Working Together So That No One Goes Without Healthcare

My position title at CommunityHealth is Community Outreach and Education Coordinator. That means I focus on two completely different areas. The first is educating our patients and the community about various health conditions, how to prevent them, and how to manage them. I teach several classes such as diabetes, diabetes prevention, healthy cooking, nutrition, heart health, and much more. This is obviously important because if people do not know how to manage their condition, their health will decline. It is definitely rewarding seeing patients set goals for their health, stick to them, and actually improve their health as a result.

The second part of my position is outreach. What does that mean? Who am I reaching out to? Outreach at CommunityHealth means getting the word out about the clinic. I focus on which neighborhoods in Chicago have a high uninsured population, and then I find organizations, schools, and community groups, that are located in those neighborhoods. Once I have an idea of what resources exist and who the leaders are, I contact them and see if they are willing to meet with me so I can talk to them about the services that are offered at the clinic. Sometimes the organizations do not respond, and sometimes I meet with them but nothing substantial comes out of it; however, sometimes I meet with an organization, and they are so excited about what CommunityHealth offers, that  they invite me to events like health fairs or to present to their staff.

One example of a successful outreach connection is with an organization called Enlace that is based in the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago's southwest side. I contacted Enlace and they invited me to present at one of their monthly health promoter meetings. After I presented, I was able to get on the Enlace emailing list, and now I get invitations to various events in Little Village where I can go and speak to community members about services. Aside from the invitations, a group of the health promoters came to tour the clinic so that they could get a sense of what they will be telling the community about. Because of this, they were also able to meet with the Clinic Operations Manager and the Patient Services Coordinator in charge of new patient registration, so that Enlace's promoters are able to give community members the application and other documents they need to fill out to become a new patient. They are also able to reserve an appointment to see a doctor on the same day that they register. This is a big deal because it reduces the amount of trips to the clinic that new patients have to make in order to become a patient!

These outreach efforts are so important because most of the patients tell us that they heard about CommunityHealth through word-of-mouth, so reaching as many organizations and community leaders as possible is vital for people to know about the clinic and get the services they need. According to the Chicago Reporter,'Even if every eligible uninsured person in Illinois is enrolled [in insurance], there will still be more than a quarter-million uninsured Illinoisans. That's because undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid or subsidies, putting health insurance out of reach for an estimated 260,000 people in Illinois." By doing outreach at CommunityHealth, I am able to make a little dent in whether or not those 260,000 people know that they have an option for healthcare.

This blog post was written by NHC Chicago 2016-17 member Genesis Rios.

Genesis is the Community Outreach and Education Coordinator at CommunityHealth.