Bigger Picture Smarter Service

Join The Evolution

Why

Must We

Evolve?“We have by far the most expensive health system in the world. We spend 50 percent more per person than the average developed country -- spending more on health care than housing or food...

... Less than half of our population gets appropriate care at the right time...

... [Morevover], we have certainly received a poor return on all of our spending. In the industrialized world, we have the highest rate of medically preventable deaths and almost 100,000 people die eve-ry year from medical errors and poor quality. That’s the equivalent of two jumbo jets falling out of the sky every day. Meanwhile, the health status of our citizens declines, with chronic disease accounting for 75 percent of our health care costs and 96 percent of Medicare costs...

...we must make important investments in prevention and wellness...Preventing disease and controlling its effects over time need to be the foundation of our health care system.”

- Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of The United States Department of Health and Human Services

ISCOPES systematically addresses bigger picture

health issues through smarter service.

We accomplish this by involving those who are

courageously commited to evolving outside the box.

About ISCOPESISCOPES is an evolving health focused service-learning initiative that places GW students and employees from various fields of study as well as community practitioners and neighbors from around the DC Metro Area in interprofessional learning communities to address bigger picture health issues through smarter service.

For 8 hours/month September through April, students serve on project teams within these learning communities and tackle these health issues with multi-dimensional service projects.

Each learning community and its service project focuses on one of the following health domains: 1. Guardian Engagement - getting adults involved with kids’ health 2. Healthy Teen Scholars - adolescent health and health careers 3. Adult Health Literacy - digital health information, drug labels, and medical system literacy 4. People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities - complex health issues 5. Transitioning Veterans - wellness in civilian life 6. Senior Wellness - living exceptionally ages 55+

Culturally competent service, inclusivity of diverse thought, and doing something about real health issues are the ingredients of ISCOPES. This is the world of health…evolved.

From September through April, you will serve people of the DC Metro Area through three key steps:

1. Participate: Focus on the health issues you care about in one of our six Learning Communities. Teach others about what you have learned elsewhere and learn from others in the process.

2. Serve: Apply what you and colleagues have discussed in your Learning Community in the form of a team service project. Build relationships with community partner sites and serve people who are most vulnerable to negative health outcomes.

3. Adapt: Analyze your project team’s ability to affect change with your service project. Use your creativity, classroom knowledge, and previous experience to adapt your project within your learning community to better affect the health outcomes of our neighbors in the DC Metro Area.

Providing uniquely talented individuals with the chance to engage in increasingly smarter service as a member of a diverse team is the core of ISCOPES. Together, you will address those health issues that cannot be overcome alone.

What You Give

Find Out More: http://www.gwumc.edu/iscopes/getinvolved/students/experience.cfm

Through ISCOPES, you’ll hone skills and knowledge crucial for evolving into a stellar health-focused professional. You’ll also gain:

1. Connections with neighbors throughout the District – crucial for future rotations and practicums

2. New relationships formed with new colleagues – meet friends from different disciplines

3. Orientation to Washington, D.C. – a chance to explore our Nation’s Capital

4. Deeper awareness, understanding, and value of yourself, others, health, and healthcare

5. The desire to learn more – you’ll leave asking more questions than ever before

6. Access to content experts, faculty, and practitioners – many within your Learning Community

7. Out-of-classroom experiences – go beyond the lecture halls and books

8. Practice as a part of a health care team

9. Skills in health promotion/education

10. The chance to hone your time management and life balance skills

11. FUN! – make the most of your time at GW

All students who successfully complete a year of service with ISCOPES will receive:

1. A special academic transcript designation

2. Verified content for resumes, references, and letters of recommendation

3. Award opportunities

4. Leadership opportunities with the ISCOPES Advisory Board

What You Gain

Data below are presented for each of ISCOPES’ Six Learning Communities

76,753 students were enrolled in DC Public Schools and Charter Schools in FY12, all of whom have to get a Universal Health Certificate filled out every year by their guardian and health provider. dcps.dc.gov

Guardian Engagement

Why Your Service Counts: DC Data

“Older children who consistently participate in after-school activities are more likely to attend college, vote, and volunteer later in life.” ChildTrends.org

61% of adults in the District of Columbia read at or below a 6th grade reading level. 40% of District residents have completed grades 9 - 12 (or their GED) as their highest level of education. T. Ritsema, JHU

PTSD occurs in about 30% of Vi-etnam Veterans. 11,600 Vietnam Veterans live in the District of Columbia. va.gov

