HealthConnect Hub Expansion & Housing
SWACH and partner agencies use the HealthConnect Hub system to reduce the approximately $36,000 per person that communities spend on chronic homelessness.[1]
Since its inception in 2019, the HealthConnect Hub navigation model and partnering agencies have served 361 community members, nearly 1 in 2 of those experiencing homelessness. While some policy makers might continue to review the research[2] on housing, in Southwest Washington, our community partners are seeing how it changes lives.
Services and supports needed for equitable, whole person health are often frustratingly siloed. Most community members have multiple and interconnected needs, including help accessing housing, food, or transportation assistance, job and employment assistance, medical referrals or medication assessments, and a wide range of self-management educational topics.
HealthConnect Hub: Expansion
In collaboration with partnering Care Coordinating Agencies (CCAs), SWACH’s HealthConnect Hub is a navigation model that breaks through the siloes between services, connecting community members into a streamlined network of whole person care services. Hub Expansion is growing partner CCA’s from 4 primary agencies to 10, with several other organizations also referring participants into the program.
Central to this ecosystem is a professionally trained, diverse workforce of community health workers (CHWs), peers with lived experience, and community-based care coordinators. Employed by partnering CCAs, these navigators leverage the HealthConnect HUB for ongoing trainings, care models, the technology platform, data and reporting, quality improvement support, and payment for successful outcomes.
The HCA recognizes Pathways HealthConnect as service enhancement for housing agencies and approved the program for braided funding opportunities. As CCA partners, housing agencies are increasingly engaging with HealthConnect Hub as part of the HealthConnect expansion (growing to approximately 35 trained persons in SW WA).
- Council for the Homeless- training and integration of 5 staff with the HealthConnect Hub
- Share- training and integration of 6 staff with the HealthConnect Hub
- Washington Gorge Action Program (WAGAP) - after first year, quintupled number of trained staff from 3 to 15
CCA’s are paid based on the outcomes they produce, consistent with systemic reforms to replace “pay for services” with “pay for value.” This also shifts resources to those who work most effectively within our vulnerable communities. By moving money upstream to where health is generated, Funders invest in some of the most underfunded but essential areas of service delivery for whole person care.
Better Serving Housing & Health Needs
As the HealthConnect HUB expands, the alignment with housing agencies will benefit people experiencing housing insecurity by addressing interconnected issues like employment and behavioral health issues.
We are also responding to needs associated with COVID-19 through new partnerships, outreach, and training. We appreciate the strong partnerships between SWACH and regional stakeholders to address housing and community-based whole person care coordination.
Upcoming Training for CHWs
SWACH will be hosting ongoing training for CHWs later this month, titled "Community Based Workforce COVID-19 Training: Building Resilience". This is open to the public but geared toward CHWs, and will be held on August 25th from 10a-11:30a. (Free, but registration is required.)
Interested in learning more about the HealthConnect HUB and Pathways program? Contact Eric McNair Scott (eric.scott@southwestach.org) to learn how you and your organization can become involved.
References
[1] “Ending Chronic Homelessness Saves Taxpayers Money,” National Alliance to End Homelessness, Nov 6, 2015.
[2] “Housing And Health: An Overview Of The Literature,” Health Affairs Health Policy Brief, June 7, 2018. DOI: 10.1377/hpb20180313.396577