good morning. this is "ws 4 your sunday." good morning. i'm pat lawsonmuse. at some point in our lives most of us will need to go to the hospital. there areany to choose from i the washington region. one of them is part of t doctor's community health system, medical and surgical services in prince george's and anne arundel county. it offers an array of services many may not know about. ining us rightw are paul grenaldo, executive vice presidentnd coo of doctors community hospital, robin webb williams is vice president at doctors community hospital foundation. also joining thus morning is sasha sherwood, registered nurse who is also thes doct mobile

health clinic nurse practitioner. welcome, everybody. >> thank you. >> some of our viewers may have heard of the hospital in lanham ,ut your services go way beyond lanham, don't th paul? >> yes, they ve. we .mbulatory clinics all throughout the county. tell us about the health te s >> well, it'sp incumbent us not to just be in one facility to provide and improve the at health of the residents of the county, so we've made an effort to expand our offering and partnering with different physicians and clinics throughout the countyo make sure that the coverage is there an we can create medical homes for folks and improve their stus. >> robin, you're servicing residents in prince george's and anne arundel counties n. prince george's what would you say are

orthe top three four primary issues that you at doctors and all of you are having to address at support services? are they the same issues plaguing the african-american community? >> i would think so but on a much larger scale. there are issues concerning card i cardiac, cancer, and women who don't want to get their mammograms. we had a focus roup where was determined that regardless of the economic status wom just were not getting a mammogram, and we provide a free service for that. the other issues are diabetes a and, i would say, being overweight. >> sasha, you're the nurse and actually you run the hospital's wellness on wheels mobile health clinic. now this travels from one side

of the county to t other. > we do health screenings, medication review, medication refills and go over education and labs or anything patients have issues with i go over with them and we meet them where they are in the community. >> and you travel, as i said, from one side of the county to the other. >> we go from laurel to camp springs. we go to senior, cente shopping centers. we also go to apartment complexes. we do health events, health fairs. >> you run the whole gamut. >> your emergency rooms are urgent care and primary care providers, is it a matter of re-educating people about what's out there? ost of the residents do ha access to some clinics and cang o a hospital or to a doctor

and get screen and get checked before they reach the critical stage. ny still choose to go to the hospital when things get bad. >> and that's exactly the situati that weexperience in prince george's county and across the country. it's convenient. emergency rooms are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, of all the different diagnostic tests, the most complex are available ifpe theon has a serious issue they can into ately be taken surgical or admitted to the hospital for a higher level of care. and people havebecome accustomed to that. it's part of our job a what sasha is doing in the community making connections for folks. p she'sviding education and part of that education is how do we find a physician or care provider for you that's close to hope? and we make those connections for folks. that's having a positive impacto

becauseve seen emergency room visits have declined somewhat but now they're starting to pick back up because of the recent change in coverage. some folks who had coverage have opted out because of the deductibles. we still see our role as not just sitting there a being passive but aggressive to say we're going to get out in the community and connect with you where you live. >> all right. we're going to continue our talk with doctors cmunity health system and tell you about more of the services they provide right after we take a break.

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the specialists form a treatment plan together. we were looking for a cancer team that would help us decide the best course of action. we h many tools at. e so this is what attracted amy all the way from new york. these were people who were experts in their field. and for us that was the best choice. learn tere about our breastat cancercenter.com/philadelphia welcome back. we were talking about doctors community health system. sasha sherwood, you're an rn, you're out there on the hospital'mobile clinic. and tell us the kind of patients you're seeing. are these people coming in who have serious health issues or

who are coming in to get the basic screenings or both? >> i am a registered nurse and a nurse practitioner. i see patients who come in for chronic diseases like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes. a lot of times they don't go to their primary care doctors and don't know they have these issues. we screen these patients an they have elevated blood pressure to the point they may have a heart attack or stroke ane we have to send them to emergency room. the goodhuz is the patients who do follow up they're happy to see their results have changed. they want to work harder, do that self-care and we form a relationship with these patients. >> robin, there are many screenings and tests that they can get that are free of charge. let's go through some of those. >> sure, there's the west clinical exam but you can come for a free mammogram screening at our hospital. we provide free diabetes

