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January 2013 e-news 

Announcement of Award
We are pleased to announce that the Office for Community Health at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center has received a grant from Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Mexico’s Healthy Kids, Healthy Families Program to improve community health and reduce health disparities.  Funding has been awarded to conduct Phase 1 of a proposed 3-year/4-Phase project.  Drs. Janet Page-Reeves, Amy Anixter Scott, and Arthur Kaufman will lead this initiative. 

Overview
This initiative will create a Social Determinants Prescription for Health Toolkit (WellRx Toolkit), involving a non-medical referral process and tools.  The purpose of the WellRx Toolkit is to develop healthcare provider/practice and Community Health Worker (CHW) capacity to use a social determinants framework to screen for and address client concerns and needs, many of which are non-medical in nature.   The WellRx Toolkit will help providers and CHWs to make referrals based on client reported need for resources and services such as:  hunger and food insecurity, prescription benefits, housing, employment, education, and work-force training.   In the future, the WellRx Toolkit will also assist clients in connecting with the health insurance exchange to learn about health insurance options and obtain health insurance coverage. 

Our innovative approach will develop linkages among a broad set of partners (primary care providers, health sciences students/residents, CHWs, healthcare organizations and community agencies) to address the social determinants of health.  The WellRx Toolkit will include electronic and paper format materials and resources for local, state and federal-level referrals.  We will also develop processes and trainings to link and support these individuals and systems and to connect clients with the resources they need.  The WellRx Toolkit will be piloted with targeted clinics and CHWs at three sites, and will be scalable for use throughout New Mexico and other states.

InPhase 1 (December 2012-June 2013), we will work with stakeholders in Albuquerque, Grant County, and Northern New Mexico to assess infrastructure, assets, needs and gaps, and plan and design the initiative.   Additional funding will be requested in 2013 for Phases 2 – 4 to implement the initiative at pilot sites, expand to new sites, and evaluate processes and outcomes.  At the end of Phase 4 in 2015, we will hold a WellRx Summit to bring stakeholders together to celebrate successes and to disseminate information from the initiative.

For more information contact Janet Page-Reeves at jpage-reeves@salud.unm.edu.