Health Centers and Social Media

Posted on April 24, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

by Siobahn Kinney, Program Coordinator for Social Media

As the Association for Connecticut’s community health centers, our job is to provide a range of services to the health centers so that they can better serve their patients. We provide training, technical assistance, needs assessments, grant management and more. My job, as the Social Media Coordinator, is not only to coordinate CHCACT’s social media efforts, but also to advocate for our member centers using social media.

Community health centers often don’t have a lot of time to devote to social media. After all, it can be quite an involved task: figuring out what information to share, finding and posting the right pictures, putting together video clips, everyday monitoring and maintenance, and so on. But at the same time, community health centers do so much in their communities. Their stories and experiences need to be told.

A health center is an important part of its community.

For example, during last year’s National Health Center Week, I met a man whose life would be drastically different if it weren’t for the help of the community health center. He was a patient with many health concerns, and he counted on the community health center to be there for him. Not only did they provide him with basic health care services, but the providers and staff truly cared about his well-being. In speaking to him, I discovered that community health centers are more than just doctors’ offices. They are essential parts of their communities.

With the ever-present threat of budget cuts, it becomes even more important to advocate for these community health centers and the patients they serve. This is part of the reason why social media is so important. Social media helps to increase the volume of the community health centers’ voices. It helps community health centers tell their stories—through not just words, but photo and video as well – and to a larger and more diverse audience than they might have otherwise. While social media isn’t the end-all, be-all of community health center advocacy, it is an essential tool for these centers to widen their reach: not just reaching out to patients, but to potential advocates and to policymakers as well.

CT's Largest Community Health Care Alliance is on social media!

Many of our member community health centers are on Facebook. Please take the time to like them and show your support for the important, amazing work they do every day! And make sure you like CHCACT on Facebook and follow us on Twitter! Want to get more involved? Take part in the #HCSMCT tweetchats every Monday @ 3:00 PM EST along with us and several other healthcare advocates in Connecticut.

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Posted in Community Health Care Alliance, FQHCs

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Veggies for Teeth

Posted on April 3, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

by Kathleen Henley, Program Support Coordinator at CHCACT

I would never have really considered myself to be a huge promoter of oral hygiene. I have always brushed my teeth at least twice a day, eaten foods that are good for teeth (apples, broccoli, celery, water, etc.), and gone to the dentist annually. Yet, I was never really worried about my oral hygiene or thought it had much of an impact on my overall health. I had friends that would brush after every meal, never had a speck of food in their braces, and constantly fretted about anything tooth-related. Not me!

I was lucky. In my house, you can’t go to sleep until you’ve brushed your teeth. It is unheard of, actually, to even leave the premises without brushing your teeth first. It was ingrained in my brain from the very beginning that oral health was important. My parents were not as fortunate when they were growing up and they are dealing with the impact in their older years. I was also lucky because I was never really a huge fan of soda or super sugary things.

Free dental care at CT Mission of Mercy 2012.

Many people, especially those that are uninsured and underserved, are not as lucky. Without insurance, annual visits to the dentist are not possible. What about braces? Forget about it. A toothbrush and toothpaste might even be out of the question. Dental care can be expensive – so for many people it isn’t an option. Thankfully there are clinics like the Connecticut Mission of Mercy that provide thousands of people with free dental care. And of course many community health centers, including those here in Connecticut, provide oral health care to the ininsured and underinsured as well. Continue reading →

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Posted in Oral Health

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Health: The Whole Picture

Posted on March 20, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

This is a guest post from Karla Lindquist, a Community HealthCorps member currently serving at StayWell Health Center in Waterbury, CT. Here, Karla writes about the members’ first service project for AmeriCorps Week 2012.

Health has always been a central issue to human existence. Even before humankind was cognizant of health as a concept, present was the awareness of wellness. As our society advances and our understanding of health expands, we must evaluate what health truly means.

Quintel, Kislene, Karla, Kate, Mavis, Yuki & Dave

Community HealthCorps members are burdened and blessed with the responsibility of constantly experiencing the ever-changing field of health care. We update databases of diabetic patients, educate children on oral health, and register patients for appointments. We do a great many things, but sometimes our perspective on health becomes skewed. The first project of AmeriCorps Week 2012 may have helped our Community HealthCorps members to reevaluate this concept.

Dave and his sweet new ride.

