Clients & Collaborators

The health team works primarily with four constituencies at the state and local level:

• Community health workers (CHWs) – are front-line public health workers who are trusted members of the community being served; they provide direct outreach into low-income, underserved or “hard-to-reach” communities. Our CHW clients and collaborators include:
  • American Public Health Association, CHW Special Primary Interest Group (SPIG), http://www.apha.org/sections/sectdesc.htm
  • Center for Sustainable Health Outreach (CSHO), which was a federally funded partnership with the University of Southern Mississippi, http://www.usm.edu/csho/
  • Massachusetts Association of Community Health Workers (MACHWA), http://www.mphaweb.org/pol_comm.html
  • Community Outreach Workers’ Association of MD (COWAM)
  • Virginia Center for Sustainable Health Outreach (VCSHO)
  • National CHW advisory committee comprised of CHW leadership and allies from across the country
• Community clinics and hospitals – are bearing the brunt of unmanaged demand for emergency room services, spiraling drug costs and inadequate reimbursement policies.  We work with:
  • DC Primary Care Association, http://www.dcpca.org
  • Area Health Education Centers (several states)
• Public health agencies – are struggling to cope with new mandates for emergency preparedness and homeland security on top of traditional roles like responding to natural disasters.  Recent clients:
  • Virginia State Department of Health
  • Michigan Public Health Institute
  • Louisiana Public Health Institute
• State legislators and other allies – are taking the lead to overcome insurance barriers to health coverage in the absence of federal leadership.  We work with:
  • National Conference of State Legislatures
  • Individual legislators in Maryland, California, Massachusetts
  • Community Voices, a partnership with the Columbia University School of Public Health, the Morehouse School of Medicine, and a consortium of community-based clinics and education programs, http://www.communityvoices.org

Recent projects

Students analyze the legal and administrative structure for health policy and funding in major programs that are implemented at the federal and state level.  The range of issues includes:

• Workforce development – CHWs seek to fully integrate themselves into the health care system.  Recognizing that full integration means ensuring that they are educated, properly trained, culturally competent, and reflective of the communities they serve, CHWs have taken on active leadership roles by beginning to organize state-based associations throughout the country.
• Insurance reform –Over 41 million Americans were without health insurance in 2005, leaving them with little or no access to health care. Many of them are the most vulnerable – the poor, the young, and the elderly, among others. There is a great need for better methods to connect vulnerable populations with health services and better strategies for governments to provide insurance coverage.
• Cost containment – Low-income people see physicians 50 percent less frequently than those with higher incomes, instead relying on expensive emergency room services. In response, there is a great need for policies and programs that are cost-effective for health providers, insurers, and patients, while ensuring continued access to quality care.
• Emergency preparedness – As we’ve seen with Hurricane Katrina, vulnerable populations face barriers to health services that can cause untold human suffering.  In an emergency, the normally vulnerable groups are at a higher risk of being left out.  Each level of government can work with community-based clinics to ensure that their systems are responsive to the needs of vulnerable populations.
• Preventing genetic discrimination – One of the most exciting scientific developments of recent decades is mapping the human genome. With the promise of curing genetically based diseases, however, has come the potential for employers and insurers to use genetic information to discriminate against individuals with genetic markers for life-threatening diseases.  Legal and policy options are needed to protect individuals from genetic discrimination.