Community Partners 12-11-24.mp3
2024-12-11
Transcript
0:00:01 Will Rucker: Good morning, Las Vegas, and welcome to A Healthier Tomorrow. I?m Will Rucker.
0:00:07 Ciara Owens: And I?m Ciara Owens.
0:00:08 Will Rucker: And we are so excited that you?ve tuned in for our final show of 2024.
0:00:15 Ciara Owens: Can you believe that it is truly the end of the year? Where did time go? I remember celebrating New Year?s Day.
0:00:20 Will Rucker: Yeah.
0:00:21 Ciara Owens: Just two seconds ago.
0:00:22 Will Rucker: Like, how did that happen? How did we get here?
0:00:24 Ciara Owens: Hey, time goes by so fast. They say the older we get, the faster it comes. I need to slow down just a little bit.
0:00:29 Will Rucker: Well, you know, I don?t age.
0:00:31 Ciara Owens: You are fine. Like wine, Will. You are. You are.
0:00:36 Will Rucker: Oh, my goodness. But this has been such a ride this year. But you know what? We made it.
0:00:41 Ciara Owens: We did. And we will continue to make it. Like, I?m looking forward to it.
0:00:46 Will Rucker: Yeah. And guess what? A healthier tomorrow keeps happening.
0:00:50 Ciara Owens: Yes, it really does. Will just shared with me today that we?re confirmed through 2027.
0:00:56 Will Rucker: That?s right. We got two more years, y?all. Two more years.
0:00:59 Ciara Owens: I bless you some blessings.
0:01:02 Will Rucker: We?re really excited for today?s program. As always, the Healthier Tomorrow radio program is sponsored by the Office of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the Southern Nevada health district. With 2025 just around the corner, there?s no better time than now to adopt healthier habits. Visit our [email protected] to find free classes, programs, and events to help you make 2025 your healthiest year yet.
0:01:33 Ciara Owens: Reclaiming that it definitely will be our health year yet.
0:01:36 Will Rucker: Oh, 100%.
0:01:38 Ciara Owens: All right, so we?re going to sit there and dive in today. I?m really excited when we?re taking notes about what?s going to be happening today. We have an amazing guest that is a representative of the transportation planning for our rtc. Do you mind introducing yourself, please, sir?
0:01:52 Daniel Fazekas: Everybody, my name is Daniel Fazikas. I?m a transportation planning manager at the RTC of Southern Nevada.
0:01:59 Ciara Owens: All right, what are you here talking to us about? We are so excited to have you here.
0:02:03 Daniel Fazekas: Well, first of all, thank you for having me today. This is really exciting to talk about. Although work that RTC Southern Nevada has done over the past year, when it comes to creating a healthier community. I?ll primarily talk about the work that RTC has done when it comes to people walking and people riding bikes in Southern Nevada. Obviously, we?re a car centric community. We like our vehicles, but RTC is committed to creating more options when it comes to walking and biking.
0:02:36 Daniel Fazekas: We want to Create complete streets. And we can talk more about that later. But mainly it?s creating more sidewalks and more options for safer options for everyone who uses the roadway. I?d like to talk about an updated bike map for all of Sanaveta that will be rolling out early next year. And then also talk about RTC?s bikeshare program. RTC bike share program is primarily in downtown, but I?d like to talk more about that going forward.
0:03:04 Will Rucker: Well, we will dive into all of that. So when I think of rtc, just I?m going to be transparent today. Be open and honest. I like to live my life that way. I don?t get the warm and fuzzies.
0:03:17 Ciara Owens: What you mean, will?
0:03:18 Will Rucker: Well, when I hear rtc, to me that?s like, you know, potholes and roads and just boring stuff. But what you just said gives me the warm and fuzzies. I?m excited about all of that.
0:03:29 Daniel Fazekas: Well, I know that people get annoyed at the orange cones. I understand that our snake flower. But I look at it a little differently with their jobs. But I understand the frustrations on that. But I do want to talk. We?re listening to Community too on that as well. We recognize that it?s an ongoing problem and we?re continuing to work on that. I want to talk more about the bike share program that was established back in 2017 in downtown Las Vegas.
