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Success Stories
Project: Human Services Coalition’s Youth Advocating for Youth (YAY) Project
Story: Being Engaged to Promote Primary Care
With four kids and living on a limited income, Julieta’ Romano’s children were covered by Medicaid and Florida KidCare. When she started working a part-time and earning a little extra, their coverage was denied. Through the Human Services Coalition’s Youth Advocating for Youth (YAY) Project, Julieta was able to take her story from Miami to Tallahassee, where she urged legislators to expand healthcare benefits for children.
Project YAY sought to empower children and their parents to advocate for changes in the healthcare system. Through the program funded by the Health Foundation of South Florida, Julieta’s passion for on healthcare reform grew and so did the audience listening to her. Since making the trip to Tallahassee in 2008, Julieta’s story has been featured in The Miami Herald, on Britain’s Sky News and on radio stations broadcasting from the Florida Keys to West Palm Beach. Her new-found role as a healthcare advocate also landed her a job at the Human Services Coalition, where she now helps families with disabled children successfully navigate the healthcare system.
Project: Memorial Healthcare System HITS Program
Story: Health Intervention Right on Target
The Health Intervention with Targeted Services Program, coordinated by the Memorial Healthcare System and supported by the Health Foundation of South Florida, is an intensive outreach program designed to secure a medical home for the uninsured, with a strong emphasis on those with chronic conditions. It requires strong community partnerships and involves door to door outreach for eligibility as well as health education, disease management, health fairs, physical examinations and screenings.
Health Foundation support has allowed HITS to expand targeting of the uninsured to those who have had inpatient hospital visits as well as those utilizing the emergency rooms. The number of people who have benefitted from this program is outstanding. For example, from 2006-2009, more than 4,440 people were seen by the HITS teams.
Medicaid eligibility was approved for many as was Memorial Primary Care. Thousands of physical exams, blood pressure and cholesterol screenings and immunizations have been provided by medical staff. Chronic disease patients have been enrolled in disease management programs. Many success stories are behind this one grant…
Project: University of Miami: Primary Care Services
Story: Being More Responsive to the Needs of Mental Health Patients
A group of professionals, consisting of a psychologist, psychiatrist, mental health counselor and a family doctor had the opportunity to provide mental health services to a community of uninsured and underprivileged members. This multidisciplinary team, part of the University of Miami’s School of Medicine, was able to house the project in Overtown at the Jackson Health System’s primary care center, the Jefferson Reaves Sr. Health Center.
Many of the patients who walked through the doors were suffering from mental illness. Prior to the Health Foundation grant, help for them was extremely difficult to obtain. With support from the Foundation, a system was implemented by the team to offer screenings of the general clinic population for depression by their family physicians with self-management support by a care manager to mentally ill patients, as well as medication management.
During the two years of the grant, more than a thousand patients were screened for depression, hundreds of psychological consultations were conducted and they were able to offer ongoing counseling, med management and additional services to depressed patients that would otherwise not have had easy access to mental health care. The team also worked hard on getting many of our patient’s health insurance, working closely with lawyers and social workers. For our uninsured mentally ill patients, the team offered them hope, a sense of importance and that someone really cared for them.
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