After devoting two decades to teaching, Anne McGintis decided to go beyond the
classroom in order to help underserved children in her hometown of Chattanooga, Tenn. In
1994 she began by setting up the city's first resource center for low-income families,
where people could learn job skills, take classes, and get health screenings and
information. Now three centers serve about 300 people weekly. She is on the lookout for
any opportunity to bring together families, educators, doctors, and nurses to improve the
health of people in the community.
You know my big word is collaboration. We do nothing in Chattanooga without
collaborating with others. You can't do anything without the help of somebody else.
This past summer we did health risk assessments with the Hamilton County Health
Department. I made a proposal to them. I said, "We have children coming for summer
school, but let's take time out and look at the parents." Out of 500 kids, about 400
family members got tested.
The reason we did this is that when parents are ill, sometimes they don't push
children. Often parents would tell us, "I didn't feel well. That's why I didn't come
to the PTA meeting. I couldn't take them to the library. My leg hurt. My shoulder was
hurting."
We wanted healthy parents to be healthy for their kids. So we did diabetes screening,
mammograms, and prostate exams. We checked blood pressure; we had a nutrition specialist;
we had immunizations. I think it must have been about 25 tests that they had to go
through.
You know what the parents said? They said they're so glad, because we put the testing
at a good time. Some of them couldn't go to doctors at the "right time," but we
had some assessments early in the morning, some late in the afternoon, and some lunch-time
specials, where they could run in and do it.
We have to understand that parents are the first teachers. When that child comes home,
who does that child start mimicking? That child says "mama" and "papa"
first. He or she doesn't say "doctor" or "principal" or
"teacher" first.
McGintis' goal is to extend her reach into those places where parents go about their
daily routines.
I was talking to a beautician, and she was telling me a lot of people come in to get
their hair fixed, and they feel so relaxed. She told me, "Ms. McGintis, it would be
so good if we had health care material in here so that when they're sitting under the
dryer they could read some stuff." So that's what we did.
She started about this time last year, and she provided a room in her shop. We sent
letters out to several others, and they have pamphlets throughout their beauty salons on
health issues. Some of her clients are doctors, so they talk to people about high blood
pressure and healthy pregnancies.
She brings in somebody whenever there's a community issue or she hears something
parents need to know, but it's up to her to do that. I've given her the material, plus
I've hooked her up with the health department. See, that's collaboration.
McGintis works with health plans, too, in her effort to ensure that families get what
they need.
A local HMO provides services at our family resource centers. One time they gave out
toothbrushes because we found out as Americans we don't change toothbrushes often enough.
A lot of people were keeping toothbrushes a year or a year and a half. So one day that HMO
gave us thousands of toothbrushes. It's little things like that that we do.
I love the community, the partnership, and the people. But I'm only as successful as
parents make me. We all do it together.
