Tender Mercies, Inc.

Martha Dua-Awereh, Summer 2015

My objectives this summer at Tender Mercies were to:

• Address the health concerns of residents at Tender Mercies
• Improve health outcomes in residents who are diabetic and pre-diabetic for type 2 diabetes
• Educate residents about health issues
• Encourage residents to ask their primary care physician questions about their health
• Create a sustainable program for residents

To address my objectives and concerns, I started three initiatives at Tender Mercies:

1. Diabetes Fridays (Objectives 1, 3, 4) — Introduced the basics of the disease via classroom presentation, discussion, and demonstration on a weekly basis. For each session, we provided healthy snacks and used incentives to encourage residents to attend. The class met once a week for 7 weeks.
2. Health Screening Clinic (Objectives 1-4) — Provided 1-to-1 education and screening test services, evaluated the effectiveness of individual counseling by comparing the changes in BP, HR, and blood glucose levels over time, gave Health Tracker Card to residents to use for Health Screening clinic and primary care provider visits. The clinic occurred 2 hours/day, 5 times/week.
3. Get Right, Get Tight Exercise Group for Residents (Objective 2 & 5) — 2 miles of walking for 30 minutes, Dance Group using JustDanceNow.com, and Jump Roping for 30 minutes. The group met 30 minutes/day, 4 times a week.
4. Developing a list of resources for Tender Mercies and Future Interns (Objective 5)

Overall, I felt that a made some impact at Tender Mercies, specifically on the residents and the staff. I received lots of encouragement and great feedback and I was happy to help. What surprised me the most is what a strong impact Tender Mercies made on me. Now when I walk through the streets of Cincinnati, I am always looking for homeless people that I think can benefit from the resources that Tender Mercies can offer them and I am more aware of the challenges, specifically in health care, that homeless people are faced with.