DENT Story: "...for the first time in months, I was able to eat solid food."

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Christina, a student at WSU and a Apple Health patient, had a filling fall out in late November. She made the calls and found an Apple Health accepting dentist, but had to wait two months for the appointment.

When the day finally came, her dentist noticed two other teeth that needed work done, in addition to the lost filling. Even though those two teeth had not been bothering her, the dentist chose to work on them instead of addressing the missing filling. Over the course of the appointment, the doctor ended up injuring a bone around Christina's eye socket with his pneumatic drill, causing damage to her optic nerve and resulting in her vision being severely affected in her left eye. Christina spent several days in hospital following this procedure, and after recovering she understandably was too scared to go back to his clinic.

Now in even more pain, Christina began to make the calls again looking for another Apple Health accepting dentist. The earliest available appointment was May 30th, nearly four months away! Unable to chew solid foods and in tremendous pain, Christina was desperate for relief. One clinic told her she could try an emergency appointment to have a dentist extract the teeth, but this seemed extreme when at first she just needed the filling replaced.

A provider at WSU’s Health and Wellness Services referred Christina to DENT. She called Rita, and was able to get an appointment that same day! Her new Dentist replaced the missing filling that had been plaguing her for months, and together they made a treatment plan to repair the two additional teeth injured by the previous dentist. Here is what Christina has to say about her experience:

I honestly cannot tell you how incredibly grateful I am to you for your help. I was nearly crying with happiness after my appointment because last night, for the first time in months, I was able to eat solid food. I cannot begin to say how grateful I am. [My dentist] is completely wonderful and I honestly cannot even begin to tell you how thankful I am to have been put in touch with him and especially, to have been scheduled in for a same-day appointment. So thank you so much and please pass on my gratitude to the amazing woman responsible for scheduling me! If I could give you all a big hug, I certainly would! I owe you my health and my sanity....Better Health Together gave me a lifeline and I could not be any more grateful for it.  

Christina, we are so happy we could help!

ACH March Leadership Council Meeting Recap

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Thanks to all of you who joined us for our March ACH Leadership Council meeting. It was a great discussion and gathering, with a full room of partners in person and online.
 
Cool things to know
The State expects to hear in late April if we are successful in our Medicaid 1115 Waiver application. We will keep you posted as we learn more.
 
April is Spokane Gives month, United Way and partners will host a month of volunteer opportunities in Spokane. Check out the volunteer projects here and see how you and your teams can Give to your community.
 
The new Apple Health Foster Care program, Apple Health Core Connections, will launch April 1st managed by Coordinated Care. This new program will bring increased care coordination to children in all stages of the foster care system.
 
A number of organizations are seeing Spring time growth and bringing on new hires to increase their capacity to serve our region. We are especially excited about Newport High School’s hiring of an additional school nurse.
 
And if you are a Bloomsday fan, start training now at Providence and Group Health’s free Bloomsday training clinics.
 
Next Steps in ACH Development
We’ve been synthesizing the wealth of information and ideas generated at our Community Linkage Mapping and Idealized Design sessions over the last two months. We debuted and discussed our first strategy map Priority area: Scaling Community Based Care Coordination. We received helpful feedback to further streamline the use of the maps. The feedback included more context, clear prioritizing and the sharing of the current community efforts for each of our strategy areas. There is much work still to do, so stay tuned!
 
Thought Starting Presentations
Alisha Fehrenhabcher, shared some of her experiences and lessons learned from her work with Health Matters of Central Oregon on the Pathways to Health Hub model. This model demonstrates a pathway (sorry for the pun) forward for our Scaling Community Based Care Coordination based on an evidenced based practice that is scalable across regions and sectors. We are lucky to have her in our BHT region.
 
Our friends at SNAP Spokane shared their new Low Acuity Transportation Pilot program aimed at reducing the cost of ambulance rides by creating alternative transportation to more appropriate care centers. This is a great demonstration of community entrepreneurship. Go SNAP Go!
 
Lots of great work happening in our region! If you missed the meeting, we have all of the slides and handouts available for you here: 

 
As always, if you have questions or comments, let me know.

Alison Carl White
Executive Director


 

 

 

Three Educational Days of Youth Substance Use Prevention Talks

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With recent and continual legislative changes around recreational marijuana, privatized liquors sales, and vaping products, Washington State is facing a unique set of challenges for youth substance abuse prevention.

In response, Spokane Regional Health District will be hosting 3 free community events centered around the changing landscape of substance abuse. Each event will feature keynote presentations from Jason Kilmer & Shannon Bailie of the University of Washington’s Health and Wellness program.

Alcohol, Marijuana, and Mental Health: What everyone needs to know

Wednesday April 20th from 7:00pm – 8:30PM
Shadle Park Highschool Auditorium
4327 N. Ash St., Spokane, WA 99205

This community forum is especially relevant for parents, and anyone in our community who works with youth. The keynote presentation will break down the “Top 10 Things Everyone Needs to Know” about youth substance use, and then transition to a Q&A session themed around what we can do to support youth in our community. As this is a community forum, your participation is greatly needed. Please spread the word!

Building a Healthy YOUth: The Changing Landscape of Substance Use Symposium

Thursday, April 21, 2016 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
South Eastern Washington University Campus (SEWC)
(Riverpoint Campus), Room 122
Spokane, WA 99201

This full day symposium targets community members who work with youth in a substance use prevention or intervention capacity. It will focus heavily on discussing the current landscape of state policy, giving exposure to new research and methods to reduce youth substance use, and establishing a greater network of collaboration between partners in the Better Health Together region. There will be two keynote speakers in the morning, and an afternoon of breakout session. Event is free, but please register here.

An Introduction to Brief Intervention Strategies & Motivational Interviewing for School Professionals

Friday, April 22, 2016 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Spokane Regional Health District
1101 W. College Ave., Room 122, Spokane, WA 99201

Targeting school professionals and anyone who works with youth in an intervention capacity, this workshop will share tools for how to have a non-judgmental, non-confrontational conversation with young people about substance use.  Space is limited, register here.

Thank you to SRHD for hosting these important conversations. If you have any questions please contact Paige McGowan.

 

 

 

Next Steps for our ACH

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True health care reform cannot happen from Washington DC. It has to happen in our kitchens, in our homes, in our communities. All health care is personal.
-Dr. Mehmet Oz

Over the last few weeks, I had the good fortune of spending time with our friends from Pend Oreille, Ferry, and Stevens counties. After watching these local communities take ownership of their community health, especially in contrast with rhetoric coming from our Presidential hopefuls, I’m more convinced than ever that health transformation happens in our kitchens, our homes, and our communities.  

When we first launched our ACH work, it was a hard concept to wrap our heads around. We aren’t government, we don’t have any power to make people do things, we aren’t a risk bearing entity. But we are a compilation of community members who care deeply about the health of our community, with a strong bias towards action that improves health.

Fast forward a year to now and we are on our way! In January, we hosted a fabulous gathering of 80+ people who helped us launch our Community Linkage Mapping and Idealized Design efforts. We have now recruited another 80 folks to help refine our Community Linkage Maps and define the functions necessary for effective action. From there, we’ll start to build our Regional Health Improvement Plan and select our ACH Regional Projects.

It’s good work happening! Thanks for being part of the team that is radically improving the health of our region. 

ACW

If you missed Monday's "What Is Possible" webinar, you can view a recording and read through the slides here.