UH to launch health program for Third Ward

The University of Houston's HEALTH Research Institute will get a $2 million grant to help prevent and treat obesity and Type 2 diabetes in the city's Third Ward, a place that can often slip through the health care cracks.

The program, being announced Wednesday and scheduled to launch later this spring, is expected to reach 5,000 residents in the next three years, program organizers said. It is being funded by a grant from United Health Foundation, the nonprofit charitable arm of UnitedHealth Group, the insurance giant's parent company.

The university's HEALTH institute - the acronym stands for Helping Everyone Achieve a Lifetime of Health - was created last year to study public health disparities especially within Houston's poor and under-served neighborhoods.

Nearly one in three adults in Texas is obese, according to the 2016 America's Health Rankings, an annual state-by-state assessment provided in a partnership with the United Health Foundation and the American Public Health Association.

In addition, the assessment found more than 11 percent of adult Texans have diabetes.

The new program is designed to take education and treatment out into the Third Ward rather than expecting residents to come to a clinic or class outside their neighborhood, said Ezemenari Obasi, director of the HEALTH institute.

"The focus is to think about how do we prevent and how do we treat those who already have it," he said.

The idea is to first establish a community advisory group to forge trust with residents.

Once that is accomplished, a series of health fairs will be held at community centers and churches, Obasi said. The fairs will offer lessons on how to live and eat healthier and screenings to catch and track those who may already suffer from the conditions.

It is especially important to gain a connection that is true to a neighborhood's culture, Obasi said. For instance, residents will be encouraged to swap fatty pork in their cooking with leaner turkey. Even the most sedentary will be nudged into light exercise.

Obasi said the key will be to win over people by allowing familiar faces to do the counseling "instead of the university saying, 'We think this is best.' "

Jacqueline Robinson, a 62-year-old resident at Cuney Homes, a Houston housing project in the Third Ward, likes the idea of health care coming to her instead of the other way around. She wonders if such an arrangement could have staved off her diabetes before the disease took hold.

Two years ago she was warned she was at risk. While her brother and late father suffered from the disease and her aunt died from it, she admits she was in denial. She would skip breakfast, which would throw her blood sugar into a tailspin: "Because of my eating habits, it brought it to full-blown diabetes."

Currently she gets checkups at a clinic miles from her home. Although she has transportation, many of her neighbors do not.

"They will be right here," she said, pleased that someone will be keeping a close eye on her. "If you want a life, I have to learn how to manage what I eat, what I don't eat and my exercise."

Obasi is hopeful the program eventually can be replicated in other parts of the city.