Your Provider May Recommend Food and Housing Assistance
The idea is to make it easy to deal with the many factors that impact health outside of health care.
Greensboro – Many people have trouble with housing, finding nutritious food, getting exercise or even arranging transportation to medical visits. There are multiple organizations willing to help, but often people aren’t aware or don’t know how to enroll in the programs. Cone Health is working with the organization FindHelp to make getting help as easy as visiting a doctor’s office.
Health involves more than health care. People who have trouble making it to grocery stores tend to have worse diets than those who can easily access fresh food. This can lead to chronic conditions such as obesity and diabetes. Older people with fewer friends and social connections are at higher risk for depression and other mental health issues. These social drivers of health can often be addressed through various programs—if people connect with them.
“When families don’t have enough to eat, their health suffers—from higher stress to chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease. That’s why our care teams are asking patients about their needs. We can connect community members to food and other resources through FindHelp,” says Jen Nixon, PhD, executive director, Cone Health Healthy Communities.
Once social workers, providers or other members of the patient’s care team learn of these needs, they connect the patient to organizations that provide aid using FindHelp. The information is added to their medical record. This allows everyone involved in a patient's care to know their needs from one visit to the next and follow up. Patients can use FindHelp through their MyChart account or the Cone Health website at ConeHealth.com/FindHelp.
Cone Health aims to improve both mental and physical health in ways that go beyond medical treatment. Addressing social drivers of health is one way that Cone Health focuses on prevention, a crucial element in achieving better health or all.