738 veterans in DC in 2012 were counted as homeless. mwcog.org

Nearly 12% of District residents are 65+ years of age. Of this population, 58.1% are either overweight or obese. census.gov CDC.gov

1,328 people in DC are living with intellectual and developmental disabilities (FY09). 40% of adults with disabilities report fair or poor health compared to 10% of adults without disabilities. CDC.gov

Healthy Teen Scholars

Adult Health Literacy

IDD Community

Transitioning Vets

Senior Wellness

An Essay and A CallInstitutional Passive Indifference: A Call to Mobilize[Edited for space] “We take many things for granted. As young, educated, privileged students of a private university we are sometimes sheltered from the harsh realities of the communities around us. Through work with [ISCOPES], I became aware of the various health disparities in and around the Anacostia community of Washington, DC.

One of the disparities we fight is the issue of varying levels of health literacy. [A training] presented by Professor Tamara S. Ritsema discussed the importance of being cognizant of health literacy in the work that we do through ISCOPES. It was astonishing to learn that the nation’s capital has a mean reading level of a 9 year old. There is a fundamental and institutional problem we need to address when 40% of DC residents have no more than a high school degree. In my opinion, it doesn’t necessarily have to do with the physical ability or capacity level of these individuals as much as it has to do with system/institutional issues.

Health literacy dictates whether or not a person will access or seek medical care. Medical

adherence and patient/physician communication are also dependent on the level of health literacy of the patient. The capacity to obtain, process, critique and apply basic health information and services is compromised when an individual has low literacy. Unfortunately, an array of social and behavioral determinants impacts the ability to maximize a person’s health utility or capacity.

Through street outreach and personalized weekly training courses, we are trying to fight this disparity on the grassroots level. Collectively, we try to educate community members on the health disparities associated with their cohort and help them advocate for better health care for not only themselves but for their communities. Furthermore, we want to ideally help individuals make lifestyle changes to improve their personal health so that the high prevalence of chronic, communicable, and mental illnesses can be addressed.

As a coalition of young professionals bound together by a common interest, we need to galvanize and excrete morality back into the

health arena. There is a need to create and organize a system where there is a fair distribution of access to health. Look around you; DC is a great place to grow academically but it is riddled with racial and socio-economic stigmas that have consequently marginalized many of the people that we work with.

Through social justice initiatives and advocacy work, we can potentially alter discourse and promote education and responsibility to help combat some of the societal and political problems that pervade our local, state, and federal government currently. In order to make a systematic and vital contribution to health reform at least in the DC area, somehow we need to ground reform back to a moral issue.

Perhaps we will move one step closer in the new year…” --Asha Cesar, Public Health Graduate Student, 2011 - 2012 ISCOPES Participant

“I would say our greatest success was the discussion we had about “them” and “us”. Throughout the meet-ing these terms were used often, until one of the group members pointed out that ‘we’ are ‘them.’” – Transitioning Vets Blog Post

“It’s great to feel that we may start these kids off

to a healthy routine that could help them lead

long and healthy lives.” -- ISCOPES StudentThe ISCOPES Experience

“[My teammate] is going to be a great professional wherever he ends up.”

“[My teammate’s] dedication was inspiring.”

“We discovered that ‘health’ is about more than just treating the disease or condition you see immediately in front of you. Health is about the whole person, as influenced by their community, lifestyle, activities, ideals, and beliefs.” -- ISCOPES Student

“No member of our team, as an individual, could have completed our goal, but because

we were able to combine our experience, knowledge, and creativity, the finished project

was truly greater than the sum of its parts.” -- Guardian Engagement Project Team

“Interprofessional teamwork is hard work but pays dividends.” -- ISCOPES Coach

“This was very motivating

and it taught me that young people do not give up on you and that they believe in you and will fight

with you to the end.” -- ISCOPES

Coach

Learning Communities are filled on a first come, first serve basis! Applications go live August 5th, 2013 at Noon! Go to http://www.gwumc.edu/iscopes/getinvolved/students/apply.cfm to sign up to serve with others you care about and work on those health issues most important to you.

Applicants must: 1. Be enrolled as a GW student

2. Be interested in personal and communal healthy living

3. Commit at least 8 hours of service per month (an average of 2 hours/week; not including commute time) from September through April

4. Agree to a background or security check, fingerprinting, and/or TB test, as applicable (TBD depending on community partner site requirements)

Previous experiences with service, health education and promotion, and leadership are desirable, but not required.20

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Connect With Us

2300 I Street, NW #221 | Washington, DC. 20037 | http://iscopes.gwu.edu | iscopes@gwu.edu