In the campaign for community awareness, hospitals may be most aggressive in the area of women`s health issues.
According to Bill Erwin of the American Hospital Assocation, Chicago, 19 percent of hospitals reported operating women`s centers in 1990, up from 17.9 percent in 1989 and 12.9 percent in 1988.
”I think this is an acknowledgment of how important women are in making health-care decisions for their family,” Erwin said. ”Hospitals are trying to build the trust of the woman in the family in hopes they can steer the rest of the family to the same hospital.”
To better serve the needs of women patients, Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn opened a free-standing women`s center in Tinley Park.
”This is a definite movement around the country and particularly in health care over the past 20 years,” said director Terry Guymon. ”We are seeing an emphasis on fitness and wellness in women`s health. It`s a response to research and medical advances.”
She agrees such a center is motivated in part by the fact that women make most of the health-care decisions for their families. In addition, women make up the majority of those in attendance at the seminars and programs offered.
”We found that the way to get to the family is through the woman,”
Guymon said, estimating that 90 percent of women make their family`s health-care decisions.
And increasingly women are making up the majority of the population.
”Women 45 years and older make up 32 percent of the population and those 50 years and older are the fastest growing population group,” she notes.
As a result of this research, their center focuses on women`s issues including many non-traditional topics such as enhancing self-esteem and handling stress, pre-menstrual syndrome, osteoporosis and menopause.
”We deal with many psycho-social topics and with the differences between male and female communications and many self-esteem issues,” Guymon said.
”Women always look for things on self-improvement so we give them ways to enhance their skills.”
The hospital, in conjunction with the Crisis Center for South Suburbia, Tinley Park, also will launch a preventative program in January, a domestic violence advocacy program. The Crisis Center, which shelters victims of domestic violence, will train 10 volunteers to be on call by beeper if an emergency room doctor or nurse suspects domestic violence. The volunteer will help determine if intervention is needed, provide a referral to a shelter or provide any other information.
At Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, women`s issues are a focus of their center for Women`s Wellness located in the basement of the hospital grounds.
”Women juggle so much between being parents, working and caring for aging parents,” said director Joan Murphy. ”We try to offer them a reprieve from the stress of the everyday.”
Clients can participate in a variety of workshops, including a weekend retreat in February at the Oak Lawn Hilton, schedule a massage at the center or participate in a hypnosis session. In addition, there are from 12 to 14 classes scheduled each month focusing on topics such as women and anger, heart disease prevention and breast cancer detection.
”We`ve had a tremendous response,” Murphy said. ”We now have 4,000 women on our mailing list who have at one time or another participated in our programs.”
Programs at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey result from surveys returned to Vicky Dragutinovich, program coordinator of women`s and children`s health.
”We don`t just do the topics we think (should be done), we do a survey of women in the South Side,” Dragutinovich said. ”We`ve found that stress is always on the top, along with exercise and nutrition.”
There have been waiting lists for many of their events, she said.
”I think it`s because we ask them what they want to hear about,” she said. ”I think in the `90s women are more health conscious. We do a lot of preventive maintenance here.”
