French Hospital Medical Center (FHMC), along with Arroyo Grande Community Hospital (AGCH), and Marian Regional Medical Center (MRMC), recently received a $10,000 grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. Grant funds will be used to institute a Community Wellness Program to support preventive health education classes and expand existing educational services, specifically for low-income and Latino populations.
The program will consist of three courses which will provide educational opportunities to empower and motivate people to make healthy choices. The classes will include: (1) Healthy for Life Nutrition Series which will emphasize healthy eating and physical activity in daily life, (2) Healthier Living: Your Life, Take Care, which will address symptom management of chronic diseases, and (3) Diabetes Prevention and Management, which consists of support groups, conversation series, and individualized appointments with a registered dietician. These courses will present health information in a manner that is easy to apply to individual lifestyles, reducing risk of preventable diseases.
“Bank of America is very proud to support French Hospital and its many valuable community outreach programs,” Bank of America Market President Central Coast, Greg Bland, said. “We appreciate the opportunity to partner with the hospital to help provide the most comprehensive prevention and education services to those in need.”
The grant will also enable the use of bilingual outreach coordinators to underserved Spanish-speaking Hispanic/Latino communities of San Luis Obispo County using a ‘Promotoras’ model to educate community members about overall health and healthy eating, as well as provide supplemental exercise classes.
Programs using Promotoras, community health workers who live in the communities they serve, have proven to be successful in breaking through cultural and linguistic barriers often encountered with health education and prevention programs.
All program components will be offered free of charge and in Spanish and will be held in the new FHMC Copeland Health Education Pavilion, providing the most advanced health care education and resources, and scheduled for completion in the fall of this year.
“We are extremely grateful to Bank of America for their continued support of our outreach programs, which will be further enhanced by the addition of the nearly completed Copeland Health Education Pavilion,” says Alan Iftiniuk, FHMC president/CEO. “Bank of America continues to be a truly compassionate community partner in enhancing access to health care services for members of our community.”
Over the past eight years, Bank of America has supported FHMC with more than $80,000 in grant funds. These grants have helped provide mentoring for student nurses, free mammograms for underserved women, cancer support groups for Spanish speaking patients, support for homeless patients, cardiovascular health education, and now increased health education classes to community members.
For more information or to make a donation, call the FHMC Foundation at 805.542.6496 or visit www.supportfrenchhospital.org.