Testimony of UFT Vice President for Non-DOE Members Anne Goldman before the City Council Committee on Health
Good afternoon Chairman Johnson and members of the Committee on Heath. My name is Anne Goldman, and I am vice president for the non-Department of Education members of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). On behalf of our union’s 200,000 members, including more than 5,000 nurses, I want to thank you for this opportunity to offer testimony today. I plan to spotlight some of the fine work we’re doing, as well as provide some recommendations on how we can move forward on community schools.
Our union has a wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to building and developing health initiatives that work seamlessly within complex governmental structures. What’s more, we operate a robust suite of mental health services and programs. Our work ranges from providing patients with medical care through our nurses’ chapter to providing students with medical, dental, vision and mental health supports through our New York City Community Learning Schools Initiative.
Our city has the opportunity to improve access to primary and preventative care in our school communities. We believe the future of health care can be found in school-based health centers. We’re in the process of opening two such centers this year, and foresee children from neighboring schools coming to them for much-needed care.
These centers are part of our push to align services from city agencies as well as non-governmental organizations and private partners to address the needs of a child in a holistic manner. As part of that push, we must provide more mental health services to our communities. All the schools that applied to our Community Learning School Initiative emphasized the need for mental health services. Given Mayor Bill de Blasio's emphasis on this critical issue, we strongly advise that the new Office of Community Health Planning make sure these programs are offered to all students.
UFT Nurses Chapter
Nurses are the backbone of our health care system. From the neonatal unit to hospice, a nurse’s expertise is more important than ever.
Established nearly 40 years ago, the Federation of Nurses/UFT represents 5,000 nurses here in the metropolitan area. Our members are registered nurses and licensed practical nurses at two private hospitals - Brooklyn's Lutheran Medical Center and Staten Island University Hospital — and two health care agencies, the Visiting Nurse Service and Jewish Home Healthcare. We also represent several hundred health care professionals in Guildnet.
All of our nurses are distinguished “professionals” in every sense of the word. They have received specialized education and training, and they use their skills to initiate life-saving measures every day. What’s more, they use their experience and critical thinking skills to develop and implement care plans for home-based clients.
We trust our nurses to give the best in patient care. And, as their representatives, the safety of our members is among our top priorities. Because of the specialized nature of their jobs, we ensure that they have input in policy development and the management of the care they provide.
School-Based Health Care Professionals
In schools, thousands of UFT members work every day to provide students with critical health care services. Our social workers, psychologists, and guidance counselors are all uniquely trained to address the social well-being of our students. They assess a student, work with teachers and parents to learn the full scope of issues either in school or at home, and then develop comprehensive counseling plans.
Occupational and physical therapists are also a vital part of the equation, helping students develop or regain physical and emotional health. They also develop therapeutic plans to address student needs and work with teachers, parents, and doctors to ensure implementation of those treatments. Many times that program includes teaching vocational and homemaker skills, daily life skills, and social skills. Their goal: to promote student independence and productivity. These roles are particularly important in our District 75 schools.
Beyond these titles, it’s also important to note that the UFT represents teachers based in New York City hospitals. They provide educational services to seriously ill children who require long-term hospitalization, or students with special needs. Their bedside work coincides with strong collaborations between school personnel, hospital caregivers, and administration.
School-Based Health Care Services
Locating health and mental health services within school buildings is a proven formula for improving the overall health and wellness of our students. Within community schools, students, and sometimes their families, receive care for a range of illnesses including asthma and diabetes. They may receive dental care, checkups, vision and hearing tests, mental or behavioral health care, substance abuse counseling and health and nutrition education.
It’s a smart and practical place to deliver these services because our schools are essentially community “hubs.” Many of these school-based health services are offered through partnerships between the school and community or health organizations. The UFT continues to recommend an increase in funding to expand and enhance these services; an increase is necessary to ensure that these school-based health clinics can provide the skilled nursing services for students with disabilities and those with other serious health issues.
The New York City Community Learning Schools Initiative
The UFT’s NYC Community Learning Schools Initiative facilitates partnerships between schools and non-profits, businesses, and government. As with the mayor’s community schools program, this initiative helps public schools develop support services with the goal of improving student achievement. The underlying principle is to address the health, safety and social service needs of students and communities and thus create a better learning environment.
Launched in 2012 by the UFT in collaboration with the New York City Council, the Partnership for New York City and Trinity Wall Street, the Initiative began with six demonstration schools. We’re proud to say we now support 25 schools this school year. Our model works to seamlessly integrate services into a school's daily operations. These services include medical and dental programs, social services, and mental health, and food and nutrition programs. We believe, based on research and evidence, that close collaboration among schools, neighbors and service organizations leads to increased student success and strengthens entire communities, making them more stable and desirable places to live.
One of our key goals, and a priority for students in all our schools, is to ensure that our children have their eyes checked and that eyeglasses, or any other visual aids, are supplied as needed. According to the American Optometric Association, as much as 80 percent of a child’s learning is done visually, making uncorrected vision a true detriment to success in school.
The NYC Community Learning Schools Initiative has made a conscious effort to improve the vision of students in our Community Learning Schools. These efforts have been possible through collaboration with organizations such as Lutheran Family Health Services, Montefiore, SUNY Optometry and One Sight. The need is so great, however, that we require further support to ensure that no child struggles because of poor vision.
Member Assistance Program
As part of the UFT's commitment to improving the lives of its members, we provide the Member Assistance Program to help support those who are having difficulties. MAP, as we call it, provides free short-term counseling. Our staff’s professionally-trained counselors assist with family/marital problems, financial and legal difficulties, stress and substance abuse. The program also provides members with outside resources and referrals to find solutions to a wide range of personal and work-related problems. The services provided are confidential, professional, supportive and independent. These programs have been such success that other unions have requested our assistance in neighboring school districts. For example, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut, we were called in to help.
Positive Learning Collaborative
Another aspect of our work students vis à vis mental health is our Positive Learning Collaborative (PLC), a partnership between the UFT and the city Department of Education. The PLC emerged from the realization that the existing school disciplinary practices were having a drastic impact on our most vulnerable students: children with learning disabilities, and those from high-poverty neighborhoods, many of whom are children of color.
As experienced educators, we understand the toll that poverty, trauma and stress take on our students. The PLC holistic approach supports the creation of a supportive climate through the use of a multi-tiered framework that focuses on reflective and restorative practices while developing the systems needed for sustainability.
Restorative practices are successful when implemented school-wide and integrated into the fabric of the school community. When the school culture is infused with restorative strategies, the level of support allows for issues to be addressed quickly in a caring and thoughtful manner. We believe that embedding restorative practices in elementary schools can have a broad transformative impact on school culture and society at large. Young students are most receptive to new patterns of how to relate to others. The earlier we start, we have found, the better.
Recommendations
We believe that our diverse and wide-ranging expertise makes our union a unique and powerful partner for the City Council as it develops the Office of Community Health Planning. By having a seat at the table, the UFT can help Council maximize the new office’s effectiveness.
What’s more, with more schools now on the front lines of health care delivery, especially under the community schools model that Mayor de Blasio hopes to expand, the UFT’s unique expertise in working with government and private sector agencies can help guide the Office of Community Health Planning.
More specifically, the UFT can help connect schools with needed services and ensure that those services are seamlessly integrated into a school’s daily operations. We can help streamline services between the Department of Health and the Community Learning Schools. In that same vein, we would encourage this department to work with our nurses to connect them to schools with District Public Health Centers, which are underutilized.
Thank you again for your support of our members and our projects. We look forward to working with you and the Office of Community Health Planning in the future.