NIH Funded Scientists Put Socioeconomic Data on Map

NIH Funded Scientists Put Socioeconomic Data on Map

The Neighborhood Atlas, a new tool to help researchers visualize socioeconomic data at the community level is now available. This online platform allows for easily ranking and mapping neighborhoods according to socioeconomic disadvantage. Seeing a neighborhood’s socioeconomic measures, such as income, education, employment and housing quality, may provide clues to the effects of those factors on overall health, and could inform health resources policy and social interventions. 

To view the tool, please click here.

Read More

Why Boston Medical Center is Investing in Housing

Why Boston Medical Center is Investing in Housing

BMC’s housing investment is tied to a renovation of its campus in the South End. The state requires that 5 percent of the cost of a hospital expansion be reinvested in community health. BMC chose to spend the money on housing. The initiative also includes $1 million to help families fight evictions, $1 million to create a housing stabilization program for people with complex medical issues, and $1 million to support a grocery store at a development in Roxbury.

Simón Rios | June 27, 2018

This piece appears in the Common Health Newsletter of WBUR

Read More

California's Healthy Places Index

California's Healthy Places Index

The California Healthy Places Index (HPI) is a powerful new tool, developed by the Public Health Alliance of Southern California (Alliance) in partnership with the Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center on Society and Health, that can be used to explore and change those community conditions that predict life expectancy. The purpose of the HPI is to prioritize public and private investments, resources and programs.

The California Healthy Places Index tool can be found here.

Read More

Empowering Health Through Dignity and Trust

Empowering Health Through Dignity and Trust

Community food club and a comprehensive produce prescription program prove that food insecurity and diet-related disease can be overcome through programs that empower and enable healthy choices. See this case study from Health Care Without Harm on Spectrum Health and their community benefit work in Michigan.

This piece appears in Health Care Without Harm's Delivering Community Benefit: Healthy Food Playbook

Read More

Early Childhood is Critical to Health Equity

Early Childhood is Critical to Health Equity

"The first few years of life set us on paths toward - or away from -  health and well-being in childhood and as adults. Experiences in early childhood - defined here as the first five years of life - are therefore critical to having a fair chance to be healthy across the lifespan." The second report in a series on health equity from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), this report explores conditions in early childhood that shape health throughout life, how we can set all children on a path toward lifelong health, the business case for investing in early childhood, and a call to action. 

Read the full report from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation here.

Read More

Raising Places Building Child Centered Communities

Raising Places Building Child Centered Communities

“The environments where children grow up have immense impact on their health and wellness. And places where children can thrive are places where all of us want to be. What do child-centered communities look like? And how might we work together to create more of them in America?”

Raising Places explored these questions in six diverse U.S. communities. This report is a synthesis of the trends, insights and lessons they've learned.

Read More

California Hospital Association - Resources on Economic Stability/Community Partnerships

California Hospital Association - Resources on Economic Stability/Community Partnerships

Recognizing the connection between people’s finances (income, cost of living and socioeconomic status) and their health, California’s hospitals have developed innovative community-based programs and activities that address key issues such as poverty, food insecurity, housing instability and homelessness, vocational training, and employment and income.

This piece appears on California Hospital Association’s Promoting Healthy Communities page.

Read More

A Health Equity and Value Framework for Action: Delivery and Payment Transformation Policy Options to Reduce Health Disparities

A Health Equity and Value Framework for Action: Delivery and Payment Transformation Policy Options to Reduce Health Disparities

This policy options paper represents a collaborative effort among state and national health equity thought leaders to catalyze much needed action to leverage health system transformation for the benefit of those whom the health system is leaving behind. Ensuring that those facing the biggest barriers to good health and high-quality health care are served well by the health care system will improve care for everyone. 

Sinsi Hernández-Cancio, Ellen Albritton, Eliot Fishman, Sophia Tripoli, Andrea Callow | June 2018

This piece appears in Families USA: The voice for Health Care Consumers

Read More

Untangling the Complex Issue of Health Equity in Michigan

Untangling the Complex Issue of Health Equity in Michigan

"Imagine this: Your child has tested positive for lead poisoning, so you request a city inspection of your home. At the same time, you receive an eviction notice. You follow up with the city to find out when the lead inspection will occur so you can use it to fight your eviction notice, but the city has canceled the inspection because of your eviction. In the same week, you have your second child, who will grow up in transitional housing after your eviction." This article is part of State of Health, a new series examining health disparities, how they affect Michigan's children and seniors, and the innovative solutions being developed to address them.

Sarah Rigg | June 21, 2018

This piece appears in Second Wave Michigan

Read More

Charting a Course for Social Determinants of Health

Charting a Course for Social Determinants of Health

Healthcare systems are talking about moving upstream. The Upstream Strategy Compass can help them get there. The Upstream Strategy CompassTM from HealthBegins, for example, uses levels of prevention (i.e. primary, secondary, and tertiary) and levels of intervention (i.e. individual, organizational, community) to help healthcare systems and their community partners understand local needs as well as the opportunities to improve specific social determinants of health for priority patient populations.2 

Rishi Manchanda 

This piece appears in the Practical Playbook Blog

Read More