From WLWT this is Let's Talk Sisi, presented by Western and Southern Financial Group. Put our financial strength behind you. Hello everyone, I'm Curtis Fuller and welcome to Let's Talkini. You know whether it is in the uh dead of, uh, summer in the heat, or in the dead of winter when it's very cold, *** lot of folks around Cincinnati are served by Cincinnati Health clinics and here with me, uh, to talk *** little bit more about that, Doctor Geneva Good, she is the health program's manager, chief operations officer City of Cincinnati primary care. And Doctor Nick Taylor, who is the dental director, hey, let's start by, um, letting people know just *** little of the history of the clinics. I call them clinics, but they're health centers around town. Um, so the City of Cincinnati Primary Care, it operates under the Cincinnati Health Department and we have *** network, uh, primary care services throughout the city. Um, 6 health centers, 13 school-based health centers, and our health centers are located in underserved areas, so we offer adult and pediatric, uh, medical. We have women's health, behavioral health, dental and vision care, and WIC and then we also have *** team of outreach and enrollment, um. Specialists that work with individuals who may not have insurance and so they discuss with them their options um and provide education. Uh, talk about your your dental program. How, how many people you see on *** regular basis. So on *** regular basis, our clinics will see anywhere from 15 to 25 people *** day in each one of them. And we have 6 community site clinics and then 6 that are based in schools. Do, do you find you, you've been with the health department now for 25 years you're telling me, uh, do you find that, uh, *** lot of people aren't aware of the services that are available to them? They are not um I do think that during COVID um more people became aware of us because *** lot of people lost insurance and the services that we provide we take insurance um for those that are underinsured and even for those. That don't have insurance, so individuals can come to us, um, have access to all of the services that are stated, and it can be based on income. Well uh let's talk *** little bit about um the times now. I mean you mentioned. Uh, some folks don't have insurance. Uh, just wading through the health care process with or without insurance is difficult. Uh, what, what challenges do you see as you. Deal with uh Individuals who come in for services, I think it's hard because there are so many people that don't have insurance or underinsured. And we just have *** limited capacity so you know there is *** little bit of *** wait time sometimes for appointments um but we try to see as many as we can every single day and and funding uh funding is primarily from the city of Cincinnati. So actually it's not we do get some funding from the city um but we operate off of *** lot of federal dollars um which you can imagine we really don't know what state we're gonna be in, um, once you know the outcome of the budget bill. Um, but yeah, so we, it's federally funded. Um, let's, let's talk now about you mentioned the, the school based programs that you have, uh, some people might have heard that the city of, uh, Cincinnati's school district is doing its own. Health programs now but you you were telling me that's different it is different so we call that the traditional nursing um the the school based um nurses, but our school based health centers operate *** little differently so our traditional nurses, they were there to provide the required care so students come in, have *** stomach ache, um, you know, they'll do an assessment may have to call parents and send that child home. In the school based health centers it looks *** little different because we can see those children with maybe asthma um *** little bit more chronic conditions and then um as Doctor Taylor stated, then we also have dental there as well. All right, let me take *** break and then we will come back. There's much more to talk about. We'll be back in *** moment. Welcome back with me now once again, Doctor Geneva Good and also Doctor Nick Taylor, both from the, the health department we were talking about the uh importance of oral health. um uh do you find that that's more of *** challenge than some other issues people people sort of say, well, I, I, I'll eventually get to that. You know, I think we do *** lot of education when they come in for their cleanings and their exams, we do *** lot of education and. Try to explain the importance of oral health to their overall health, um, explain that. The um cardiovascular disease where there's *** very good link between poor oral health and cardiovascular disease, there's *** link between um low birth weights in pregnant patients and then, um, early births in pregnant patients as well, yeah, yeah, and uh I know there's been some talk of, of, of changing. Uh, some of the rules regarding what's in water, uh, I know that's above our pay grade, but, uh, that discussion has been taking place. I would imagine. That that's an issue that you've been monitoring as well. Oh yeah, I mean it's vitally important, especially with our patient base that the fluoride stays in the water. um, that fluoride really has shown *** big difference and especially low income families to help with the reducing the amount of decay that we see. Yeah, absolutely. COVID did open our eyes to so much um and one thing is the disparities in, in health care. Uh, clearly that was not *** new issue. I mean, I can remember um Doctor King discussed this back in the mid-sixties about health care being *** real critical issue. Um, but it did open our eyes to, um, the disparities in, in healthcare. Um, is that something that you've now started to focus on as well? So I think with the federally qualified health centers, um, they have been located in underserved areas now for well over 65 years. And so bringing accessibility to those neighborhoods um that's just the start of dealing with um some of the health disparities um offering so many services within those health centers um it just gives them more access um we do *** screening social determinants of health and now I think it's social drivers of health, um, but that allows us to really kind of get to the root of you know some of the barriers that are. Families are facing now again we're able to assist them with some of those issues, you know, being able to refer them to dental or to behavioral health um but when we start talking about housing, employment, you know, we're sending them out to the community resources but again