Healthy Home Studies Set To Begin Next Week
August 15, 2017 at 4:59 p.m.
Fort Wayne nursing students will help study health and safety conditions in homes in Warsaw and Kosciusko County for at least a year beginning next week.
The work is being coordinated in part by the Warsaw Housing Authority.
“We are a rural community, and we have some people in this community that make more money than in other communities, so it makes our area median income higher, which takes points off grants we get. So for the past two years I’ve researched and this year I’ve put it together – and in cities like Indianapolis and Detroit, they’re doing what’s called these Healthy Home Studies,” Housing Opportunities of Warsaw Executive Director Pam Kennedy told the city council Aug. 7.
She said WHA has signed a contract with Purdue University Fort Wayne to use the entire graduating nursing program for community nursing to come over for a year, possibly two years to assess homes.
Kennedy explained the study during her annual request to city council for funding for 2018. She only requested $7,000 to help fund the assessment program.
Ten nursing students in five teams of two will start doing the Healthy Home assessments Aug. 23. Professors will tag along as they can. They will be looking for lead, lead paint, radon, allergens, combustion products, insects, rodents, pesticides and asbestos. They also will be looking at conditions related to the elderly such as falling and tripping hazards.
“Because years ago we found out that homes caused health issues ... now, instead of taking the approach of, that we need to fix up houses because they look pretty, this assessment will tell us – instead of Detroit or Indianapolis or the federal government telling us what our issues are – we will know what our issues are compared to others, and we’ll be able to go after grants,” Kennedy said.
During the course of the study, the nurses will do an assessment of homes in the city and county. Warsaw Code Enforcement Inspector Dana Hewitt, representatives from the county Health Department and Kennedy will do some of the training. Everyone doing the assessments will carry credentials.
The study is going to be City of Warsaw versus Kosciusko County so separate statistics for each can be compiled. “Because there could be water issues out in the county whereas we’re on a (public) water system here (in the city),” Kennedy said.
Every house in the study will be tested for radon because Kosciusko County is in one of the highest radon districts in the state, she said. Other tests will look at water quality, while a carbon monoxide detector will be hung in each home that the nursing students visit.
“If there’s children, there will be an extra special assessment. If there’s elderly people, there will be another assesment to see if they need aging in place things done like grab bars or ramps, different kind of stairs or whatever,” Kennedy said.
The university professors will publish the results in a paper so it will be “really core material and mean something,” Kennedy said. “It’s not like my staff went door to door and asked these questions. It will be scientific information according to people,” she said.
The information also will be presented by the university research department to the medical profession here so they know what issues are in homes in the county.
Monday afternoon, Kennedy said, “We’ll be doing presentations on the findings in conjunction with the Kosciusko County Health Department and the city Building and Planning and Code Enforcement Department.”
“The other thing is, the students are going to be responsible as another group comes in to come up with solutions,” Kennedy said. Each student has to pick a problem they found and come up with a solution.
“We are excited to be able to put this together and we believe then in 2018 and 2019 it will give us a head start for some of the housing grants because we will have identified exactly what we need and what type of grant that we need here and what problems we’re going to solve,” she said.
Anyone interested in having their home be a part of the study can call 574-269-7641, ext. 103, to sign up.
“People spend 70 percent of their time in their home so it’s important to be aware if your home is causing you problems,” she said. “We hope this will help cut down on health bills for people.”
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Fort Wayne nursing students will help study health and safety conditions in homes in Warsaw and Kosciusko County for at least a year beginning next week.
The work is being coordinated in part by the Warsaw Housing Authority.
“We are a rural community, and we have some people in this community that make more money than in other communities, so it makes our area median income higher, which takes points off grants we get. So for the past two years I’ve researched and this year I’ve put it together – and in cities like Indianapolis and Detroit, they’re doing what’s called these Healthy Home Studies,” Housing Opportunities of Warsaw Executive Director Pam Kennedy told the city council Aug. 7.
She said WHA has signed a contract with Purdue University Fort Wayne to use the entire graduating nursing program for community nursing to come over for a year, possibly two years to assess homes.
Kennedy explained the study during her annual request to city council for funding for 2018. She only requested $7,000 to help fund the assessment program.
Ten nursing students in five teams of two will start doing the Healthy Home assessments Aug. 23. Professors will tag along as they can. They will be looking for lead, lead paint, radon, allergens, combustion products, insects, rodents, pesticides and asbestos. They also will be looking at conditions related to the elderly such as falling and tripping hazards.
“Because years ago we found out that homes caused health issues ... now, instead of taking the approach of, that we need to fix up houses because they look pretty, this assessment will tell us – instead of Detroit or Indianapolis or the federal government telling us what our issues are – we will know what our issues are compared to others, and we’ll be able to go after grants,” Kennedy said.
During the course of the study, the nurses will do an assessment of homes in the city and county. Warsaw Code Enforcement Inspector Dana Hewitt, representatives from the county Health Department and Kennedy will do some of the training. Everyone doing the assessments will carry credentials.
The study is going to be City of Warsaw versus Kosciusko County so separate statistics for each can be compiled. “Because there could be water issues out in the county whereas we’re on a (public) water system here (in the city),” Kennedy said.
Every house in the study will be tested for radon because Kosciusko County is in one of the highest radon districts in the state, she said. Other tests will look at water quality, while a carbon monoxide detector will be hung in each home that the nursing students visit.
“If there’s children, there will be an extra special assessment. If there’s elderly people, there will be another assesment to see if they need aging in place things done like grab bars or ramps, different kind of stairs or whatever,” Kennedy said.
The university professors will publish the results in a paper so it will be “really core material and mean something,” Kennedy said. “It’s not like my staff went door to door and asked these questions. It will be scientific information according to people,” she said.
The information also will be presented by the university research department to the medical profession here so they know what issues are in homes in the county.
Monday afternoon, Kennedy said, “We’ll be doing presentations on the findings in conjunction with the Kosciusko County Health Department and the city Building and Planning and Code Enforcement Department.”
“The other thing is, the students are going to be responsible as another group comes in to come up with solutions,” Kennedy said. Each student has to pick a problem they found and come up with a solution.
“We are excited to be able to put this together and we believe then in 2018 and 2019 it will give us a head start for some of the housing grants because we will have identified exactly what we need and what type of grant that we need here and what problems we’re going to solve,” she said.
Anyone interested in having their home be a part of the study can call 574-269-7641, ext. 103, to sign up.
“People spend 70 percent of their time in their home so it’s important to be aware if your home is causing you problems,” she said. “We hope this will help cut down on health bills for people.”