John Muir Health Progress Report 2006/2007 - (Page 12) Building a He alt hier Communi t y Linda Slotnick Senior Resource Specialist John Muir Community Health Alliance - Senior Services As a regional, not-for-profit healthcare organization, John Muir Health is deeply committed to improving the health of all the communities we serve, in a variety of ways. Our outreach efforts are wide, and seek to bring the resources of a worldclass medical provider to uninsured and underinsured individuals in Contra Costa County and surrounding areas. Our philosophy as we pursue this goal is to form effective partnerships with other community-based organizations, combining our core competencies in medical care with other groups’ skills in neighborhood organizing, local outreach, service delivery, and more. Our mobile health clinic – which served more than 4,500 patients in 2006 – is a collaboration with the Contra Costa County Health Services Department. Similarly, our mobile dental clinic is a combined effort between John Muir Health, La Clinica de la Raza, Ronald McDonald House Charities, and Brookside Community Health Center. The Monument Community Partnership, which John Muir Health co-founded in 1999, is another powerful collaboration serving lower income neighborhoods. Community leaders in the Monument district of Concord set the Partnership’s agenda and manage its programs – including health education projects and a free shuttle service to health care facilities – while John Muir Health and other agencies provide resources. Our Caring Hands Caregiver program matches local volunteers with frail isolated or disabled seniors who need assistance. Volunteers accompany patients to medical appointments, provide friendship, and can provide short breaks for primary caregivers. Our Senior Services Department provides health education, free blood pressure and memory screenings, and a Geriatric Care Coordination program that helps patients and their families make decisions about appropriate assisted living options. In addition to these partnerships, John Muir Health contributes more than $1 million annually to the John Muir/Mt. Diablo Community Health Fund. The Fund makes direct grants to community-based organizations that are working at the root of issues to expand access to quality healthcare and promote health education and wellness. In keeping the John Muir Health’s community focus, the Fund is active primarily in East and Central Contra Costa County. In all our community health efforts, we will continue to focus on populations that show disparities in health outcomes. By actively seeking individuals facing language barriers, financial pressures, mobility restrictions, and/or isolation, we can help John Muir Health have a positive impact not only on our core patients, but on a broad crosssection of the large and diverse communities we serve. The John Muir Community Health Alliance helps our communities achieve optimal health through education and outreach. The Community Health Alliance’s Senior Services department serves older adults and their families with programs ranging from grief support to geriatric care coordination. Linda Slotnick’s specialty in Senior Services is resource counseling. But Linda does more than just navigate confusing paperwork. She’s an advocate for her clients’ health. “It’s no secret that a lot of people – working people, as well as the elderly – can have significant shortfalls in their coverage,” Linda says. “And a lot of these people face a stark choice between paying for food and paying for medicine. So at John Muir Health, we make a concerted effort to help low income or uninsured/ underinsured seniors in our community avoid that dilemma.” 12
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