risk factors
Connect with community resources

How Our Diabetes Program Benefits You
You will benefit from our program by:

Understanding how to take care of yourself and your health condition
Becoming a self-empowered diabetes expert
Building your confidence and personal strength
Improving your long-term health

Eligibility
Participants of the Core Health Diabetes Program must:

Have Medicaid insurance or are uninsured
Be 18 years or older
Live in the Grand Rapids area
Be able to perform everyday activities such as bathing, dressing and eating on your own
Be at risk for, or diagnosed with diabetes

Your doctor may refer you to this program, or you may call 616.391.6135 for enrollment information.

Cost
There is no cost to participate in the Core Health Diabetes Program. Call our office at 616.391.6135 to find out if you qualify.

What You Can Do
The safest and best way to prevent or treat your disease is to make healthy lifestyle changes, such as:

Be active
Eat right
Lose weight
Quit smoking
Take your medicine as recommended by your doctor
Know your numbers
Understand your disease as much as possible
Keep scheduled doctor appointments

Should be a good time! Only 38 days to go!