Today was our last day working with SVT, as we leave Homer and head back to Anchorage tomorrow. It was an exciting day because we had the opportunity to explore Seldovia and check out the SVT clinic located here! As I mentioned in my last post, Seldovia is located in the Kenia Peninsula and there is no road system connecting Seldovia to Homer. With that being said, we arrived at the airport bright and early, and I boarded a 4-passenger plane to fly over to the village. Luckily, the weather was decent this morning and the flight was quite smooth. (Keep in mind that according to the 2016 census, the population here was only 276!)
When we arrived, we were greeted by a very friendly woman who worked in this community with her social work degree. She gave us fantastic tour of the entire town, and introduced us to many of the workers here. She has numerous roles within the community- I honestly felt as though she ran the town! Seldovia has a very close-knit community feel to it, and members of this town are deeply involved in community activities. Throughout our tour, we learned all about some of these activities and different services and programs offered within Seldovia. Some of these include: community CPR classes, a community gym, cooking classes that incorporate nutritional coaching for healthier lifestyles, women's group which includes crafts, talk circles, and group therapy, senior-meals for the native elders, and child care services. I thought the child care program was especially beneficial for the community, because of the large percentage of working parents. This program only charges families $20/month/child. However, because it can only hold a small amount of children at a time, the program is based on priority.
Primary prevention is the number one focus in this community due to the lack of medical resources and barriers to access Seldovia. If weather is bad, a plane may not be able to fly over the Bay, which leaves you with a water taxi as your only other option (if the water isn't posing a threat to safety). SVT clinicians fly over to Seldovia twice/week, but frequently miss a scheduled day because of the weather. Because of this, there are many trained EMTs in Seldovia who are all volunteers. It is also important for the members of this community to be trained in CPR just in case of emergencies. Our tour guide also mentioned another down-fall of a close-knit community like this- She brought up concerns about HIPAA. When you're living in a smaller community, it everybody seems to know everybody and often, you are seeing/treating an entire family. This brings up the issue of family and friends asking clinicians about the status or well-being of a loved one. As we know, HIPAA protects the privacy of individuals, and does not allow us to give out this information. However, we were told that a newer process was initiated to lighten this issue. A patient can sign a consent form that lists certain individuals that can receive personal information about them. I thought this was very interesting! Similar to what I am used to in a way- I have my parents listed on my medical forms so they have access to all of my information if they ask.
We took our lunch break to explore the town a little more. Everything was closed except the one and only grocery store. It was fun to walk around the store- Their produce section had 2 heads of lettuce (they didn't look pretty) and a couple tomatoes. There was one bag of frozen brussel sprouts in the freezer section. I didn't see any fresh fruit, but there were many bags of dried fruit in the store. I also found a jar of peanut butter for $14! No restaurants were open- In a small community like this, if the owners don't feel like opening on a Monday, they won't! I would love to come back to this town in the summer and experience the tourist season. I learned a ton, and will definitely hold onto this experience!
When we arrived, we were greeted by a very friendly woman who worked in this community with her social work degree. She gave us fantastic tour of the entire town, and introduced us to many of the workers here. She has numerous roles within the community- I honestly felt as though she ran the town! Seldovia has a very close-knit community feel to it, and members of this town are deeply involved in community activities. Throughout our tour, we learned all about some of these activities and different services and programs offered within Seldovia. Some of these include: community CPR classes, a community gym, cooking classes that incorporate nutritional coaching for healthier lifestyles, women's group which includes crafts, talk circles, and group therapy, senior-meals for the native elders, and child care services. I thought the child care program was especially beneficial for the community, because of the large percentage of working parents. This program only charges families $20/month/child. However, because it can only hold a small amount of children at a time, the program is based on priority.
Primary prevention is the number one focus in this community due to the lack of medical resources and barriers to access Seldovia. If weather is bad, a plane may not be able to fly over the Bay, which leaves you with a water taxi as your only other option (if the water isn't posing a threat to safety). SVT clinicians fly over to Seldovia twice/week, but frequently miss a scheduled day because of the weather. Because of this, there are many trained EMTs in Seldovia who are all volunteers. It is also important for the members of this community to be trained in CPR just in case of emergencies. Our tour guide also mentioned another down-fall of a close-knit community like this- She brought up concerns about HIPAA. When you're living in a smaller community, it everybody seems to know everybody and often, you are seeing/treating an entire family. This brings up the issue of family and friends asking clinicians about the status or well-being of a loved one. As we know, HIPAA protects the privacy of individuals, and does not allow us to give out this information. However, we were told that a newer process was initiated to lighten this issue. A patient can sign a consent form that lists certain individuals that can receive personal information about them. I thought this was very interesting! Similar to what I am used to in a way- I have my parents listed on my medical forms so they have access to all of my information if they ask.
We took our lunch break to explore the town a little more. Everything was closed except the one and only grocery store. It was fun to walk around the store- Their produce section had 2 heads of lettuce (they didn't look pretty) and a couple tomatoes. There was one bag of frozen brussel sprouts in the freezer section. I didn't see any fresh fruit, but there were many bags of dried fruit in the store. I also found a jar of peanut butter for $14! No restaurants were open- In a small community like this, if the owners don't feel like opening on a Monday, they won't! I would love to come back to this town in the summer and experience the tourist season. I learned a ton, and will definitely hold onto this experience!