UT-Houston Community Health Partnership Takes Health Care Into Acres Homes

Acres Homes resident Bobbie Branch, 73, could only imagine a time when routine health care would make its way into her home. But thanks to two ambitious projects sponsored by the Acres Homes Partnership, an alliance between The University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center and the Acres Homes Citizens Council, health care delivery to elderly residents of the historic northwest Houston neighborhood is now a reality.

Based at the Acres Homes Multi-Service Center on West Montgomery Road, the Acres Home Partnership was established in 1996 to promote community health services and education to area residents through an innovative community-driven health promotion program involving local leaders and mentors.

Providing health and social services is the focus of the Acres Homes Partnership's most successful and longest running project - the Student Nurse Isolated Elderly Program. The project has recently teamed up with a sister project called the Interdisciplinary Team Home Visit Program.

Under the programs, clients like Branch receive medical and social support services from a multidisciplinary team of UT-Houston medical, nursing, dental and public health students and University of Houston social work students. The teams participate in community health rotations as part of their studies and make weekly one-hour home visits to residents in the predominantly African-American community.

Branch, who suffers from high blood pressure and memory loss, is one of 35 residents visited by the interdisciplinary team. She literally welcomes the team with open arms, greeting them at her front door with a warm smile and a hug. She enjoys the company and conversation.

"When I can't get around, that's when I really need a nurse," says Branch. "I think I'm blessed. They do a great job."

The partnership's home visit programs also provide a rewarding learning experience for students outside of the classroom, according to Dr. Hardy Loe, associate dean and associate professor of community health at UT-Houston School of Public Health.

"We offer a class in elder health to our nursing students that gives them a chance to establish personal friendships with the residents where they live for three months," says Dr. Loe. "At the same time, we reassess the health care needs of the population and cater to those needs."

UT-Houston School of Nursing student Kimberly Elliott says the class has taught her about the human side of health care. She plans on becoming a nurse practitioner and starting her own clinic.

"Making home visits gives you a chance to observe patients in their own surroundings, which makes them more susceptible to you," Elliott says. "It gives you a better idea about how to treat your patients."

Prior to the home visits, advisors Charles Andrea Simmons, M.S.W., a community health education specialist and liaison between UT-Houston and the Acres Home community, Betsy Carlson, M.S.N., M.P.H., a geriatric nurse practitioner, and Helen McCarthy, M.S.N., an adult and geriatric nurse practitioner at UT-Houston Medical School, review the day's activities and brief the students. The students learn how to identify needs and find educational and community resources for the patients.

"We help the students see health in a broader way by placing them in the community. It's a wonderful training ground for them," says Carlson, who manages the student nurse team. "This is the only time during the student nurses' curriculum where they get to really know the patients."

Simmons says the Acres Homes community leaders have been instrumental in making the partnership a success by introducing the students to community residents prior to their visits. She compares the partnership to a marriage.

"Our partnership started out with us identifying a partner, having a courtship and uniting together under an agreement," says Simmons. "We've built this relationship on trust."

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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