The Education of an Angel, part three:
Completing the Circle
Before she joined the reorganized T.T. Minor staff as the school’s Health Care Coordinator, Elizabeth “Liz” Thomas had already devoted a long career to improving the health care of inner-city children at Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic in the Central District. Now, she draws on her 24 years of experience as a nurse practitioner to find ways to help children who are put at risk by poverty or family distress.
A child’s behavior at school, Thomas knows, can be a symptom of other concerns. So when a teacher calls her to help with a student who is disruptive in class or whose behavior is impacting his ability to learn, Thomas starts by gathering more information. She uses a “holistic approach,” she says, finding out about the child’s family and medical history until she has all the information necessary to understand why the child is being disruptive. Thomas often pays a visit to the child’s home as part of her assessment of the child’s needs. She asks about prenatal care, birth history, and ongoing primary care. She considers all the information necessary before “labeling” a child.
Next, she looks for solutions. Thomas provides case management, bringing all the support pieces together “to enhance the child’s development.” Some children, she says, get bounced from one foster home to another if their family is in turmoil. They need stability. Some may need psychiatric evaluation, but lack insurance to cover mental health care. Many are living with grandparents “who are doing a beautiful job,” Thomas says, “but they’re tired. They need support, too.”
A petite woman with a blazing smile, Thomas admits that it can be discouraging to see the “toll” poverty takes on family life. “I see families needing counseling, housing, jobs, and food. Many children suffer from emotional and social deprivation. We can provide some help to children at school, but they also need support in place when they go home.” It’s a circle, she explains. “What happens at home affects the child’s well-being, socially, emotionally, and cognitively.” The outreach that Thomas coordinates is needed to carry out the holistic approach— to keep that circle unbroken.
Aggressive outreach is an invaluable benefit that Sloan’s support is providing, says Pauline Hill, who oversees elementary education for the Seattle district. “Our nursing staff throughout the district is minimal, at best,” Hill says. “This outreach connects families with services they might not ordinarily receive.” And because T.T. Minor now enrolls pre-K students, she points out, “children are getting the services they need even earlier in life.”
Throughout the Central District, signs of revival are becoming more visible, with new housing going up, older homes being refurbished, and even a new Starbucks open for business. But poverty remains widespread. Census reports from 1990 showed nearly a quarter of the neighborhood’s 10,000 households living below the poverty level. At T.T. Minor, more than 75 percent of children qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. The Central Area Development Association is bringing economic investment back into the once-blighted neighborhood, but long-time residents like Thomas worry about poor families feeling squeezed out by gentrification. “Who can afford these new homes?” she asks. What keeps Thomas optimistic, she says, “is when I see children start to succeed and not placed in special ed. That helps me. And when support filters into children’s homes, that has a rippling effect on the whole community.”
Looking around at the Central District, Thomas sees beyond the struggles many families face. She sees their strengths and shares their pride. When she teaches parenting classes, for instance, Thomas starts by having parents look inward, to take stock of their own attributes. She asks: “How do you parents promote your own well-being? What makes you happy? What’s good in your lives?” Mothers who are young might realize that their youthful energy is a positive quality, for example. Those who are good at keeping their tempers in check when frustrations pile up might discover they have the strength of self-control. Similarly, Thomas asks parents to identify their children’s strengths. “It’s so easy to focus only on the negatives,” she says. “When I ask them what their child does well, their eyes light up.”
Teachers need to be aware of these strengths “and find a way to nurture,” says Thomas. “To build on the strengths of our children is a job for the entire community.” On their own, neither a wise nurse practitioner like Thomas nor a wealthy philanthropist like Sloan can remove stresses and risk factors from the lives of minority children growing up in a poor neighborhood. But working together, they can go far to promote resiliency. “If we build on children’s strengths and teach them the skills they need,” Thomas says, “they will grow up better prepared to cope with the stresses of school, community, and home life.”
