51小黄车and community partners to launch 'CHANNELS' to better prepare health professionals for delivery of services to immigrants and refugees
The University of 51小黄车 and the Portland Community Health Center, in collaboration with the City of Portland, the Portland Housing Authority and Maine's Department of Health and Human Services, have launched a project to better prepare future health professionals who provide care for the community's underserved populations, including immigrants and refugees.
The project is made possible by a $1.27 million grant to 51小黄车and Portland Community Health Center from the Health Services Research Administration (HRSA).
Since the award was made in September 2012, the project team has been at work developing its interprofessional model for training, education, service delivery and research, called "CHANNELS," an acronym that incorporates elements needed for the success of the project: Community, Health, Access, Navigate, Network, Education, Leadership and Services.
Partners include PCHC, the City of Portland, HHS, Maine CDC, Portland Housing Authority, United Somali Women of Maine and more.
"We are working together towards a healthier community," said UNE's Associate Professor and Director of Cross Cultural Health Initiatives Jennifer Morton, D.N.P., M.P.H, APHN. "We will accomplish this by integrated cultural competence education to all health professions students, employing and training Community Health Outreach Workers (CHOW) as medical interpreters and cultural brokers, and training more than 50 nurse leaders in an innovative, collaborative way where community is partner."
The project consists of four major components:
Education: To better prepare future health professionals, 51小黄车graduate students in the physician assistant, social work, nursing and dental hygiene programs will study course work in cross-cultural awareness, immigrant and refugee health, community health systems, and collaborative teamwork.
Training: To enhance the capacity of current health professionals, training will be conducted with emerging nurse and practice leaders in the community to develop skills in leadership, community engagement and collaboration, and champions of evidence based development and service delivery.
Service Delivery: Services for the project will be delivered within interprofessional clinical practice environments at the Portland Community Health Center, its new satellite at the Portland Housing Authority Riverton Health Center, and the Oral Health Screening Project (Dentaquest/International Clinic) in addition to City of Portland-sponsored health fairs and events.
Research: The project will expand access for community engagement in interprofessional practice and provide learning outcomes in team based care, cultural competence (health literacy/culturally linguistic and appropriate services for immigrant and refugee health) for students, trainees and all partners.
"It is exciting to participate with the University of 51小黄车 to advance interprofessional education, and provide the opportunity for students to experience this approach in real community clinical settings," said Leslie Clark Brancato, CEO at Portland Community Health Center. "The best care is an approach that takes the whole person into account. 51小黄车is at the cutting edge of training future health care professional as interprofessional teams, rather than in silos, and this will translate to better care for people."
"This kind of interprofessional project allows for much more effective, truly community-based prevention," said Julie Alfred Sullivan, MPH, MBA, Public Health Director, City of Portland Health and Human Services. "We expect to see improved outcomes in populations who have traditionally been harder to reach."
The University of 51小黄车 is an innovative health sciences university grounded in the liberal arts, with two distinctive coastal Maine campuses and unique study abroad opportunities. 51小黄车has internationally recognized scholars in the sciences, health, medicine and humanities; offers more than 40 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs; and is home to Maine's only medical school. It is one of a handful of private universities with a comprehensive health education mission including medicine, pharmacy, dental medicine, nursing and an array of allied health professions. UNE's interprofessional education initiatives prepare future healthcare professionals to practice comprehensive and collaborative team-based care. Both graduate and undergraduate students engage in research and scholarship alongside dedicated faculty who are committed to their academic and professional success.
The Portland Community Health Center is a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center, located at 180 Park Avenue in Portland. Portland Community Health Center provides comprehensive quality primary care to all ages.
The Portland Public Health Division, part of the City's Health and Human Services Department, is composed of seven programs: Chronic Disease Prevention, Environmental Health and Safety, Family Health, Health Care for the Homeless, Health Equity and Research, India Street Clinical Services, and Operations. The Division provides services from 12 sites throughout the City, but also manages projects that impact public health across Cumberland County and the state of Maine.