0:03:56 Will Rucker: Let?s talk about it. Share more about the bike share program. What options does it provide? What is it?
0:04:02 Daniel Fazekas: The bike share program is a convenient transportation alternative for short term trips in and around downtown Las Vegas where users can get a bike at one of our stations. We have 30 different stations in downtown Las Vegas as well as Medical District. We just expanded into the East Las Vegas neighborhoods.
0:04:22 Will Rucker: Nice.
0:04:23 Daniel Fazekas: If somebody would like, for instance, was at the outlet mall and wanted to go get lunch in the arts district, they can get a bike at one of our locations and ride over to the arts district and come back in a relatively short period of time. It?s getting people to think outside of just getting in their vehicle. Other options, healthier options to get here and there.
0:04:49 Will Rucker: Yeah, that?s so fun. As a kid I loved riding my bike and I grew up in a different part of the world, but it was just amazing. I?d bike to the store and just enjoy days on bikes. And when I go to other cities, I still see them. So I?m so glad that they?re here. And that helps to alleviate some of those traffic issues we talk about.
0:05:08 Daniel Fazekas: Correct. Arteec launched us back in 2017 again, primarily in the Arts district in downtown. And we?ve been slowly expanding ever since. We now have 30 stations. We expanded into the Medical District in the last couple years thanks to the San Nevada Health District. They have been really instrumental as a partner when it comes to the expansion. Then this past year we expanded into the east side, courtesy of Congresswoman Dina Titus and her capturing funding for the rtc.
0:05:41 Ciara Owens: That?s an absolutely powerful thing. I know that especially during the pandemic, a lot of people were riding the bikes and really embracing it. And to increase that access to the east side, I think is extremely powerful. You credited Dina Titus for the amazing opportunity for that. How are these projects typically funded?
0:06:00 Daniel Fazekas: Outside of that, most of our expansion and promotion is through grants. Again mentioning the sunovetta Health District. They have provided that expansion into the Medical District and will continue to partner with us going forward, which is really exciting. We also use a lot of grant programs through Denotitis and additional grants through the Better Bikeshare Partnership, a national program that?s provided us funding for Learn to Ride bike clinics, which is a critical component, especially for people adults who might be nervous about bike share.
0:06:39 Daniel Fazekas: One of the things that when it comes to bike share, there?s three different levels when it comes to purchasing a bike share pass. So it?s primarily an app base. So just download the RTC bike share app online. As well as developing, we also can have bike share Learn to Ride bike clinics. And that has been really critical for getting people to understand what bike share is all about.
0:07:10 Will Rucker: I?m so excited about that. And forgive me for being way over the top about bicycling, but for me, bikes are magical. Like they?re first of all, I help you health wise, right? But it?s also just like you?re floating on air through space and time. Like it?s a cool thing.
0:07:24 Ciara Owens: To me, I would say don?t apologize for the excitement because I?m excited too. And I love that there?s opportunities and there?s chances for people to become more comfortable on the bike as you describe through the various classes and the courses. How would someone be able to get access to that in order to find out more information?
0:07:42 Daniel Fazekas: Sure. So we ran four different bike clinics this past fall and we?re going to be rolling out additional bike share clinics and just regular bike clinics in general throughout Son of Ada going forward in 2025. Go to RTC Bikeshare, RTC websites to learn more about that. One of the fun things about the bike share clinic has been seeing somebody who?s an adult that?s nervous learning how to ride a bike. It?s one of those great feelings of and our RTC bike share team, I just want to give them credit to having the patience we?ve done. Again, we did four different clinics, two at the center on Maryland Parkway and two at our new bike share location at the East Las Vegas Community Center.