those resources are only as good as the funding that they receive. Yeah, I, I, I know getting any kind of treatment can be intimidating. Uh, what do you say to to individuals who might be watching? Um, if you're having *** challenge, because again, sadly people will make judgments based on dollars and cents, very, you know, so many times, so, um, walk someone through just if you are in need of assistance, if you're in need of some kind of health care, how do they get it, get in touch just walk them through the process. So really that's just *** phone call to us um to set up that appointment but one of the things about our team were several things uh we have *** very diverse team and so we're very proud that individuals can walk in and can identify with someone you know that looks like them or can speak their language um because we do provide services to those individuals where English is not their primary language. Um, we have several individuals that prior to even coming and working with the city of Cincinnati Primary Care they accessed our services and so they understand the experience, um, the challenges that our families face and so I think that makes it *** little bit more welcoming to the community to be able to come in, um, and to receive our services. Yeah, and we see *** lot of patients um that speak different languages again like Doctor Good was saying. Um, we use the Proprio iPads for video translation all the time. We have providers that speak, uh, to other Spanish and some other languages as well, which is very beneficial, and *** lot of those patients, it makes them feel so much more comfortable again when you have *** provider that can speak with them and not be speaking. You know, through *** translation app and *** phone, yeah, yeah, yeah, OK, let me take another break. Uh, I, I know you work with *** lot of different organizations to to tap into to the community, and, uh, we'll be back in *** moment. Welcome back. We are talking about the health department's, uh, centers around the community dealing with adults and children. Uh, as we, as we, uh, wrap up this session, um, access to these centers, people can call in and make appointments. Tell, tell me about that. They can, they can call into our call center. Um, so we have *** central scheduling unit where people can call in, schedule appointments, um, for dental. They'll be referred to those sites, um, but yeah, just call, just call us and that number is 513-357-7320 and I would imagine you would tell people to do this for preventative. Uh services, not just when you're facing some challenge. Yeah, so we do comprehensive care and so we will try to set people up for appointments for that comprehensive care, but we also see *** lot of emergency patients in our community sites. So at 7:30 in the morning we start seeing patients for about the first two hours of every day. That are just walking in off the street, um, have dental pain or have been referred from one of the area hospitals, the ERs when they see uh someone in their ER that has dental pain, they'll refer them actually to us. Our, our numbers of sadly our numbers of uh homeless individuals in Cincinnati, um, to keep going up, um, does that face *** challenge for you in, in, in the centers? Um, so there is actually, um, *** homeless program, uh, we've worked with them, uh, from pharmacy, and I did forget to mention that is one of our services so all of our sites have *** pharmacy, um, so we've worked with them, collaborated with them in regards, um, to pharmacy. I don't know that we really have many homeless that are accessing our services um just kind of based on some of the neighborhoods but oh absolutely our emergency services we do see quite *** few walk-ins from that are homeless and with the pharmacies, uh, *** lot of times for prescriptions you need *** primary. How, how does that work if an individual doesn't have *** primary care physician that they're able to. Get the. So that is one thing about our pharmacy. It is not open to the public. It is only for our patients and that is just because of the type of funding we receive uh 340B funding and basically the stipulations with that is that they have to be within our network, see our primary care providers to access um the discounts for pharmacy. Well thank you very much thank you very much. Alright, let me take our final break and then we'll be back in *** moment. Welcome back everyone. The idea of gun buyback programs is not new, and critics question the impact of the projects, but those who support the idea will tell you getting even one gun off the street and out of the hands of someone who will misuse it is *** big success and with me today, Charles Hassel with *** project called Street Rescue. And Pastor Kevin Rainey from Greater New Mount Moria Missionary Baptist Church, where gun buyback is set to take place in September 1st of all, welcome to the program. Thank you. I, I said to you, Charles, you've been doing this for *** long time now. Tell me, tell me why you got involved with this concept of. Gun buyback. So it's actually started off my friend Dale Mallory, we were working on some issues and there was *** drive-by shooting and *** 6 year old was shot and we started talking about the idea of these community guns and he had shared about finding *** 12 gauge between two building walls and turning that in as most people kind of said we we want to touch it. And said there's gotta be *** better way to handle these community guns and what they are is they're guns that somebody who has criminal intentions, they don't wanna have *** gun on them. So what they'll do is they'll hide it in the community in *** mailbox under an air conditioner, um, uh, the officers will tell you in vacant cars and they can go grab it. But if you're not in the community, you don't know where it's at and nobody in the community really wants to go grab it in front of them or try to talk to an officer and explain why are several people might use that same gun exactly and so that's that's part of what we have concerns on it and what we're really trying to do is no questions asked, bring it in if you know where one's at in the community, bring it in. If you got something you don't want, bring it in. We're happy to take it, no questions asked. Uh, we do give gift cards. Often times people just say, I don't, I don't need *** gift card. Thank you for doing this, and off they go. So it's been *** great great opportunity and it's important to underscore when you say no questions asked because I would imagine *** lot of people um are concerned about that right, I'm gonna get this in there