screenings on the mobile clinicd and pr colo-rectal exams, re bloodure screenings. there's a myriad of programs and servicesed offe on the mobile clinic folks can have readilyss acto. it's just a matter of them getting there and we're ming to the so it's rather easy. >> you use the word community in your name and always have. how does that speak to your mission and commitment? our share with all of staff we're here to passionately care about your health. it's not about being the hospital but a health care stem, asou said, and if you're going to offer a system of care it's more than just a ilding. it's all of your einves in diagnostic equipment, in staff, and you have to deploy your people and plan and place your

offerings and your facilities in the places where people need them. that's been a major part of how we've built this community with an eye and focus on the patient's needs. >> robin, you also have support groups. tell us about those. w have support groups for just about anything you can imagine that deals with your health. we have a weight loss pport group, we have people who come in and want tomaknow how to age the diabetes. we have a program where if you your terested in managing weight and you want to exercise, we even talk about that and we talk about how you should purchase your foo in the supermarkets because that's another thing that you need to know, how touy the food that's right for you. sasha, on the van, i know you're in various europe rating every weekday and

on saturdays? >> we do saturdays. >> where is the van? where can i find it? >> you can find it, see it parked at the hospital. and then you can go on our website and see our schedule for two months. c paul,ou have a partnership. explain how thae about and who you're serving there. >> this was part of an initiative to expand our services. need there was a growing for primary care over in the hidesville area. and a ll-established, superbly run facility that's in the district had been invit by county government to expand troduce rvices and to something in prince george's county. alicia wilson, their executive director, she and i have worked together for years. when i heard they were contemplating moving to the

said , i reached out and is there a way we can do this together? we got some gannt dollars they got some grant dollars and we were successful in opening the facility that has plenty of exam rooms, x-ray, lab, and also social services s that we opened it two years ago and it's been successful. it'sery busy. >> and where is it located? >> it's across from east/west oghway across from the prince george's plaz the greenbelt metro stop. okay. all right.ot you have a to offer. so we just need to makeure folks can have access get out there and get them.u it's so easier to get yo screenings than to wind up in the e.r. thank you all so much for a great discussion about the doctors community health system and you be well. >> thank you very much. and next on "news for your

sunday, d.c. finding jobs for the disabled.

d.c. celebrated the 28th anniversary -- is about to celebrate of the americans with disabilities act. the city is offering a host of services for residents with ua intelle and developmental disabilities. some of them are new. director on disability services, senior adviser with the d.c. department of human resources, and also joining us is alderin manson, a provider relations specialist with the department on disabilities services. welcome all ofyou. andrew and keena,there's a new thing going on, a new relationship between your departments. andrew, tell us about how this came together. >> actually it came together amo

littl than a year ago. the mayor was speaking about her new initiative which is inclusive prosperity in the district of columbia, having thy prospe reach all residents including those with disabilities and at that time she turned to us and asked, i understand your work is helpingi people disabilities get employment, how well is the district government doing as ana employe what steps can we take to improve that? and from that we established a partnership with the d.c.uman resources so we could improve in our hiring ourselves of people with disabilities. >> you're doing more to bring people with disabilities into the d.c. government workforce >> yes. >> tell us some of the new strategies and tell uswhat your focus is. >> we're really excited. we hired a disability employment specialist and her focus is t increase our recruiting efforts for pele with disabilities so with e to date interacted 1,000 job seekers. we're also tracking60

applicants and have successfull1 hir persons so we have increased our outreach efforts. we're looking to do further enhancements. we conducted a mock interview ssion for consumers of the departme of services so they could practice and hone their interviewing skills with hr professionals acrosthe distric >> alderrin, you are enrolled in the aspiring professionals program. tell us what that is and how you are working with it. >> well, the aspiring professionals program is a program that is through the rehabilitative portion of dds, and itupports persons who are

living with disabilities who wish to return to the workforce. theyrovide services, resources, testing to support the idea of going into a career better than just a job. so it has been fundamental to me to sort through what i want to do. i've been rired on disability for depression for nine years. when i decided iwas time t return to work, this was an amazing program that helped me o get clarity and to build m confidence to return to the workforce. >> it gets you ready. >> ite really prepared for this journey. >> how many others have completed this program? >> thisouear was first year? it's a six-month internship program. we had 19 people who successfully completed it, and of those 19 we successfully hired 12 of them into district government jobs. >> and going through the aspiring professionals program a prerequisite for pele with disabilities to get hired for