0:08:30 Daniel Fazekas: And it was seeing somebody who was nervous and then within about 90 minutes is riding the bike and learning how to use the RTC bike share app and wanting to bring their friends and family to learn how to ride a bike. It?s one of those great feelings and you just want to keep doing that more and more. RTC sees this as a really great opportunity to not only bring it to all of Las Vegas, but really all of Southern Nevada. We?re looking at City of Henderson, Boulder City, Mesquite, North Las Vegas, wherever the community wants to have this.
0:09:02 Daniel Fazekas: Obviously for bike share or just regular bikes, having family come out and learn how to ride a bike for free, I want to emphasize that too. RTC will do this for free. Incentivize. You?ll get a free bike helmet. You get some bike swag, some lights, some safety equipment and even a free bike share pass as well. So look for that. It?s coming up soon and we?ll be doing that throughout 2025.
0:09:24 Ciara Owens: It?s open to all ages.
0:09:26 Daniel Fazekas: So for bike share. That?s a great question. For bike share it is 16 and over, so you have for that. But for the regular bike clinics that we?re going to do. Absolutely. Will be open to everybody, young and old.
0:09:37 Will Rucker: Free is my favorite price, just so that everyone is aware. And I?m really excited about the bike helmets because I?m also a safety guy and I think anytime you?re moving faster than the speed of walking, a bike helmet is probably a good idea there. So where can cyclists access this Southern Nevada bike map? And do you have anything that?s printed that they can get?
0:09:58 Daniel Fazekas: Sure. So over the last year we?ve worked with our cities and the county to update our RTC bike share map. Excuse me, our RTC bike map. That is a map that has been. It took us a couple of years to update because there?s so much new infrastructure when it comes to bikes. We?ve worked closely with the cities and county. It?s currently online right now on rtc. Just go to RTC website and look at the new updated map.
0:10:24 Daniel Fazekas: But we will have a more illustrative brochure that we will be rolling out. Actually Next month, every bike shop in Southern Nevada as well as community centers, parks and rec locations will have a ton of new bike share bike maps that you can share with your family.
0:10:46 Will Rucker: Awesome. Well, after the show you and I have to talk because I?ve got some needs there. Earlier you mentioned complete street and I love this because I?m also kind of an environmentalist and the more we can get people walking and biking and not polluting the air, I?m 100% for it. And complete street sounds like something that?s going to address that. Could you talk a little bit about it?
0:11:07 Daniel Fazekas: Sure. When we say complete streets, we talk about because again, Las Vegas, we?re a car centric, we?re a vehicle centric town. That?s who we are. But how do we create more options for everyone who uses the road, the person who walks, the person who bikes, the person who uses transit. How do we create safe options for that roadway? It may not have every roadway, but we were working closely with the cities and county to develop what we call a complete street. So that?s wider sidewalks, it could be bike lanes, it could be a special busway, bus lane, it could be and this is important for Las Vegas Shade.
0:11:52 Daniel Fazekas: Creating those options is really a long term goal for RTC and making sure that the community is on board with that and the cities and the county are definitely on board and building that out long term.
0:12:05 Ciara Owens: I love it. So Daniel, can you let us know how can people stay up to date on any upcoming events or anything that?s going on with RTC?s initiatives and programs?
0:12:14 Daniel Fazekas: Well, just first, the RTC Bike share team is out at First Friday so we have a booth out there. So learn more about bikeshare, Learn sign up, learn how to ride the bike and they?re a great team. They can give you then also give you information on when the new Learn to Ride bike clinics that will be coming up. But we also have a RTC is hosting an annual Tis the Season Holiday Ride Toy Drive this Saturday from 8 to 10:30am the ride departs at 8:30 from the west Cliff park and Ride on South Durango.
0:12:52 Daniel Fazekas: The ride will be a family friendly ride for about 10 miles or so round trip from the West Cliff Transit center to the NV Energy Sahara Avenue location where riders will drop off their donations to the Chep Buchanan Toy Drive. So we do that every year. We encourage riders to bring their own unwrapped gift toy, wear festive holiday gear and decorate your bike and we?ll start again. It takes about an hour And a half or so total round trip.
