PRESS RELEASE: Health Care Access Now adds three new Care Coordination Partners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Care Coordination is central to Health Care Access Now (HCAN)’s mission. HCAN works with Care Coordination partners in the region to help serve vulnerable clients in the Cincinnati region. The All-In Cincinnati Coalition, the Greater Cincinnati Native American Coalition, and the Great Miami Valley YMCA have just recently joined the team.

• The All-In Cincinnati Coalition is community-led and focused on amplifying efforts to bring about equity and systemic change.
• The Greater Cincinnati Native American Coalition works to educate the public, thereby eliminating stereotypes associated with Native Americans and their cultures.
• The Great Miami Valley YMCA provides programs to build healthy people inside and out.
• HCAN currently works with 10 Care Coordination partners in the region. Working with these partners allows HCAN to reach a larger population of clients. Each of these new partners will employ Community Health Workers (CHWs) for the first time.

HCAN’s goal is to ensure health equity for all people in the Cincinnati region. CHWs are instrumental in achieving that goal because they work individually with low-income community members to remove barriers (such as lack of transportation or suitable housing) to good health outcomes.

Health Care Access Now (HCAN) collaborates with Care Coordination partners to fulfill its mission of achieving health equity in the greater Cincinnati region. Longtime partners, such as The City of Cincinnati Department of Health and Talbert House, hire Community Health Workers (CHWs) to go into the field and work with community members facing barriers to good health outcomes. These obstacles could include lack of health insurance or transportation, exposure to interpersonal violence, lack of nutritious food, and many other social determinants of health. HCAN’s partners’ CHWs use the Pathways Community Hub model as a framework to identify obstacles and provide education and resources to help clients move past them. HCAN serves as the Hub director for the region.

Now, three new organizations have joined HCAN’s network of Care Coordination partners and have hired CHWs for the first time. Those organizations are The All-In Cincinnati Coalition, the Greater Cincinnati Native American Coalition, and the Great Miami Valley YMCA. This brings HCAN’s total number of Care Coordination partners to 10.

“Whenever we add a new Care Coordination partner, it means that more residents who might ordinarily slip through the cracks will begin to be able to access quality health care, have healthy babies, and manage chronic diseases,” says Sarah Mills, CEO of HCAN.

HCAN runs a training certification program for CHWs, as well as employing them for its two Care Coordination programs: Adult and Maternal and Child. Through CHWs’ intervention and encouragement, low-income, minority, and otherwise vulnerable people make life changes and access resources to improve their health, as well as their quality of life.

“We all must work together to effect change and improve health equity in our region,” Mills says. “These three new partners bring us closer to that goal.”

HCAN is pleased to be able to add these three organizations to their ranks of Care Coordination partners and hope more people in the community will be reached and helped as a result.