In response to the priorities identified in the 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) for Chicago and Suburban Cook County, the Alliance for Health Equity committees and workgroups have been busy sharing best practices and taking action to further health equity.
Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders Committee
One of the key initiatives of the Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders Committee is increasing access to Mental Health First Aid throughout Chicago and Suburban Cook County. The project goals are related to shared evaluation processes; web application development for training coordination between providers; and improvements in long-term sustainability, equity, and reach. The February committee meeting focused on the implementation of the project workplan as well as updates from various trauma-informed initiatives across the county.
Next Meeting: Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Hospital Opioid Treatment and Response Learning Collaborative
The Hospital Opioid Treatment and Response Learning Collaborative is moving into its second phase in 2020. A summary of the work accomplished by nine participating hospitals in 2019 is online here, and an evaluation report for 2019 will also be available there soon. Illinois Public Health Institute (IPHI) staff is working with the participants from hospitals, and our partners at health departments and the American Institutes for Research to tailor 2020 activities to meet communities’ and hospitals’ most immediate needs in opioid use disorder treatment.
Trauma-Informed Hospitals Collaborative
The Trauma-Informed Hospitals Collaborative has been meeting regularly over the past three years as a learning collaborative. The collaborative supports members in their work to engage senior leadership around trauma-informed transformation; start internal workgroups; conduct a baseline staff assessment; provide an intro to trauma-informed care training; address burnout; and more. The group will hold quarterly meetings in 2020 with more individual, ongoing support between meetings. To join the trauma-informed hospitals collaborative, reach out to Lara Altman, Director of the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative, at laltman@hmprg.org to learn more.
Next Meeting: Thursday, March 12, 2020
Social and Structural Determinants of Health Committee
The Social and Structural Determinants of Health Committee is focused on shared learning opportunities for healthcare and communities to partner for health equity, discussing innovative programs and initiatives, and particularly connecting across various social determinants of health that might otherwise be siloed (food, housing, education, economic, community safety, etc.) The committee members will decide the shared learning topics during the next meeting.
Next Meeting: Thursday, March 12, 2020
Food Access and Food Security Workgroup
In 2019, the Food Access and Food Security Workgroup developed an Action Agenda focused on three components: (a) economic, (b) policy, and (c) screening, referral, and partner programs. All three components emphasize cross-sector collaborations and community-driven solutions. The Action Agenda serves as a unifying document for the workgroup. The workgroup had its first meeting of the year in January, and Proviso Partners for Health led the group through a workshop to identify key action steps to achieve the goals of the Action Agenda. Additionally, IPHI staff have worked with multiple workgroup members to finalize a case study about food and healthcare partnerships in Cook County (first in a series of case studies).
Next Meeting: Thursday, April 23, 2020
Housing and Health Workgroup
Based on input from stakeholders across healthcare, housing, and community development through the 2019 landscape analysis, the Alliance for Health Equity Housing Workgroup is focused on: (a) Hospital data analysis on homelessness–moving to consistent tracking and analysis; (b) Sharing research and innovation (local and national) and expanding adoption of housing and healthcare partnerships; (c) Policy advocacy; and (d) Developing technical assistance resources for partnerships between healthcare and affordable housing. IPHI staff and workgroup chair Steve Brown from UI Health continues to play an active role in the Flexible Housing Pool planning and implementation process, including developing racial equity training and metrics. The workgroup is now moving forward to implement steps identified in the landscape analysis related to policy, medical respite, and partnership development between community development and healthcare.
Next Meeting: Thursday, March 19, 2020
Community Safety Workgroup
The Community Safety Workgroup meets ad-hoc. IPHI staff play a connector role in community safety work as to not duplicate work that is already happening in Chicago and Suburban Cook County. IPHI staff coordinate with various initiatives to develop collaborative strategies that will increase community safety and violence reduction efforts among hospital partners.
Racial Equity Learning Cohort
Alliance for Health Equity staff is currently working with partners to design a racial equity learning cohort for hospital colleagues. The purpose will be to build capacity to develop, maintain and cultivate awareness, engagement, and action in fostering a racially inclusive environment among hospital colleagues. A cohort pilot will focus on sharing tools, strategies, and examples of best practices, creating opportunities to use racial equity best practices to address internal and external racial disparities, and advancing projects identified by participants. Target kickoff is Spring 2020.
All Alliance for Health Equity meetings can be found on the Events Page.
If you are not part of a committee or workgroup and would like to be, please email Andi Goodall at Andi.Goodall@iphionline.org with your name, title, and organization.