0:13:27 Daniel Fazekas: For more information and to register, which is really important, go to rtcsnv.com toydrive to register there.
0:13:36 Will Rucker: Awesome. And give us just that website so people can stay updated on all your initiatives and programs.
0:13:41 Daniel Fazekas: Sure. Please go to any of our social media platforms, tcsnv. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and X. Daniel, thank you so.
0:13:53 Will Rucker: Much for being here today. This was fantastic.
0:13:56 Daniel Fazekas: Thank you for having me. Happy holidays.
0:13:57 Will Rucker: Yes, Happy holidays to you as well.
0:13:59 Ciara Owens: The Healthier Tomorrow radio program is brought to you by the Office of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the Southern Nevada Health District. On behalf of our team, we want to wish you a happy and healthy holiday season. May all that is beautiful, meaningful and joyful be yours this happy holiday season and throughout the coming year.
0:14:19 Will Rucker: Yes, indeed. So we have another amazing guest in studio with us today. This amazing human is everywhere doing everything that?s good. Would you introduce yourself? Shayla.
0:14:31 Shayla Pierre: Hi. So my name is Shayla Pierre and I am the director of Equity Development and Community Engagement at Rosemond University College College of Medicine.
0:14:39 Will Rucker: You got to give us that title one more time.
0:14:43 Ciara Owens: Breath.
0:14:44 Shayla Pierre: So, Director of Equity Development and Community Engagement. So I have the fun job of working in our beautiful communities here in Southern Nevada as well as Northern Nevada. But long title to say that I get to work with this wonderful community.
0:14:58 Will Rucker: Love that. And you lead an amazing program called Genesis, which is basically community based work that addresses social determinants of health, is the way I would put it. And we?re right down the street from the Oboto Collective, which we?ve had on this show, Friends.
0:15:13 Ciara Owens: Yes, I?m stopping there afterwards today.
0:15:15 Will Rucker: Got us some red okra when they were here.
0:15:17 Shayla Pierre: Yes.
0:15:17 Will Rucker: But I mean, you?re just popping up everywhere. You?ve got these vehicles with art. That?s so cool. And I mean, you?re doing health screenings, so you know, you talk about what you?re doing. Cause I could just go on and on. Sure.
0:15:28 Shayla Pierre: Thank you so much for that. Well, I?m excited to say that we have a new medical school that is coming here to Southern Nevada.
0:15:35 Ciara Owens: Watch out.
0:15:36 Shayla Pierre: And so that is so important because as you may or may not know, we have a shortage of physicians here in Southern Nevada, both primary and specialty care. So a new med school is a step in the right direction in terms of having more family med doctors that are here. And so just to make that clear, the medical school is not open yet. But we are really at the tail end of our accreditation process, which was an arduous Process a taking up a couple years. And so our initiative, Genesis, we?re community dependent.
0:16:06 Shayla Pierre: And so the medical students, once they are here, we?re looking at fall of next year, July 21st to be exact. But who?s counting? They will be doing home visits in medically underserved communities. And so just to add some background, we did this work in South Florida. So I?ve been with the group for about 11 years now. And so we had medical students, nursing students, social work students that would go into medically underserved communities and they would do home visits every quarter.
0:16:33 Shayla Pierre: And so what I love about that approach is that it teaches the students that being a doctor is more than a white coat. There?s these other factors that you need to consider. I remember starting the work off and when we think about social determinants of health, which are the factors that impact your health, like housing and food and income, it was at 76% about 11 years ago. 76% of your health outcomes were non biological.
0:16:56 Shayla Pierre: 11 years later, we?re at 90%, according to the NIH National Institute of Health. And that number continues to go up. So Genesis is a step in the right direction in terms of addressing these social determinants. So we?re now hearing social drivers of health. And so what we do is we have a team of community health workers and navigators that in addition to when the medical students get here and nursing and pharmacy, that they?re doing the home visits. So they?re locking arms with individuals and families in our communities to assist them again to address these needs and barriers to health outcomes that they?re having.