As our CHCACT Community HealthCorps members arrive at the Sabolcik property on a cold but sunny March morning, they know they are going to participate in something different. The property is a former farm, ceded to the Town of New Hartford after the death of its owner. Trash, old vehicles, and non-native invasive plant species abound on this property, making it unfit for public use. The New Hartford Land Trust would like to change that, and on this day the Community HealthCorps members are helping with this goal. We spend the day exploring the property, pruning Autumn Olive, pulling up Barberry, and being pricked by thorns. Members laugh and help each other as many experience something completely foreign. By the end of the day we are all tired, cold, but satisfied with our work.

At first glance it may seem as though this project was totally incongruous with the mission to improve health. However, this is not so. For too long our society has viewed health as a narrow, specific concept, relegated to doctor’s offices and laboratories where scientists develop allopathic drugs.

Karla at the New Hartford cleanup.

Health is something that relates to everything we do, buy, eat, and touch. By removing non-native invasive species from this property we were attempting to restore ecological balance to this small part of the world. By doing so native plants can thrive, resulting in clean air, clean water, a place for community members to (eventually) enjoy walks, and food for animals and humans alike. By exerting ourselves physically, our members were improving their health, toning their muscles and burning calories. By laughing and sharing new experiences we helped to elevate our moods and improve our mental health. The benefits are numerous and sometimes impossible to articulate.

Let’s make investments in our futures. Let’s all strive to be stronger, more balanced individuals. Let’s be kinder to each other and our planet. Let’s identify every opportunity as one to improve our wellness. Let’s change how we think about health.

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Posted in Community HealthCorps, Patient-Centered Medical Home

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What Does Health Justice Sound Like?

Posted on March 7, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

by Siobahn Kinney, Program Coordinator for Social Media

Here at the Community Health Center Association of Connecticut, we deal a lot with the issue of health justice. To us, health justice means that the people have a voice. Health justice means that what patients want from their health care is heard and listened to. And, most importantly, health justice means that those least likely to be heard–the uninsured and underinsured, and those in underserved communities–have an equal say in their health care.

Make no mistake: community health centers provide accessible, quality care to these individuals on a daily basis. The health center mission is an admirable and truly necessary one. Community health centers do so much with so little–and pretty soon, it may be even less. With the ever-present threat of budget cuts, health centers’ services are often in a precarious situation.

This is why it’s so important to listen to the voices of those who need the health centers most. These patients would suffer great injustice if CHCs were to close, or even if they had to reduce their services due to budget cuts.

To showcase how important the health centers are to their communities, CHCACT wants to talk to the patients whose voices are least likely to be heard. We want to find out what health justice sounds like.

We’ve applied for a $10,000 grant from Health Justice CT and we are now finalists in the competition! The public now gets to vote to ultimately decide the winner.

Our proposal is to implement a text messaging campaign in which patients will share what they want from their health care and from health care reform. Community health center patients will text their thoughts and opinions to us, and we’ll compile their responses into an interactive webpage that will present a feed of patient responses. The webpage can then be shared not only with the general public, but with health center providers and boards of directors and with legislators and policy-makers. We’ll also be doing interviews with some patients who respond to get even more in-depth feedback into how they feel about their care. This campaign will help us answer our question while at the same time ensuring that community health center patients’ voices are heard by all.

Help us win this grant! We’re counting on your vote to be able to implement our plan. You can vote for us once per day until March 16.


Cast Your Vote Here!

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Posted in FQHCs

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Addressing the Proposed Health Care 1115 Waiver

Posted on February 28, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

This is a guest post from Katherine Yacavone, President/CEO of Southwest Community Health Center in Bridgeport, CT. This was originally submitted as a letter to the editor for the New Haven Register. Kathy’s letter discusses the proposed 1115 Waiver, which would have numerous negative consequences for the state and its citizens.

I represent the Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) on the Medical Assistance Program Oversight.

Kathy Yacavone and the Board of Directors for Southwest Community Health Center

I am writing to you to express my concern as to the impact of the proposed Waiver upon the current 73,915 Medicaid Low Income Adults (MLIA) and upon the FQHCs that provide the majority of the medical, dental and behavioral health services to the population (formerly SAGA enrollees). I thought your readers should be aware of this critical issue that will directly impact them and the state taxes they pay.
Continue reading →

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Posted in Medicaid, Patient-Centered Medical Home

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