Authority Health Pediatrics resident promotes healthy relationships with children

By Dennis Archambault

When Dr. Sherry Li was young, she was healthy and didn’t visit a pediatrician often. However, she developed a mild, persistent cough while playing. She was prescribed an inhaler to help with her breathing, but wasn’t taught how to use it.  She grew out of coughing and wheezing but developed a passion for children’s health.

While in her pediatrics residency training at Authority Health, she became involved with PEACH (Pediatricians Educating and Advocating for Children’s Health), a group of pediatrics residents at Children’s Hospital of Michigan who provide volunteer community health education services. She initially provided science and medicine-based activities at a summer camp sponsored by Brilliant Cities at a home/community center located in the Fitzgerald neighborhood of Detroit. Dr. Li enjoyed working with the children in a neighborhood setting and offered to make it an ongoing volunteer commitment. She implemented science and art-based activities to cultivate learning for children as her time allowed. She also organized “teddy bear clinics” for residents to teach children about medical care through the use of teddy bears.

“The children would bring stuffed animals. They would learn about listening to the heart and lungs and how to bandage wounds,” she says. Also, the children learn about vaccination through care for their stuffed animals. The residents also incorporate physical activity and healthy eating into their discussions.

Dr. Li, who was raised in Metropolitan Detroit, says not having a relationship with a pediatrician has made her more sensitive to promoting that among children she meets in the community. “I was fortunately a very healthy child. My parents didn’t think I needed to go to a doctor.”  At the same time, she never learned how to use an inhaler, which is something a pediatrician would do while monitoring the child’s ability to function physically.

Volunteering with children has provided “Dr. Sherry,” as children know her, “great joy.”

“I have always had some capacity for working with children. It doesn’t have to be in a medical format. I just enjoy working with them… My hope is that volunteerism will always be part of my personal life.”

Meanwhile, there’s one more step in her training. Dr. Li will soon begin an allergy/immunology fellowship at University Hospital in Cleveland. After that, she is considering establishing her pediatrics practice in the Metro Detroit area, and a teddy bear clinic.

Dennis Archambault is the VP of Public Affairs for Authority Health