Collaborations with Meharry Medical College, Sinai Chicago and
Wayne State University will expand
access to community health workers and care
WOONSOCKET, R.I., Jan. 26,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CVS Health® (NYSE: CVS) today
announced a new initiative that will address barriers to care in
underserved communities across the country. The CVS Health
Community Equity Alliance is being established to expand the
community health worker workforce, enhance connections between
health care institutions and communities and address disparities in
heart health and mental health outcomes. The Alliance is part of
the Company's commitment to advancing health equity.
The first institutions joining the initiative are Meharry Medical College, Sinai Chicago and
Wayne State University. CVS Health is
providing funding to each institution for locally tailored
initiatives and will bring Alliance members together to share best
practices and work to integrate lessons learned into the Company's
health equity strategy.
Through the power of collaboration, expansion of evidence-based
interventions and a shared commitment to integrating the voices and
lived experiences of community members, the Alliance will create
innovative solutions to help make health care more accessible and
decrease health disparities.
"The Alliance is being established to elevate the voices, needs
and experiences of local communities, as institutions work to
remove barriers to equitable care," said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Vice
President and Chief Health Equity Officer, CVS Health.
"These collaborations will help us deliver on our health
equity strategy and commitment to making health care accessible for
everyone."
Partnering with Sinai Chicago to bring health resources to
underserved communities
Sinai Chicago and CVS Health will
focus on engaging the community in the North Lawndale neighborhood in Chicago. Through the collaboration, Sinai
Chicago and CVS Health will provide residents with tailored health
and social resources to address health disparities, with a focus on
heart health and mental health. Sinai Chicago will also recruit residents in local
neighborhoods to become community health workers through its Block
Leaders program. As a community health worker, individuals are
trained to connect local residents with critical health information
and resources, while building their own career paths in health
care.
"Our collaboration with CVS Health enables both Sinai Chicago
and our community partners, like the North Lawndale Community
Coordinating Council, to set the stage for creating an innovative
and transformational approach to addressing health and social
issues that contribute to the lower life expectancy rates
challenging our community members," said Debra Wesley, President, Sinai Community
Institute. "Our Block Leaders from I Am Able's TR4IM
initiative will work as community health workers and use the
Personal Community Self-Administered Health Needs Assessment and
Social Determinants of Health Pilot Project to provide the tools
and skills that will enable our community members to take control
of their own health and wellness."
Collaborating with Meharry Medical
College to expand the community health worker
workforce
Meharry Medical
College and CVS Health will work together on the recruitment
and training of community health workers, increasing the diversity
of local clinicians and decreasing health disparities in heart
health and mental health. Community health workers will partner
with faith-based or community-based organizations to provide health
education and connect historically marginalized communities to
health resources. Meharry Medical
College will also conduct a continuing education program for
health care professionals focused on the patient-centered medical
home and share strategies for how to work with organizations in
medically underserved and rural communities.
"Access to health care services is critical for good health and
increased quality of life. People living in rural and underserved
communities are often met with extreme and historical barriers to
accessible health care services, deemed common and usual in a
rational health care system," said Pat
Matthews-Juarez, Ph.D., Senior Vice President for Strategic
Initiatives and Innovation and Professor, Department of Family and
Community Medicine, Meharry Medical
College. "Meharry Medical
College and CVS Health are establishing an apprenticeship
pathway for community health workers interested in community-based
nursing that will strengthen and extend health care services to
medically underserved and rural communities in Tennessee. This collaboration leverages our
mission for improving health outcomes for vulnerable populations,
while advancing health equity."
Working with Wayne State
University to expand community engagement and
training
The collaboration with the Wayne State University Center for Health Equity and
Community Knowledge in Urban Populations (CHECK-UP) will create a
multi-sector community coalition to assure integration of community
voice and alignment of community assets and resources to decrease
heart health and mental health disparities in Detroit. The collaboration will also train
faculty, staff and community members on best practices in
community-engaged research and expand opportunities for
skill-building for the community health worker workforce.
"We are grateful to CVS Health for this collaboration, which
will support much-needed initiatives to address health disparities
in Detroit and the surrounding
region," said M. Roy Wilson,
President, Wayne State University.
"Strengthening relationships in the community and training
community leaders will develop grassroots avenues to further our
work to improve the health of the people of Detroit."
For more information on how CVS Health is advancing health
equity, visit CVSHealth.com/HealthEquity.
About CVS Health
CVS Health® is the leading health
solutions company, delivering care like no one else can. We reach
more people and improve the health of communities across America
through our local presence, digital channels and over 300,000
dedicated colleagues – including more than 40,000 physicians,
pharmacists, nurses and nurse practitioners. Wherever and whenever
people need us, we help them with their health – whether that's
managing chronic diseases, staying compliant with their medications
or accessing affordable health and wellness services in the most
convenient ways. We help people navigate the health care system –
and their personal health care – by improving access, lowering
costs and being a trusted partner for every meaningful moment of
health. And we do it all with heart, each and every day. Follow
@CVSHealth on social media.
About Meharry Medical College
Meharry Medical College is one of the nation's
oldest and largest historically black academic health science
centers dedicated to educating physicians, dentists, researchers,
and health policy experts. Founded in 1876 as the Medical
Department of Central Tennessee College, Meharry was the first
medical school in the South for African Americans. It was chartered
separately in 1915. Today, Meharry includes a medical
school, dental school, graduate
school and applied computational sciences school; and is
home to the Center for Health Policy at Meharry. The
degrees include Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), Doctor of Dental Surgery
(D.D.S.), Master of Science in Public Health (M.S.P.H.), Master of
Science (M.S.), and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees.
Meharry Medical College also produces
the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, a public
health journal. For more information on Meharry Medical College, visit
MeharryMedicalCollege.com.
About Sinai Chicago
Sinai Chicago is a Chicago-based private, not-for-profit
organization, includes seven member organizations serving the West
and Southwest Sides; Mount Sinai Hospital, Holy Cross Hospital,
Sinai Children's Hospital, Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital, Sinai
Medical Group, Sinai Community Institute and Sinai Urban Health
Institute. The system has 4,000 employees, over 800 physicians on
its hospital medical staffs, 654 licensed beds, 100,000+ annual
emergency department patient visits and eight physician residency
training programs. Please visit Sinai.org for more
information.
About Wayne State
University
Wayne State University is one of the
nation's pre-eminent public research universities in an urban
setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and
education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry
and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic
growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more
information, visit Wayne.edu.
Media contact
Eva Pereira
781-686-4200
PereiraE1@cvshealth.com
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SOURCE CVS Health