uh I hear they hear these stories of being drawn into something. And then got you and part of why we partner with pastors, um, Pastor Rainey is what we, we, we do this in part just to say, look, do you think the church is gonna lie to you you know this, I, I believe in the safety of God and the safety of the church as well, but that's also something we can say this is about the community and pastors doing something in the community to really help and this is one of those ways where it's rubber meets the road. This is how we do it. Uh, Pastor Rainey, uh, uh, Greater New Mount Moriah's *** historical church, uh, yeah, you were telling me the church itself, the building was built in 1866, the sanctuary was built in 1866 and the fellowship hall with the classrooms over top 13, uh, was built in 1875. And I, I only point that out because this is to underscore how the church has been around in the community for many, many years. So when you, I'm not sure how this if he approached you or you approached him, how did this come about that you got involved? He actually called me, um. Uh, you know, we've done other things in the community such as feeding the community, um, you know, we've set up, uh, situations where someone in need, uh, maybe have just gotten out of jail or who's, you know, uh, use, you know, on drugs or something, hungry to go down and get *** meal, uh, we did, uh, quite *** few things NA groups, AA groups, things of that nature and so this kind of. Goes right along with what we've already been doing in the community and you know greater New Mount Moriah along with other churches in the uh community have been supportive of the residents of the community and so this was *** win win for us uh because it also you know continues our efforts uh to try to, you know, advance the community. I, I mentioned the obvious, uh. Statement from critics who want to say uh it's really not getting enough guns off the street. Well, how much is enough? that's, that's *** great question. We, we look at this program is just one piece of *** multi-layered community approach and community meaning everything from police to parents saying this is what's right and wrong and teaching that there's all those various aspects that come together and this is one area that we can help and we can participate. So we try to make it available to kind of be *** pressure relief for the community when they know that there are those community guns out there. This is *** way to get them out of the hands of what can often be underage kids, uh, you know, getting *** hold of *** gun because they know where it's at and, and I know as we've covered this over the years when you see the guns that come in. Uh, you know, you see all types of guns with from handguns to rifles and all of this, we've seen *** variety from pistols to, and we see ones that have the serial numbers ground off them to black powder rifle, you know, it's, you see the, the gamut of it and um I also have moms that will bring in. I found this. I'm not sure uh and it may be *** BB gun, but they've removed the orange cap to make it look like it's real. Which again somebody's gonna get hurt and so we've seen *** variety of different things and and *** lot of ammunition as well. I, I, I would imagine that that uh you hear from members of the church and members in the community they're real concerned about what's happening with with guns on the streets so absolutely that's *** that's *** major and *** hot topic right now because of all the things that are going on in Cincinnati and one of the members I believe my deacon. Uh, mentioned to me he calls it the plus one program because if you get ***, you know, going to take *** gun off the street, not only do you take it out for the safety, but whoever may have used that gun now their life is ruined and so you know when you say we got one gun we got one gun plus one because you're whoever would have used it, you know, their life would have, you know, been completely destroyed, uh, because of it. I, I said this has been around for *** long time, believe it or not I was going through some file video. I came across an interview I did with uh then council member, now Judge Tyrone Yates talking about gun buybacks and believe it or not, this was probably around 92 or 93. And so you, you think about over that time how many guns have gotten taken off the street, yeah, and, and we usually refer to them as *** gun turning turning and, and the reason is we didn't know at first and this is really about, you know, not trying to buy it so much as again that pressure really for the community to turn them in and, and I know it creates people have all kinds of heartburn is it are we trying to destroy *** gun it's really about trying to save lives and. When you remove that temptation from the community, um, all of us involved are to ***, you know, friendly, um, concealed carry myself that's it's not anti-gun, it's anti-gun violence and really trying to promote an anti-gun violence and anti-violence overall, um, Dale's program is put down the guns, pick up the gloves, you know, it's not just, oh hey, there's this ideological idea that hey criminals are gonna turn in guns that does. Happen, it's the community that steps up and turns the guns, and those are the real heroes. Yeah, um, I mentioned the event in September. Tell me, uh, the date and the time, and we can put up that information, uh, showing where it's gonna take place. Yeah, so September 13th, um, at 10 a.m. till 2 p.m. and this will be at church, Greater New Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church. Appreciates pastor opening up congregation supporting it. Um, and it's really again, no questions asked, swing by, drop them off. We're happy to participate and have you participate and if they like they can get *** gift card as well, yeah, yeah, very good, uh, and then this is the gift cards are coming in from organizations and businesses around. Well, and we've made, we've received donations over the years and part of the process is if there's *** *** gun that comes in. That is in good shape in good condition. It goes out to an FFL and if somebody is approved to buy it through the FFL process normal process, those funds come back into our program and we continue doing it. That's excellent. That's excellent. Well, thank you very much and uh good luck and we'll keep monitoring uh the efforts. Well that does it for the program today. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Curtis Fuller. I'll see you next time for another edition of Let's Talkensi. Until then, have *** good day and *** better day tomorrow.