Often, institutions like medical centers and women’s shelters face challenges in making their services accessible to everyone, regardless of ability, social status, nationality and more. One medical center in Pittsburgh, faced with such a challenge, is making sure to reach out to Nepalese refugees in its community–particularly women.
Nurses with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center discuss their work helping a large population of women from Nepal refugee camps. Staff is especially attuned to the language barriers and other needs of women from the camps, says Diane Linbald, a registered nurse with the center’s Family Care Connection, because the women are more likely to be family oriented and less familiar with the larger community.
Recognizing that Nepalese women lacked access to information on basic needs like nutrition and exercise because of issues like language and cultural barriers, UPMC took the initiative–literally–and tailored their health outreach for the community with their Healthy Communities program.
“Healthy Communities is an initiative of UPMC-Magee to take health education into the community,” says Ebony Hughes, a registered nurse and clinical patient educator for the Magee-Women’s Hospital of UPMC.
Visit the Healthy Communities Outreach Education Program to learn more or find out more about UPMC’s range of community initiatives and outreach at UPMC Life-Changing Medicine.
