Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care
2333 Ontario Road, NW
Washington, DC 20009
http://www.maryscenter.org

Anticipated Project(s): Pharmacy Health Literacy (and health promotion) for Immigrant Patients
It is likely that this year's group will continue to build on the focus of pharmacy health literacy among Mary's Center's primarily Latino patient population. The team will provide interactive "charlas", or health education talks, on this subject at the clinic while other team members will read to children. In addition, developing and coordinating cooking classes with a nutritionist is another option for a group project.

Expectations of Team Members:
There are no site specific requirements for student participation other than coming to meetings and bringing enthusiasm, energy, and hopefully some good ideas to the table. Team members are expected to attend and actively participate in ISCOPES' team meetings, functions, and program events, as well as be committed to the team’s projects and the team process. It would be great to continue the charla, perhaps giving it at least once a month or more, but that is not a specific requirement at this time. Proficiency in Spanish is also a plus, since the majority of our patients are Latino, however, it is not a requirement.

Past Projects:
The 2008-09 Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care ISCOPES team completed a couple of small projects in order to address the needs of the Mary's Center community. One project addressed early literacy through reading to the children in the clinic’s waiting area. The volunteers would dedicate 1-2 hours in the morning allowing both reading to the children and having the children tell their version of the stories.

Another project was an ongoing collection of material for health nutrition education to be used by the nutritionist at the center. This material was gathered in an effort to help address the increasing number of patients with hyperlipidemia, hypertension, childhood and adult obesity. A few of the material gathered included posters of the food guide pyramid, recommended portion guide, and those emphasizing increasing intake of fruits and vegetables. 

Assembling kits of the necessary items for the Denver II pediatric development screening was another small project. The items to administer the kits were needed in order to facilitate screening by the pediatricians at Mary's Center.

Lastly, the team took part in organizing the "Charlas" as a form of patient education. The "Charlas" were very informal and short presentations for patients in the waiting area to gain knowledge on dispensing liquid prescriptions as well as addressing concerns about generic versus brand name medications. 

The 2007-08 Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care ISCOPES team worked to improve the safety and ability of non-English speaking patients to obtain their prescription medications by identifying multilingual resources at local pharmacies, developing patient education materials, and hosting "charlas" (community health talks) in Spanish and English for patients in the waiting room. The team utilized the results of the IRB approved survey of the Mary's Center community administered by the 2006-2007 ISCOPES team. The next step to build on our team's work is to re-administer the Health Status and Pharmacy Concerns Survey to patients at Mary's Center to determine if our work was successful in improving medication compliance and increasing utilization of local pharmacies.

The 2006-07 ISCOPES' team project was an IRB approved survey on pharmacy/medication usage. Some group members have also been working on getting our survey results published.

During the 2005-06 year, the team's focus was on creating an "obesity management form" for pediatricians to use in identifying and following obese children.

Site Description
Mary's Center was established in 1988 to address the demand for maternal and pediatric health for the residents of Ward One in the District of Columbia. The center serves the Latino population in this area, with a particular focus on families who may not have access to health insurance. The mission of Mary's Center is to "build better futures through health care, education and social services that embrace our culturally diverse community."