As a community health worker (CHW) at the South Side Pediatric Asthma Center, Jenay Plummer works directly with patients to address their health care needs. As an Englewood native and the mother of a child with asthma, Plummer brings her own lived experience to South Side families facing one of Chicago’s most persistent and well documented health disparities.
“I feel like I’m a bridge between families and health care providers, and I take that seriously because I know what these families are going through. I have asthma and so do other people in my family so I understand how important it is to be there for these patients.”
While about 10 percent of children in Illinois have asthma, the percentage is two to three times higher for children on the Chicago’s South Side. These higher rates are due, in part, to higher concentrations of air pollution — as noted in the City of Chicago’s 2020 Air Quality and Health Report — and less access to regular healthcare and standardized asthma education.
Plummer and her fellow CHWs at the South Side Pediatric Asthma Center — a partnership of health care organizations led by UChicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital — connect with families who get care in the Comer emergency department or partner organizations, helping them understand asthma and empowering them to manage their children’s health. Funding from AbbVie allowed for the hiring of additional CHWs at UChicago Medicine.
“In our training, we learn medical lingo, so we’re kind of bilingual — we can talk with physicians and then talk with families in layman’s terms. We make the physician’s job easier by making that connection.”
The team helps patients navigate complex government and health care systems and connects patients to resources like caregiver assistance, transportation, food assistance programs, and housing programs.
“I try to be relatable and I try to remind patients, ‘I’m just like you, I come from where you come from, and my goal is to help you,’” says Plummer. She checks in with the 51 families in her caseload at least once a month; her tasks include making doctor’s appointments, getting prescriptions refilled, and giving lessons in medication use.
Plummer shows families how to eliminate asthma triggers, and delivers the supplies they need to do so. “We talk about cleaning with vinegar and baking soda,” rather than heavily scented products, she says, “and using items like mattress protectors and rodent traps in the home.” In addition, she connects families with resources like child care, healthy food, transportation, health insurance, and more.
Seeing kids’ health improve is a major reward of her job, Plummer says. “When a child has been on a controller medication but not taking it properly, we’ll set a goal to take that med every day for the next month,” she says. “After that happens for a few weeks and the mom says they haven’t had to use the rescue inhaler, we talk about how you really do see results from keeping up with that medication.”
“This job is totally in line with my goal to do something rewarding and make an impact in my community,” Plummer says. “That’s my hometown — I know what it’s like to be from here and understand that struggle.”