jobs with the city government. >> no, it isn't, but it's a to get l opportunit that experience as an entry. it's an experience we actually of ter not only in district government but sometimes in the private sector as well where we will partner wi an employer and say we'll provide a paid internship for a period of time. this gives youty an opportuto see how much this individual can contribute, and it gives the rson, as alderrin was saying, a nor gentle entry into the internship. when they'veested each other at, they learn whether it's a good fitnd they can proceed withemploymen >> how is the d.c. government working with private sector employers? >> we have our disability employment specialist working for washington workshops for consumers and others to give them information on, one, how to apply for our jobs, thepp

cation process, creating a profile, and searching for jthb the district of columbia. okay. we're going to take a break and will continu our talk about the aspiring professionals program and putting people with disabilities to work. good jobs here in the district. i had been diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer. i serve in the general assembly and we work together across the aisle to get things done. and that's the way it is at ctca. what fred needed was a managent team. not just to have a long-term strategy for quantity of life, but also an active strategy for quality of life. my psa is under control. ctca gave me an opportunity to accomplish

my goals and my dreams. learn more at cancercenterom/philadelphia appointments available now.

continuing our discussion now, andrew, you are with thert dent on disability services providing jobs for the sabled population but you have a job center that will find anybody worhts, is that ri >> the department on rehabilitation services administration is part of the d.c. workforce system which includes the department of employment services, department of human services, and we're all co collocated across the city and any district resident coming in

interested in work will get the supports that they n find work. whether you are just getting into the workforce or have been out for a while, chances are a person who needs work these days may need additional training. tell us about the training that's provided by human resources. >> for district residents we have jobs skills courses that is geared toward resume writing and interviewing skills and then once they become an employee of the district hagovernment, w further learning and development opportunities and online training that is accessible 24 a hours day, seven days a week. we have career pathing so if someone comes into the government in an entry level position and they want to, say, for instance, a program assistant and they want to become a contracting officer, they can chart their career and the path to get there.

>> you were out of the workforce for a while. you're back in now. and the aspiring professionals program targe people who are aspiring professionals. what kind of jobs are we talking about? >> well, i was offered interviews for manageri jobs, which is what i had before i left. my bckground is in finance and business management so those were the kinds of positions that i sought and were offered to mei ound it ran the full gamut ofployment. it depended on what i was offered was centered, if you will, on what it was i wished to do and not after the assessments and testing provided me. >> what are the other kind of jobs people watching might be interested in applying forop or might need help getting with the d.c. government? ad people ally have place with a whole range of jobs from entry level, administrative assistants, all the way up to an

attorney who has been out related to disability and lookin get back into the workforce. >> one of the stories we've covered that i wanted to ask you all about is the plastic straw ban. as you know the city is considering banning straws like starbucks has done. to improve the environment but m it's impactedof those with physical or developmental disabilities in a different way. does the dertment on disability services have a point of view on this?en >>ally the district is supportive of sustainability initiatives, however, at the same time we need to ensure as the legislation moves forward the views of people with disabilities are thought out and people are engaged in the process so legislation recognizes their needs is what passe >> one final question for you. psychologically, how tough s it for yo to get back in?

>> well, i think, for me, it may not have been as much as one might think because i was read knew i was ready. the fear or trepidation was in not having or thinking i'd have support.urces and when i came in contact with the aspiring pprofessionalogram all of that kind of went away and i felt really i was confident, quite frankly. i tripped a little bit but i got it back together. >> that's why this partnership is so great. >> yes. it has been wonderful and we're going to continue to work ogether to increase our outreach efforts. >> all right. thank yo all three of you, fork the work you're doing and thank you for watching to sees any "n 4 your sunday" program log on to nbcwashington.com and click on coy. i'm pat lawson muse. thanks for joining us and we'll see you next week. still nervous about finding a new apartment?

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storic amounts of rain fall in some areas that may only get wse as the storm goes on a high-speed chase and then a deadly standoff. we'll tell you how this crime spree came to an end. >> and an emotional end to a little girl who was just eating ice cream. the search for her killer. it. good morning to you,er'm david cu