0:17:30 Ciara Owens: This is powerful. I remember going to Cuba in 2018 and they talked about how the doctor will come to your home. And I remember how powerful that was and how it was so transformational on a few levels where it allowed them to be more preventative, it allowed them to be very proactive and just be very community based. And they knew that their doctor cared about them as much as you needed the doctor to continue to survive and thrive.
0:17:54 Ciara Owens: How does someone be able to participate in Genesis where a doctor will come inside of their home?
0:18:02 Shayla Pierre: Yeah, I love that you made that comment. Just because friends and they?re like, hey, we get it. Other parts of the world, this is what we do. Your doctor comes to see you in your home. And so it?s so important just that it?s so different for many patients or households that we?re serving if you?re in their home setting. Right. As providers, it?s so important that you have that trust with your patient because they?re going to disclose things to you. Of course, during like screenings and assessments, you?ll see things with tests. But you want to have that relationship where they can say, you know, I actually been having a hard time with like my mental health or recently in this past year, I?ve been, you know, struggling around like my gambling addiction.
0:18:42 Shayla Pierre: And so just those nuances of being in someone?s home or you may be a provider and you might be telling your patient, hey, I need you to walk three days a week. But what if they don?t feel safe in their neighborhood? So being in the home, it just kind of changed that level, you know, of like you?re not in hospital, you?re not in a clinical setting. And so it also allows the patient. Right. Our household members to feel more comfortable to share what they?re truly feeling.
0:19:05 Shayla Pierre: And so for our households that are referred to us, we work with community partners like Ubodo and other partners in the community. So nonprofit agencies, government agencies, faith based organizations that refer to. So we have an onboarding process where we?re talking to our partners about the services that we have so they can best communicate to their parishioners or clients about our work, they refer to us. So as long as they are here in Clark county and there?s a willingness to have us go inside of the home.
0:19:34 Will Rucker: I?m really excited and appreciative. So I did have a chance to visit the campus, which is, it?s wonderful. And I put on some goggles and talk a little bit about the goggles.
0:19:46 Shayla Pierre: I love that you said that. So our office, we?re with the office of Community Health Innovation. And so innovation means a lot to us. I know that can sound scary for some people, but we?re just leveraging existing technology to really drive home health education. So what will got to experience is that we have VR glasses, goggles that we bring out to community events we have on campus and we?ll educate on different health diseases so we can simulate someone through what it?s like to have diabetic routine retinopathy or other household experiences.
0:20:19 Shayla Pierre: The really cool thing about that is we added new simulations so as when the students get here before they physically go into a home, they?ll be able to do the simulation. So we walk them through different things that?ll come up that?s, you know, it may sound to someone, well, they?re just going into a household, but there?s a lot that goes into that. I have to give kudos to our household members because when you?re having a difficult time, it?s not always easy to invite someone into your space.
0:20:47 Shayla Pierre: So there?s a lot of training on ethics around cultural competency, safety, and just making sure that we address those needs.
0:20:56 Ciara Owens: That is a powerful piece. I sat on a panel last month and there were people that talked about just one of their biggest hesitations with working with doctors was the lack of empathy and the lack of understanding and time, which then made them close off and not want to continue to visit that. But that is powerful what you all are doing.
0:21:16 Shayla Pierre: And, you know, we hear people talk about that. I?ve had my own experiences with that as well, where it?s like, you know, what if my doctor, you know, I?m just thinking like a primary visit. I came in in the first minute or two, they just asked me about myself. Nothing related to the charts or anything. Just like, even maybe if they looked at the last note to say, oh, okay, last time she was here, she was starting a new job, or maybe this new thing was happening in her personal life. Just those very. Like that minute or two, it helps to break down and you just kind of feel a little comfortable because when we think about a doctor?s visit, it can feel really scary. Maybe it?s just a checkup, but maybe it?s something else. And so again, providers being able to break some of that down.
