Westside Family Healthcare offers a new book to promote childhood literacy
Delaware Public Media | By Macayla Cook
Published July 24, 2024 at 6:22 PM EDT
Westside Family Healthcare releases a children’s book to encourage childhood literacy.
Captain Westside and the Health Heroes: Caring for Delaware’s Families! was unveiled at Wilmington Public Library Wednesday.
It tells the story of a girl named Carmen going to the doctor’s office and learning about the forms of care doctors provide, from routine check-ups to dental care to mental health maintenance.
Westside President and CEO Chris Fraser says improving childhood literacy through children’s books is another way Westside promotes the health of its clients.
“The importance of helping families with not just health literacy to understand what we’re talking about, but just the value of what education means for people and families,” Fraser said. “We know what that means for them for their whole life, but also for their health care, so we have lots of doctors who are really interested in, ‘how do we connect kids with books?’ and those types of things.”
Westside plans to initially distribute 6,000 books through the National Reach Out and Read Program, which provides books to children as a part of their routine check-ups.
Many characters in the book are based on real people associated with the clinic, including Captain Westside herself, who was inspired by retired Westside President and CEO Lolita Lopez.
“I’ve had many accolades being retired, from my retirement, but this gift is just amazing,” Lopez said. “I never could have dreamed of such an opportunity for my legacy to carry on, plus to be able to teach children about good health, it’s just amazing. Today is what I call a glory day.”
Lopez served as the President and CEO of Westside for 33 years before retiring in 2023.
Maggie Norris-Bent, the Chief External Affairs and Communications Officer at Westside, explains that a children’s book was an easy way to make literature accessible to the clinic’s clientele.
“There’s many things with children’s books that stand out, the visuals in particular,” Norris-Bent said. “To many of our patients, literacy, reading words on the page, is challenging. For many of our patients, English isn’t their first language. Recognizing that the pictures can tell a big story as much as the words can tell was equally important.”
By Norris-Bent’s estimate, “about 40 percent” of Westside’s patients are best served in a language other than English. As a result, Captain Westside and the Health Heroes: Caring for Delaware’s Families! is currently available in both English and Spanish versions.
Kyu Rhee, President of the National Association of Community Health Centers, also voiced his support for the book and the difference it will make, especially in low-income communities.
“Many of these communities we’re talking about are underserved,” Rhee said. “They have children that are on Medicaid, or are uninsured, or have low socioeconomic status. To me, the importance of this is about emphasizing literacy in communities that need it the most.”
Rhee also said that he thinks the book correctly emphasizes “the importance of healthcare heroes,” along with highlighting the impact of primary care and telling a story of “hope and community.”
In 2022, the Bureau of Primary Health Care found that over 30.5 million people received medical care from community health centers. This means that 1 in 11 Americans relies on places like Westside.
The Bureau also found that over 24.2 million of those patients were uninsured or on Medicaid or Medicare.
“It’s about not only what happens in an exam room between a provider or clinician, a pediatrician and a patient and a family, but what goes beyond the exam room,” Rhee said. “It’s almost like a literacy shot. So the investment we’re making, these literary vaccinations, to promote literacy and prevent illiteracy, the impact is so important.”
