The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #47642

Lori A. Edwards, MPH, RN, CS, Sara Groves, DrPH, RN, CS, Linda Lewandowski, PhD, Joan Kub, PhD, RN, CS, and Carmalyn Dorsey, MSN. School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, 525 N. Wolfe St, Room 453, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410-614-2418, ledwards@son.jhmi.edu

The Amazing Grandmothers’ Project is a comprehensive community-based initiative to partner with grandmothers in their efforts to keep families intact. The project supports grandmothers as they raise their grandchildren whose parents are absent due to substance abuse. Multidisciplinary services are provided to 15 grandmothers and 40 children. Components of the interventions include home visits by community health nurses, an eight-week nurturing program, a reading program, monthly dinners focused on family building and health education, parish nursing, spiritual support, and a grandmothers’ urban gardening project. Families are identified by a family services worker at a partnership school, Tench Tilghman Elementary School, in collaboration with the Julie Community Center. Programs are run in a local church, Amazing Grace Lutheran Church,in partnership with the minister, parish nurse, and parishioners. The project is a model program for community-academic partnerships. The need was identified by the community partners who then sought the academic assistance of the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing to develop, implement, and evaluate the program. Additionally School of Nursing Community Outreach nursing students help facilitate interventions. The project is funded by the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute, focused on advancing efforts to combat the devastating effects of drugs on the neighborhoods of urban East Baltimore. Census 2000 data show that more than 4.5 million grandchildren are living in 2.4 million grandparent-headed households in the U.S. These Amazing Grandmothers are addressing this significant public health issue by supporting efforts to keep families intact.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this presentation the learner will be able to

• Discuss an intervention program that targets grandmothers who are raising their grandchildren due to substance abuse.
• Describe a model for community-academic partnerships that addresses an aspect of the community’s priority issue of substance abuse.

Keywords: Community-Based Partnership, Community Health Programs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.