0:21:55 Shayla Pierre: And that?s the thing about, like Roseman is that we?re preparing students that are socially accountable. So something that?s different about our medical curriculum is that ethics. So medical curriculum is structured very. It?s kind of like rigid in that way. But we start with ethics and social equity, health equity very early on for the students. So they are, you know, taught around these, like, different disciplines very early.
0:22:21 Shayla Pierre: We also have a simulation which will got to experience. It?s a replica of a home on campus at our Summerlin campus. So that?s where we currently train our team of community health workers and navigators, our faculty and staff. Our team is in there right now doing a mock session. So weekly we go over themes like, okay, if you?re in a household and there?s domestic violence or immigration or a gun or, you know, this crisis, what do you do? You can have all these, like, safety measures in place, but how do you respond to that? Real time?
0:22:50 Shayla Pierre: That?s a question that we would also get often. Especially like, we did this work in South Florida, just to give you an example of scale. We had, you know, in 21, when I was moving here to Southern Nevada, start the new Medical school, we had over 3,000 members that are in our program, and we?re physically in over 1,200 homes. And along, you know, that also included outreach team, faculty, staff from nursing school, social work, as well as the medical school. So it?s a big team.
0:23:20 Shayla Pierre: And so one of the things about safety is everyone?s responsibility. And so there?s so much to that as well.
0:23:27 Will Rucker: Oh, sorry, that wasn?t for you. That was me.
0:23:29 Shayla Pierre: Okay, sorry.
0:23:30 Will Rucker: But I appreciate. I actually do want to jump in really quick because what you?re sharing, that type of scale, that impact in southern Nevada would be so huge. So let?s fast forward. You open school next July, and then, you know, what?s the program length? Four or six years.
0:23:45 Shayla Pierre: Four years.
0:23:46 Will Rucker: Four years.
0:23:46 Shayla Pierre: MD granting. So it?s MD school.
0:23:48 Will Rucker: Okay, perfect. So four years, and then let?s do four years beyond that. So they?ve been in the field for four years. So you got two classes out there. What does this look like in southern Nevada?
0:23:56 Shayla Pierre: Yeah, that?s a great question. More doctors that are staying here. Right. A big part of. You may hear people make comments about we don?t have enough doctors. Where it?s layered. Right. We need to create more graduate residence spots for them to be here. The other factors we need to consider is like, housing, education. When you have a doctor and they?re going into residency, often they?re thinking about, like, their family and all those different things. And so we need to make sure that?s why the conversation is not just healthcare. It also gets into education, other factors.
0:24:26 Ciara Owens: Right.
0:24:26 Shayla Pierre: We need to make sure that we have that. But the vision that we see is more primary care doctors here that are local.
0:24:33 Will Rucker: I love that. And what does that mean for our community? So we have more doctors, but what does that mean?
0:24:38 Shayla Pierre: Yeah, so that means more access to healthcare in terms of we see, you know, primary appointments rather than folks waiting, patients having to wait three to four months sooner appointment dates so that they?ll be able to be seen more specialists. Right. Not just. I mentioned primary care, but more OBGYN and PEDs and neurosurgeons, and hopefully we?re in the very, very near future of a freestanding children?s hospital here as well.
0:25:11 Shayla Pierre: And so we see just a greater access to healthcare here in southern Nevada.
0:25:15 Will Rucker: Wow. So you just got me excited about that too, because the hospital will be where your folks are going. And that timeline is so close. Our time here just goes so fast, Ciara.
0:25:26 Ciara Owens: Every single time. And I?m so excited about both of our guests today that I just want to keep learning more.
0:25:31 Will Rucker: Absolutely. But this is how we?re going to close out the year with these two fantastic guests. Thank you, Daniel. Thank you, Shay, for being here and sharing this information for our community. As always, we want to remind you that you are not just a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop. And what you do matters. So live compassionately. This has been a healthier tomorrow. I?m Will Rucker.
0:25:55 Ciara Owens: And I?m Ciara Owens.
0:25:56 Will Rucker: We?ll see you in the new year.
0:25:58 Ciara Owens: See y?all.
