1. Introduction to community health activity
Community and Global Neurology Program
Hiral Shah, MD and Kiran Thakur, MD

2. Faculty
Exposure to faculty and their teams who do community work.....almost every division has faculty involved in these efforts.

3. Goals and Objectives, Community and Global Neurology Curriculum
Deepen understanding of range of health and illness, understand health and social services
Promote patient oriented perspective
Enhance multi-disciplinary team work
Offer broader range of learning opportunities
Provide conceptual framework, along with content and resources, to enable you to integrate cultural and health literacy competency into everyday healthcare practice
Increase recruitment into community based clinical and research activities
Ref: Howe, Medical Teacher, 2002
What does the first line mean? Sorry if this is stupid….haha.

4. Importance of Social Determinants of Health
Conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality of life outcomes and risks. Understanding the relationship between how population groups experience “place” and the impact of “place” on health
Examples include:
Availability of resources to meet daily needs (e.g. safe housing, clean water)
Access to educational, economic, and job opportunities
Access to health care services
Quality of education and job training
Social support
Exposure to crime
Language/literacy….
Improving your understanding of the patient’s context can facilitate delivery of health services in a more effective manner. Effective communication correlates with patient satisfaction, adherence to medical plans, and outcomes including emotional health, symptom resolution, physiologic measures, and pain control.

5. Your experiences?
Patient health literacy and social factors affect how patients seek care and interact with health services
Travel to the hospital and clinic
Environment factors (living space)
Understanding of health conditions and possible treatments
Financial constraints
Cultural factors
Goal: Develop a thoughtful approach to communicate with a diverse patient population and understand the social determinants of health in your patients.

6. What we are introducing and why….
Expose you to community based activities OUTSIDE of the clinic and hospital so you can begin to appreciate the challenges patients have in the hospital/clinic
One required community based activity
These activities range from educational talks to high school students, nursing home residents, art activities with patients and families suffering from cognitive decline, epilepsy/stroke support groups.
For those interested (NOT required), we have also listed faculty who are open to having you be a part of their team longitudinally who perform community based participatory research (ie. Jenn Manly, Jide Williams, etc). Lots of great opportunities.
In the coming months, we will incorporate public health approaches into the noon conference curriculum

7. The Logistics
You will be required to choose and participate in at least one (you can do more if interested) community based activity from the list. If you have an independent project you are interested in, please notify us.
Completion of this activity should be by your next clinic block (~approximately 6 weeks)
It is your responsibility to contact the point person and arrange participation in the session. Please the contact (ideally) at least two weeks before the session, and cc Dr. Thakur or Dr. Shah.
We will have a session in your next clinic block discussing and reflecting upon your experiences. We will also follow up with preceptors to ensure your participation.
We want your feedback!