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| by Andy
Evangelista First appeared 28 October 1998 Hard-Covered Treat If you're not around this weekend to drop a Snickers in a kid's Halloween bag -- and even if you are -- here's a future and simple treat idea that would have a better effect than an aching tooth or stomach: books.
A goal of the SFGHMC program is to send home with each child, six months to five years, a culturally and age-appropriate new book after her or his routine check-up at the clinic. "Each child will end up with 10 books, and in most cases (at SFGHMC), that's 10 more books than that child would have had," said Shannon Thyme, a UCSF chief resident in pediatrics. Studies of inner city children, she said, show that those who read regularly or are read to have a 40% higher rate of participation in "preferred" activities -- less television watching, playing more sports, for example. Thyme is part of a UCSF study looking at the effect of the reading program on children at SFGHMC. With more than 12,000 well child visits a year alone, the clinic -- which hands out used books to sick children and siblings of all ages, too -- can always use more books. But ROAR is more than giving away books. Physicians and nurse practitioners at the clinic educate parents about the importance of books and reading as part of preventive health care. The clinic also uses volunteers in the pediatric waiting room to read to children. To volunteer or donate to the program at SFGHMC, call 206-8193. For those on Parnassus, save the books and the time. At the pediatric clinics at the Lucile Packard Children's Health Services at UCSF, the ROAR program to collect books and encourage volunteers to read will be kicked off in mid-November in conjunction with National Children's Book Week. For more information, call UCSF nurse practitioner Liz San Luis, 476-2711. It's Like Studying for a Mid-Term There are a several "health" issues among the Nov. 3 state ballot measures alone. Election literature contains arguments about everything from the health of "fur-bearing or non-game mammals" (Prop. 4) and horses (Prop. 6) to casino funds that support Native American medical services (Prop. 5), air quality (Prop. 7), cigarette taxes and childhood development (Prop. 10), and the health of the buildings at our public schools (Prop. 1A). Well, the last one may be stretching the health angle just a bit, but it is an important measure to schools, from kindergartens to graduate school. See previous Daybreak story on UC/UCSF impact. We urge readers not to wait until the last minute to study local and state measures before voting. Daybreak later this week will link readers to voter information sites, including "Smart Voter" of the League of Women's Voters. A Post-Holiday Gift An update for those whose pages of their campus phone
book are barely hanging on, even with the duct tape: the Telecommunications and
Administrative Computing offices are busily gathering information for the new UCSF
directory. January -- yes, 1999 -- is still the target date for the new publication. Like
the previous directories, the new one will include departmental addresses and numbers in
the gray pages -- the campus version of the yellow pages -- as well as the individual
listings. Telecommunications and Administrative Computing will be asking the campus for
assistance (watch for details in Daybreak) to help make sure gray page listings are up to
date. The plan is to also include a section Reporting Isn't Brain Surgery Frances Conley, who protested gender discrimination at Stanford medical school and recently published "Walking Out on Boys Will Be Boys," told the following story at her talk in Cole Hall Tuesday. In 1971, the first year the Bay to Breakers was open to women, she finished first in the women's field. The first two questions from reporters were: Are you married? And where do you live? The papers the next day reported "a Palo Alto housewife won the Bay to Breakers." No mention of the fact that she was a neurosurgeon. Those Pranky College Kids So, some UC Berkeley students apparently kidnapped the Stanford mascot's "Tree" costume. No truth to the rumor that people here at one time were interested in the "Tree" to stand with UCSF's Bufano bear (which some believe is our mascot) on Parnassus, symbolizing the UCSF-Stanford partnership in health care. Idea nixed, because we didn't want people asking "does a UCSF bear sit in the woods?" Just kidding, folks. Readers: If you have any items or suggestions for this column, send us an email: andye@itsa.ucsf.edu. |
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The two-year-old Reach Out And
Read (ROAR) program at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center, for example, can
always use children's books -- new or used ones still in good shape. A main target of ROAR
are pre-school children, as studies show that early exposure to books through sharing and
reading aloud are important factors in preventing illiteracy and other problems later.
Children in poor households, however, don't always get those benefits.