216462 Holistic healthcare services responsive to the local community: Collaboration on a shoe string

Monday, November 8, 2010

Dyanne Ladine, LAc, JD, MBA, MS , Herban Health, East Palo Alto, CA
  
Description of Project: Five community based organizations (CBO) in a medically underserved community collaborated to provide a mobile, bilingual, holistic health care center (HHCC) providing acupuncture and health education driven by clients needs. Free services for people in drug and alcohol recovery, residents of homeless shelters, medically underserved and diverse low-income residents are provided through donation of space, supplies, professional volunteers and complimentary services by each organization. Herban Health is one of the collaborating CBO's and the organization providing the professional volunteers. Using the definition of holistic healthcare as the treatment of the whole person: mind,body and spirit, Herban Health focuses on the health of the individual as well as the individual's connection to his/her environment, including working with western medical providers.

Challenges and Successes: The challenges have been: resource scarcity; lack of knowledge in the community about acupuncture and holistic health care and its positive impact on quality of life; and already over extended CBOs. Started in 2004, our HHCC now operates at 4 different locations, and serves 250 clients each month. Key elements for this successful community partnership have been: CBO leaders and volunteers willing to commit to the project; in kind contributions from all parties, including space, materials and professional knowledge; services responding to the needs of the clients; a coordinator who knew and understood the needs of the community; and multiple locations in different CBOs which have both increased the treatment opportunities for clients and introduced them to the services of the other CBO's.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Advocacy for health and health education
Program planning
Provision of health care to the public
Public health administration or related administration

Learning Objectives:
1. identify the key requirements for providing a similar system of care; 2. identify the roadblocks to integrating a mobile holistic health care clinic using CBOs, and volunteer professionals; 3. apply the strategies to organize mobile clinics responsive to the needs in medically underserved communities and multiply the impact of the participating organizations.

Keywords: Community Collaboration, Community-Based Health Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to present because I oversee and direct all aspects (administration, management and promotion) of the collaboration and the services.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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