WorldCafe: HEALTH & WELLNESS

WC: HEALTH & WELLNESS

Participants:

Rudi Simko

Su-Shen Huang

Dane Barrager

Cynthia Barrager

EXCERPT: Next Steps

· Compile directory of health care resources ~ Su-Shen Huang & Cynthia Barrager

· Gather information from the County Board of Health ~ Rudi Simko & Dane Barrager

· Organize workshops ~ Su-Shen Huang

CHAS’S NOTE: I continue to be impressed by the detail and thoughtfulness of your responses to the questions posed. And to the next steps you framed for yourselves at the end, I suggest you add finding allies who can help you with the research and planning you propose. But of course, other priorities may occur to you.

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COMPLETE NOTES

1. $8/gal, short-supply gasoline… Negative impacts? ….Opportunities?

Negative Impact

· Reduced transportation results in reduced access

• Limited provider transportation
• Limited patient transportation
• Limited transport of medication and medical devices

· Current geographic concentration of services (mostly centered around Mission Hospital) also limits access.

· No existing mechanism for allocating/rationing limited resources. For example, how to choose between transporting food and transporting medicine.

· No existing mechanism for prioritizing which health care services are most critical or what geographic areas have the greatest need.

Opportunities

· Decentralize health care – pull resources into communities/neighborhoods. Perhaps at schools, churches, etc.
Results: tighter community ties, moves us toward wholeness of health and life

· Because the easy way (I’ll take a pill to fix my problem) becomes inaccessible, people take more responsibility for their health (I will fix myself).
Results: Improved lifestyles, self reliance, focus on prevention (meditation, yoga, breath work, de-stress), use of natural healing/home remedies/energy healing, shift in values/consciousness, providers become more aware of what and how to better serve patients

2. Proactive actions and priorities

Actions

· Information sharing between health care professionals and community at all levels…individual>family>neighborhood>community

· Educate about more holistic approaches

· Decentralize services – community clinics

· Doctors make house calls.

· More nurse practitioners, physician assistants

· Move away from specialists toward general practitioners as a partner to the patient who is responsible for themselves.

· Look at the health characteristics of the community and strategize how to meet the needs with a new strategy and services.

· Focus on prevention

· More utilization of alternative medical resources - Herbal schools, acupuncture schools, etc.

· Map demographics of community needs. For example, retirement homes such at the Vanderbilt Apts downtown and low-income neighborhoods need nearby health care.

· Visiting nurses

· Transportation plan needs to coordinate the needs. For example, how to choose between transporting food and transporting medicine when there’s not the ability to do all needed of both.

· Education by experts to lay people.

· Identify and make available local herbal remedies

· Promote local production of natural remedies

Priorities

· Education on how to be healthy – how to use herbal and other natural remedies

· Use Internet to distribute knowledge

· Remote health care – by computer, “Skype” clinics

· Medical database

3. What do we need to learn/acquire to support preparedness?

· Analyze medical needs of the community.

· Analyze medical services available.

· Create a “Community Map” that superimposes medical needs and their severity with population density and medical resource availability.

• Identify gaps based on the Community Map.
• Set priorities for limited resources based on the Community Map.

· 100% Internet access.

• For electronic medical record keeping
• For educating people on managing their own health

· Identify locations/access points for distributed health screening and care - Schools, YWCA, churches.

· Enlist help from drug stores in whatever new form they take. (Retail world will change dramatically.)

· Collaborate with Food workgroup to promote healthy lifestyles. Urban agriculture/community gardens.

· On line directory of alternative health care providers. Wellness and health care.

· Have the services go to the people/patients rather than people having to go to the service. Health/wellness workshops in the community.

· Train more nurse practitioners, physician assistants. Doctors are in limited supply.

4. Indicators of success…1 yr…5 yr…Next steps

Indicators at one year

· On-line directory of health and wellness services completed. (Mission Hospital may have info on alternative medical care resources.)

· “Community Map” completed

· Gaps between needs and resources identified

· Benchmark of current health status (prenatal care, obesity, diabetes, etc.) – Buncombe County is required by law to complete a health assessment every 5 years.

· Specific projects to undertake identified in cooperation with the County Board of Health

· Work with Tran. Ashe. Food, Transportation, and Water work group.

· Design a new system for delivery and payment of services to support our outcomes and achieve our indicators.

· Organize workshops.

Indicators at five years

· Compare current health status to year-one benchmark.

· Year-one gaps filled.

· Internet

• Number of people with access
• Number of hits per site.
• Per federal health care reform, medical database to be complete in 2014

· Based on Community Map and resulting priorities, have neighborhood health services in place.

• Number of screening sites and number of screenings.
• Children getting screenings.

· Increase in number of practicing PAs.

Next Steps

· Compile directory of health care resources ~ Su-Shen Huang & Cynthia Barrager

· Gather information from the County Board of Health ~ Rudi Simko & Dane Barrager

· Organize workshops ~ Su-Shen Huang