Team of firefighters, school nurses take to the road to help Olathe families in need

The sudden shift to distance learning in light of the pandemic has left many families adrift without their usual resources. The Olathe School District and Olathe Fire Department have been trying to right that ship with the Mobile Integrated Healthcare for Students Unit.

The fire department already operates a mobile health unit serving the general community of Olathe, but this one paired firefighter Chris Curtis, fire resource coordinator for the district, with a group of volunteer school nurses.

Initially, they planned to check in on students who the schools know have health conditions and offer health advice. They started by contacting families who hadn’t been in contact with the school district since the lockdown to make sure they were OK.

What they found was that families didn’t need health advice as much as they needed help getting connected with community resources.

“We’re aware this is a stressful situation,” said Sharon Morris, director of health services for the district. “We have families in distress. Many receive meals and resources through the school district.”

Many people who haven’t had prior contact with food banks and other community services are now unemployed or furloughed. The team is giving these families the information they need and in some cases helping them get signed up with the food pantry and even picking up their first box of food.

Now that the school year is officially over, they’re not making daily calls and are instead operating on an on-call basis.

But during the school year, five days a week Curtis and nurses such as Ravenwood Elementary School nurse Margaret Snead made calls in the mornings. In the afternoon, they made house calls to those they weren’t able to contact by phone.

At a house call, they started by introducing themselves.

“People are usually confused as to why there’s a nurse and a fire department worker there,” she said.

Snead said she and four other school nurses took turns being on duty throughout the week. Curtis worked every day and was the consistent point of contact for everyone.

“I feel like we’ve been really helpful to those who need assistance and don’t necessarily know where all the resources are. A few families don’t have internet or phone. How are they supposed to get what they need if they don’t have that?” Snead said.

Although it’s not exactly medical help, Snead considers the service “a great use of our time.”

Because the school nurses are registered nurses and cannot prescribe medication or officially diagnose illnesses, when they did encounter someone needing more involved medical assistance, they referred those people to the other mobile unit, which has a nurse practitioner as part of its staff.

The unit collaborated with teachers, principals, counselors and other district employees to find out which families might need help.

In addition to sharing resources like the food pantries, the unit has also made sure families can connect technologically with distance learning.

Without school being in session in-person the last few months, Snead has missed the students.

“I think the most challenging part (of the unit) is when we can’t get ahold of somebody, and they’re not home, and it’s a family you really want to get in contact with,” she said.

“(This work) kind of fills a void, but it’s sad because I haven’t seen a lot of my own students.”

Morris said the team has contacted more than 200 families.

“We’re just seeing a lot of emotional distress, a lot of fear,” Morris said.

“A lot of times, just the contact and the care this team brings means a lot and helps families that feel isolated not feel that they’re isolated as much and cared for by the community.”

This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 5:52 PM with the headline "Team of firefighters, school nurses take to the road to help Olathe families in need."