POTSDAM -- Since 2013, SUNY Potsdam community health students have been venturing out to the homes of people with chronic illnesses as part of a collaborative effort with Canton-Potsdam Hospital to help high-risk patients set health goals and help maintain a healthy lifestyle.

After graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in community health in 2016, Demeter is now pursuing a master’s degree in community health.

She now oversees six undergraduate students working as health coaches for clients throughout St. Lawrence County.

This semester, Demeter’s students have been making weekly visits to the homes of people with chronic conditions, giving them guidance and support as they deal with issues like diabetes and hypertension.

“Health coaches can go into the home and make sure patients are taking their hypertension medicine, make sure they’re getting some exercise throughout the day to help with their high blood pressure…The goal is to try to keep these patients out of the hospital. So, the hospital assigns patients who are more at risk, or that they see more often for their chronic diseases. A health coach comes in and tries to help them manage their life, to keep them out of the healthcare setting,” Demeter said in a news release from the school.

She cruised through high school as part of an accelerated program, finishing in three years and starting at SUNY Potsdam when most of her classmates were still seniors in high school.

“I graduated early, so I was only 17 years old and I didn’t want to venture too far from home. I’ve lived rurally my whole life,” she said in the release. “Growing up around here, I saw the disparities we have in the rural health area. There are some patients that just need a little bit of extra help—not being in a hospital setting—so the health coaches program helps the students and helps the clients work together to form goals to better each other.”

In addition to Demeter’s graduate assistantship with the health coach program, she is doing an internship with the St. Lawrence County Office for the Aging (OFA), where she has been seeing firsthand how people navigate the healthcare system. In addition to writing articles and recipes for the OFA newsletter, “Mature Living,” Demeter has been able to attend meetings with Nancy Green, the county’s health insurance, as Green provides counseling to older adults about Medicare benefits.

Next semester she will be doing an internship with the Cornell Cooperative Extension, as well as continuing her work for the Office of the Aging by conducting interviews for a needs assessment project on the aging population in St. Lawrence County. She anticipates graduating with her master’s degree in community health on May 19, her 23rd birthday.