By Jamie Cetrone | Categories: | Comments Off on Lincoln-West School of Science & Health
MetroHealth leadership wanted to develop a program that would help local high school students realize a more promising future. In September 2016, the Lincoln-West School of Science & Health opened within MetroHealth Medical Center. With deep immersion in the MetroHealth community, including exposure to a wide variety of careers in the health system and health care industry at large, the goals of the school are to mentor students and prepare them for post-secondary and career opportunities.
Students come from throughout the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, and the program is managed by a MetroHealth employee. In addition to core classes, students have a health industry-specific curriculum that includes community health, empathy, exercise, leadership, medical simulations, and ethics. Freshmen are on-boarded through monthly field trip experiences and sophomores are matched with mentors in areas of interest. Juniors participate in a scholar-employee shadow program and seniors are hired as unpaid interns in various departments throughout MetroHealth.
Per their specific interests, students are matched with hospital employees who are mentors, so they can see firsthand what a career in their interest area entails. Students can be matched with doctors, flight nurses, accountants, food service workers, development staff, strategy teams, any of the hundreds of jobs in a health system.
There has not been a graduating class yet because this is only the second year of the school. It is anticipated that with the smaller class sizes, devoted teachers, and hospital employees who volunteer as mentors and tutors, students will receive the support and encouragement they need to flourish.
By Jamie Cetrone | Categories: | Comments Off on Harbor Place
Champlain Housing Trust (CHT) created Harbor Place, a motel that provides temporary housing and wrap-around case management services to adults, in the Fall of 2013 to address a significant increase in homelessness in Vermont and to establish a more sensible approach to addressing a housing crisis. CHT had two main goals in mind when developing Harbor Place: reduce the cost of emergency housing and get better outcomes for people in crisis. Realizing that people who are inadequately housed require significant health care resources, The UVM Medical Center provided funding to Harbor Place so that patients experiencing homelessness would have somewhere to go upon their discharge from the hospital.
The UVM Medical Center’s Case Management & Social Work department purchases bed nights at Harbor place so patients can be discharged there when they leave the hospital. The Community Health Centers of Burlington provide medical and onsite case management services, as does Howard Center. The Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity provides management of the case management at Harbor Place and provides direct support staffing. Other community partners and support include:
Vermont Agency of Human Services/DCF: The State’s DCF administers the program that funds motel vouchers and agreed to a long-term contract guaranteeing 30 out of 55 rooms at Harbor Place. The State also helped fund an operating reserve.
Fanny Allen Foundation: contributed a $25,000 grant towards an operating reserve.
Vermont Community Loan Fund: made a $1.7 million loan to finance the purchase of the motel.
Vermont Housing & Conservation Board: provided $265,000 for the acquisition and rehabilitation of the property.
United Way of Northwest Vermont: provided $50,000 in funding towards the operating reserve.
Howard Center: provides onsite mental health and substance abuse counseling services to residents of Harbor Place.
Women Helping Battered Women: provides onsite support and counseling .
Community Health Centers of Burlington: provides case management and medical services.
Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity: provides overall management of the case management at Harbor Place, as well as providing direct support staffing.
Since Harbor Place’s program inception in 2013, the Medical Center has paid for a total of 1,720 nights for 153 patients through 2016 (approximately $51,600). To measure Harbor Place’s impact on patient cost of care, UVM compared utilization and direct costs for a group of 147 patients, both three months prior to and three months after their stay at Harbor Place. The evaluation included inpatient and emergency department encounters. For this group, there was a 73% reduction in direct cost in the three months following their stay at Harbor Place compared to the three months prior.
By Jamie Cetrone | Categories: | Comments Off on TECH/TEACH
The TECH and TEACH programs at Broadlawns Medical Center were developed to provide education, training and awareness for career opportunities that exist in health care. Specifically, the TECH and TEACH programs identify candidates who are at-risk or from the underserved neighboring communities. TECH and TEACH are paid training and education programs, and participants complete the program having earned a CNA degree.
TECH and TEACH are programs for Training and Educating for a Career in Healthcare. TECH is geared for high school students, and TEACH is geared for adults. Both programs provide mentoring, professional development and training for healthcare positions ie: technicians, phlebotomists and patient access representatives. By drawing participants from underserved, neighboring communities, Broadlawns is committed to educating and employing the individuals from the neighborhoods that have the highest concentrations of unemployment and poverty.
The TECH and TEACH programs are a product of cross-department work, including administration, human resources, marketing, the hospital foundation, community outreach, physicians, and nursing staff. Broadlawns has also involved numerous external organizations in the development of the TECH and TEACH programs. Urban Dreams and iJAG have assisted greatly in identifying candidates for participation in the program. United Way of Central Iowa has provided some financial support for the TEACH initiative. Other community partners include Signature Healthcare, Des Moines Public Schools, Wesley Life, Creative Visions, Evelyn K. Davis Center, the Department of Human Services, and the Polk County Health Department.
The first group of TECH students completed their training in April 2017. Seven of the ten TECH high school students were hired by Broadlawns upon completion of the training program.
By Jamie Cetrone | Categories: | Comments Off on Healthy Youth Transitions
Memorial Healthcare System in Hollywood Florida started the Healthy Youth Transitions (HYT) Program 7 years ago as a result of an investigation of the child welfare system which identified gaps in services when youth unsuccessfully transitioned to adulthood with little support, skills or preparation. HYT helps youth and young adults age 15 to 22 who are aging out of foster care make the transition to independent living.
The program structure is provided by Memorial Life Coaches, who develop rapport and engage youth in an open, honest professional relationship in order to assist them with successful transition to an acceptable, responsible, productive adulthood. Typically, the youth distrust the very systems they have relied on as they have been disappointed frequently by foster care agency staff turnover, lack of services, frequent group home relocations (several youth served have been in over 20 homes in the 10-12 years they have been in foster care) and being separated with the siblings. By building a safe and nurturing relationship, HYT youth being to realize that the Memorial staff are here to help them grow, mature and develop into the adults they desire to become but did not have the role models or consistent caring adults in their lives. The Life Coach aims to help each participant gain skills and self-sufficiency to navigate the logistics of daily living, health management, social relationships, education, employment and money management, and other aspects of young adulthood.
All of Memorial Healthcare System’s Community programs and initiatives are rooted in collaborative partnerships that work to strengthen families and communities. HYT involves internal collaboration, with partnership from the primary care, specialty services, and behavioral health departments. External community partners include local universities, food banks, legal service providers, and the sheriff’s office.
Current outcome measures of the program found that 96% of the females have had no new pregnancies, 98% of all youth have had no new law violations, 98% demonstrated proficiency in employability and/or job retention skills, 86% made progress in school, were promoted, graduated, or obtained a GED, and 89% have obtained stable housing.
