Issues

Community Health

Community Health

Hospitals are working to partner with their communities to develop opportunities to drive transformative change in community health, care delivery, and health equity.

Poor nutrition, air quality, living conditions, diaper insecurity, and lack of economic stability and mobility contribute to chronic disease and increased need for medical care.

Connecticut has one of nation’s greatest disparities in wealth, particularly in economically marginalized communities, which are often disproportionately communities of color. These wealth disparities contribute to longstanding health disparities.

Connecticut hospitals focus on solutions that will afford meaningful opportunities for these communities to prosper.

CHA’s Efforts To Improve Community Health

Through CHA, Connecticut hospitals have focused on opportunities to gain coverage and payment for health-related social needs services to help address the lack of resources and capacity among community-based organizations that serve patients.

Among many efforts, CHA has:

  • Begun a stakeholder engagement process with members, community advocates, and state agencies to advance health equity in Medicaid
  • Partnered with the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) to offer education and training through the Parents Recovering from Opioid Use Disorders (PROUD) grant, which provides training in implicit and explicit bias, including in maternity care
  • Advanced the Diaper Connections program, which has screened for diaper need in hospitals and healthcare settings and measured the impact of addressing diaper need as a health-related social need
  • Supported and continues to pursue efforts to advance the integration of doulas into maternity care
  • Implemented a Statewide Maternal Health Strategy
Mark Schaefer

Mark Schaefer, PhD

Vice President, System Innovation and Financing

(203) 294-7266
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