Print Issue: October 17, 2002

Classes For Hispanic Families Stress Family Values

By Rebecca Rakoczy, Staff Writer

ATLANTA - It's Tuesday mid-morning at Mercy Care North Clinic and more than a dozen mothers bring their young children to the program entitled, Mejorando Su Famili. While the program is taught in Spanish, its fundamentals are basic to every family - learning about the normal stages of childhood growth and development, as well as learning about how to effectively discipline a child without abuse.

Fatima Padilla of Mexico, right, holds her seven-month-old daughter April as Cecilia Galvis, family health promotion manager for St. Joseph's Mercy Care Services, goes over some materials with her during a parenting class for young mothers at the Mercy Health Care Clinic, Atlanta. (Photo by Michael Alexander)

On Wednesdays, prenatal education is in full swing in the same classroom, as parents-to-be learn about maintaining a healthy pregnancy and how to access good prenatal care. The 13-week program covers different topics each meeting, from development of the child in the womb, to how to eat healthy during pregnancy, to how to care for a newborn. Friday nights bring parents and adolescents to"Principios, Valores, en Familia," - otherwise known as Principles and Values of the Family. With an emphasis on how to better communicate with their teenaged children, as well as how to teach abstinence to their teens, the program always has a waiting list, said Cecilia Galvis, Mercy Care North family health promotions manager. The abstinence education is important: Statewide, Hispanics have one of the highest incidences of teen pregnancy, Galvis said.

For 13 years, such classes were run at Our Lady of Americas in Doraville, she said. Now in Northeast Plaza, off of Buford Highway, the new storefront clinic, run by St. Joseph's Mercy Care Services, is situated near the International Village on Buford Highway, where street signs display flags of Latin American, Asian and African countries.

The clinic is both a general medicine and pediatric clinic where doctors and nurse practitioners see patients, as well as a community classroom. Medicare and Medicaid are accepted for medical services, but the classes are free.

Participants come to classes through word of mouth, or through referrals from their doctors or Catholic Social Services, or through the local health centers in DeKalb County, she said. There is a follow through for a year for new parents who enroll in the prenatal classes.

Among the other classes held at the center is one geared toward domestic violence prevention. It is aimed at abused women and their abusers. "The men come because they have been ordered by the court to reduce violent behavior; the women come to learn how to seek the appropriate support and services if they continue to be abused," she said. The program is part of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council for abused women, Galvis said.

Those seeking the clinic's services are mainly Mexican, although some come from Colombia and a few are from Vietnam, said Galvis.

The popularity of all the classes underscores the need for more of them, she said.

"We need the involvement of Hispanic business leaders to help us duplicate these programs in other places," said Galvis.

The clinic is an offshoot of the Mercy Mobile services and the Sisters of Mercy, who began the program in 1984 as a volunteer project to serve the homeless in downtown Atlanta. Mercy Care Services is dedicated to serving Atlanta's medically underserved populations through clinical care, health education and social services.