Under the tree
A volunteer demonstrates blood pressure equipmment during the Under the Tree health program.
By Emerald Reilly
St. Petersburg-Sandra Grosvenor conducted a survey as the men and women ate grilled chicken under the trees the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
“Did you get your pressure taken?” she wanted to know. “Did you get some food? Go make a plate?”
Grosvenor is a registered nurse at Bayfront Medical Center and the Johnnie Ruth Clarke Health Center. She is also the force behind the Under the Tree Outreach Program, a strategy that brings healthcare to homeless and working poor who can be found under the trees near the corner of Martin Luther King Street South and 15th Avenue South.
“I saw the need for me to go to the people and not wait for them to be referred to me,” Grosvenor said.
The program was started by Grosvenor and the Midtown Health Council.
Grosvenor hatched the idea as she drove to work. She saw people sitting under the trees and others walking nearby.
“All these people I’m not reaching,” the community educator and nurse for Midtown thought to herself.
Volunteers provide free heatlh care screening to a patient at the Under the Tree program. The program meets near the corner of Martin Luther King (Ninth) Street South and 15th Avenue.
Every first and fourth Tuesday Grosvenor uses her lunch hour to make the rounds. She checks blood pressure and gives out toothpaste, toothbrushes, washcloths and soap. One of her frequent stops: under the trees, where you can find a community of people playing cards and talking.
There was food, laughter and sense of family under the trees the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The council and other volunteers fired up grills and roasted chicken for Thanksgiving. They also served up huge helpings of healthcare.
The program is important and effective “because it comes where the people are. These are the people who don’t or can’t go see a doctor,” said Lounelle Britt, member of the Midtown Health Council and executive director of the James B. Sanderlin Neighborhood Family Center.
Nearly 20 percent of African-Americans under the age of 65 don’t have health insurance, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. As a result, Grosvenor and others like Myron Mills from the Sickle Cell Disease Association take healthcare to those who need it. For example, if someone’s blood pressure is above 140/90, he or she is referred to Dr. Glynette Barney at the Johnnie Ruth Clarke Health Center.
Barney, the pharmaceutical manager at Johnnie Ruth Clarke, discusses what medications residents are taking as well as possible food and drug interactions. She also helps them establish a doctor at the health center. If needed, the center offers 24-hour blood pressure monitoring.
Some residents don’t think they need help.
“I don’t get sick too often,” said Anthony Gatheright, who suffers from high blood pressure and doesn’t have a doctor. He ate his grilled chicken as he sat under the trees. “They cooked this pretty good,” he said.
But Willie Mae Miles, a regular under the trees, credits Grosvenor for bringing healthcare to residents.
“She’s a sweet person, a very sweet person,” Miles said.
The Midtown Health Council is composed of Grosvenor, Britt and several others from an assortment of Pinellas County health organizations, including STEPS to a Healthier Pinellas, The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast and the Healthy Start Coalition of Pinellas. The group meets once a month at the Sanderlin Center to come up with effective non-traditional ideas.
The council, which is funded by a grant from the Allegany Franciscan Foundation, also has developed Churches United for a Healthier Congregation, an effort to help Midtown churches develop or expand a health program.
Churches United for a Healthier Congregation is another way to reach a different demographic of people.
“It’s a portal to the faith-based community,” said Deborah Shaffer with the STEPS program.
Besides developing these programs and encouraging people to go to their community health centers, the council is trying to find every way possible to deliver “non-traditional messages of health,” said Dianna King, from the American Heart Association and a member of the council. An example: The council is producing 1,000 magnets and 450 decks of playing cards printed with the warning signs of strokes and heart attacks and information about diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol.
