GRACE: Gather Resources + Align Community Efforts
It is difficult to overstate the population health challenges facing rural America. For the first time in 50 years, life expectancy is decreasing. Families living in rural America struggle with premature deaths of despair associated with alcohol, opiates and unemployment.
- Infant mortality is 25% higher in rural communities.
- Black, Hispanic, Immigrant, and Native American families experience discriminatory housing policies, health disparities in rates of chronic disease, life expectancy, and rates of unintentional injury.
- Life expectancy for a white male varies by 10 years depending on income and place of residence.
- Elderly Rural Americans struggle with transportation, access to medical services, community programs, and long-term care facilities with fewer local resources.
Few economic opportunities, poor health outcomes, and higher death rates... Our communities are dying; but they don’t have to.
GRACE = Gather Resources + Align Community Efforts
Rather than provide a recipe or a 10-step formula for success, GRACE relies on the ingenuity, hard work, compassion, and integrity already present in every US community. GRACE leverages social capital to help rural families achieve the American dream: an education, a healthy family, a good job, a yearly vacation, homeownership, and a comfortable retirement. In my new book, Pathways to Population Health, I highlight local community-clinic collaborations that are transforming lives and building healthier neighborhoods, towns and counties. In my research and in my working as a population health consultant, I have seen the benefits of community-clinic collaborations.
How will GRACE transform communities?
Grace is an unmerited act of favor that has the power to transform lives. In a rural community...
- GRACE implements low-cost, effective strategies for improving health outcomes
- GRACE prioritizes social determinants of health using existing programs and services
- GRACE engages frontline workers across sectors: public, private and for-profit
- GRACE connect communities to regional and national capacity-building organizations
- GRACE expands capacity for households and community agencies to make lasting change
- GRACE saves money for providers, local systems, and payers
For a working family, GRACE harnesses social capital in the community so:
- Babies are born full-term, and grow up in supportive neighborhoods, participate in formative extracurricular activities, and graduate from high school with the option for a college degree or a good local job.
- Parents enjoy walkable streets, supportive relationships, responsive civic leadership, and jobs that can support a family.
- Households benefit from clean air, safe water, green spaces, healthy food options, and behavioral health and dentists close to home.
- Senior citizens have opportunities to contribute after retirement, maintain relationships and to be safe at home.
GRACE can accelerate systems change so families and communities thrive.
So what does a GRACE system look like in your hometown?
When communities embrace GRACE, local organizations collaborate on...
- multi-sector partnerships with a shared vision,
- blending and braiding funding sources,
- capturing savings for reinvestment over time,
- achieving better health, equity and resilience.
Life expectancy has for American families has declined for the last three years; however, we can reverse the trend in 2018. GRACE can transform communities, save lives, bring back jobs, and foster resilience where people live, work, learn and play. Let’s make 2018 the healthiest year yet!
Tell me what #GRACE looks like in your neighborhood. Find me on Linked In, Facebook or Twitter: @nathanflemingmd or www.P2PHealth.org