Working in collaborative partnership to improve the health of our communities is one of the most important lessons we can impart to the students we’re educating.
Our on-the-ground work to understand and advocate for the needs of our communities is making an impact — and creating change. We’re building relationships and earning trust. We’re listening to the voices of the people we want to serve. We’re learning from their knowledge and experience. Together, we’re taking concrete actions and tailoring interventions to confront the disparities that harm our collective health and well-being.
RFU students are seeing how their patients suffer from lack of access. That creates a heightened awareness of the many forces — economic, social, environmental — that affect the health of people and their communities. It also ignites a passion for change and a search for solutions.
This issue of Helix tells some of the unfolding stories of our health equity work, which includes confronting upstream barriers to health.
When our students and faculty in the Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine recognized that travel to our health clinics was a barrier for referred, uninsured podiatric patients, they sought and received funding from the Dr. Scholl Foundation to expand services to the Lake County Health Department (LCHD). Life- and limb-saving podiatric care is now integrated into healthcare visits through our podiatric medical clinic at LCHD. The clinic offers evening and weekend hours and medical interpretation for Spanish speakers, addressing two more barriers to care.
Our Michael Reese Foundation Center for Health Equity Research and our Interprofessional Community Clinic (ICC) are collaborating to study the feasibility of addressing food insecurity — a risk factor for type 2 diabetes — as an integral part of diabetes-related health care. They’re asking how we might begin to address upstream determinants of health during healthcare visits. That’s action and impact. That’s change that ripples out. That’s the resilience and the compassion of community.
We are grateful for the many collaborative partnerships that are the lynchpin of our community health work. Working together, we’re growing and sustaining our collective commitment to expand access to prevention and care.
RFU will continue to join forces to advocate for the resources our communities need to help people live healthier lives.
Wishing you the best of health.