A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the ACHI conference in Atlanta, Georgia, where over 600 individuals who are passionate about community health convened to discuss hot topics and hear what’s on the horizon for population health. I know not everyone had the opportunity to attend, so I wanted to share some of my highlights. Conversations centered around the social determinants of health, hospitals as anchor institutions, and the need for hospital-community partnerships. It’s a hot year for CHNAs, so the PRC team had the opportunity to connect with hundreds of attendees as we passed out some fun PRC swag.
Bruce and I also had the honor of attending a presentation done by one of our Chicago clients, Saint Anthony Hospital, “Engaged Solutions to Address Socio-Emotional Needs.” Jim Sifuentes and Arturo Carrillo, LCSW, PhD spoke about how Saint Anthony’s is making an impact on mental health in their community—without a huge budget. My biggest takeaway from their presentation was that stigma was not what their target community (mostly Hispanic and African Americans) reported as being the barrier from seeking behavioral healthcare services. This contradicts what most scholarly works present! Instead, they reported their barrier as being access to care in some form, which the hospital believes they can, and are currently working to, address and combat.
In addition, PRC’s Omaha clients, Children’s Hospital and Medical Center and Building Health Futures showcased their work at the poster sessions. Their poster highlighted how their collaborative incorporated community provided input into a data-driven method for identifying priorities. On April 25th, their team will describe their experience during a PRC live webcast. This 30 minute session will describe the experience and show attendees how to incorporate similar approaches in their own organization. You can sign up here to listen live (or if you can’t make it, receive the recording).
The PRC team loved connecting with our clients face-to-face, so thanks to all who stopped by! For those who didn’t make the conference this year, be sure and consider adding it to your budget for next year. It’s exhausting, but simultaneously so energizing! And on behalf of Bruce, Lesley, Rachel and myself thank you to all our partners in the community health field! We love seeing and hearing about our clients’ community health work, so never hesitate to reach out and brag—we’d love to feature you on PRC’s media!
By: Jana Distefano Associate Director, Community Health
Let PRC inform, inspire and guide your community health process.