KishHealth System Offers On-Going Spanish Language Preventative Health Classes
KishHealth System recently wrapped up a free four-week Spanish language diabetes prevention program in Plano which incorporated two other local organizations, Iglesia Luterana Cross and Walmart. The class, taught by KishHealth System Bilingual Health Promotion Specialist Lisseth Cuevas, was held at Iglesia Luterana Cross—a church enrolled and actively involved in KishHealth System’s Community Health Network (CHN), a network compromised of local community resources which help provide preventative health education classes and assist with non-medical needs for those enrolled from the member congregations of the CHN. “It was exactly because of the church’s partnership with the CHN that they were able to self-identify a need, which was diabetes—a huge health disparity amongst the Hispanic population. They asked if we had an educational program that we could provide and I was happy to offer the class,” mentioned Cuevas when describing how KishHealth System was able to partner with the local organization.
The class uses two curriculums: “Road to Health: Diabetes Prevention Program,” supported by the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP); and “Cooking Matters in the Store,” supported by Share Our Strength organization. “There are a vast number of resources out there with quality information supported by many of the most leading edge healthcare and public health organizations in the nation,” said Cuevas. “And a lot of the information overlaps so it’s great to be able to teach the lessons with information that is supported by such well-respected and influential organizations.”
The first three weeks at the church covered the “Road to Health” curriculum and ended the fourth class with the “Cooking Matters in the Store” curriculum which included a tour of Walmart. The tour was a comprehensive review of the information presented from the “Road to Health” program, provided hands-on experience shopping for fruits and vegetables in season; cost effective healthy shopping; reading and understanding nutrition labels; price comparison; and a reminder to eat, every time, as it is suggested by the USDA’s MyPlate guidelines. “There is a huge misconception when it comes to eating healthy and shopping on a budget. People are convinced it is not possible, and this tour proves, with hands-on shopping experience, that it can be done,” stated Cuevas. The tour ends with a $10 challenge donated by Walmart for the participants to purchase a meal using only the ten-dollar budget, while using all the food groups of MyPlate.
KishHealth System has scheduled Spanish language preventative health classes for the rest of the year—in August offering the same four-week series in DeKalb; in October bringing an A1C Champion to give testimony of her successes managing diabetes; and offering Family and Friends CPR in November for both Valley West Hospital and Kishwaukee Hospital’s communities. All classes offered are free of cost and taught completely in Spanish. Find a link to those programs here under Clases en Espanol: www.kishprograms.org.
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For more information about these Community Wellness services or to schedule an interview with Lisseth Cuevas, please call 815.786.3978 or email at lcuevas@kishhealth.org.
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