Reducing Health Disparities Among Hispanic Elders: Lessons from a Learning Network TEAM CHICAGO

1. Reducing Health Disparities Among Hispanic Elders: Lessons from a Learning NetworkTEAM CHICAGO AHRQ Annual Meeting 2008 September 10, 2008 Washington, DC Susan Vega Senior Advocate Alivio Medical Center

2. Why is your community doing this? • Address chronic diseases in Latino seniors • Adult onset diabetes negatively affecting quality of life for Latino seniors and their families • Need to work together to develop and implement interventions that have long-lasting effects • Develop plan that depends less on clinical interventions and more on community resources

3. Chicago Area Latinos • 1,071,740 Latinos in Chicago and Suburban Cook County – 22.2% of population • 73% of Latinos in Chicago / Cook County are Mexican immigrants or of Mexican descent • One in four will develop adult onset diabetes

4. Team Chicago’s Target Communities • Little Village in Chicago – southwest of downtown • Cicero in suburbs– just west of Little Village • Largest number of Latinos in all of Chicago community areas and largest numbers in suburban Cook County • Almost 10,000 residents 65+ • 72% of Latinos 65 + in Little Village and 63% of Cicero Latinos 65+ live with families

5. What is the plan you hope to implement? • Tomando Control de Su Salud, Stanford’s CDSMP in Spanish • Additional programming, Improving Latino Health, focused on one-on-one coaching, community resources, and individualized needs • Targeting two contiguous largely Mexican / Mexican-American communities - one city and one Suburban

6. Partnership Members and Roles

7. How did the team build capacity before engaging clinical partners? • Key organizations brought resources to process • Alivio – Compañeros en Salud • Rush – Experience connecting clinicians with CDSMP • Age Options, Chicago Department of Senior Services, and Rush already funded through AoA and NCOA for CDSMP • Leveraged resources to build Team Chicago’s capacity for implementing Tomando Control de Su Salud • Helped to focus Team Chicago’s choice of intervention

8. How is the team engaging clinical providers? • Alivio Medical Center will pilot intervention • Senior Advocate pitched intervention to clinical staff • Alivio process may serve as model for other clinical settings

9. Accomplishments • Development of Core Working Team • Development and refinement of Team Charter • Development of Implementation Plan • Training in Take Charge of Your Health and Tomando Control de Su Salud • Schedule of Tomando Control de Su Salud classes in target communities to meet objectives of Implementation Plan • Site agreements with Alivio Medical Center • Tentative agreements with two additional healthcare providers

10. How was the Learning Network helpful to Team Chicago and their project? • Provided impetus to take on the effort • Provided assistance in focusing efforts • Served as “reality check” • Provided framework / template • Kept project “on-track” through process, e.g., monthly Team Chicago calls and All-Teams calls • Provided forum for problem-solving • Provided resources, e.g, October 2007 Workshop, AHRQ Data Chartbook, NCOA-ASA HEP adjunct meeting, Site Visit, additional calls

11. Most Challenging Aspect • Team process / collaborations • Group learning curve • Getting buy-in from sponsoring organizations • Helping clinicians understand role of intervention • Helping clinicians understand usefulness of lay health promotion / interventions • Developing resources to meet community needs

12. Lessons Learned • Take nothing for granted • Everything takes longer than you think it will • Be open to new ideas • Be mindful of individual, group and organizational processes • Keep plugging along • There is no substitute for working together • Remember the vision thing

13. For More Information Susan Vega Senior Advocate Alivio Medical Center 966 W. 21st Street, Chicago, IL 60608 Tel. 312-829-6017 Fax 312-829-6822 svega@aliviomedicalcenter.org