Pieces of the Puzzle

First Choice Community Healthcare, the state of New Mexico's largest community health center system, is expanding beyond the provision of medical, dental, behavioral health and WIC services.  It is leading a multi-sectoral initiative to address four primary social determinants of health: education, jobs, access to healthy food and wellness in a built environment that promotes health.  First Choice is partnering with innovators in early childhood development, organic farms co-ops, high school education and medical residency training programs - to produce a cadre of health professionals that are steeped in the ethos of community health.

This film, Pieces of the Puzzle, introduces the main partners, Health Leadership High School, as well as discusses the health system's re-orientation toward community-centered health, as it leverages its deep reach into the target population, to effect changes in education, jobs and access to wellness and healthy eating/active living opportunities.  First Choice served 60,000 unique patients, reached 285,000 encounters, in the central New Mexico region dominated by Albuquerque.  After its 42nd anniversary, the community-led board of directors embraced a vision beyond the medical model, to encompass a wellness eco-system.

The initiative, termed the South Valley Health Commons Expansion, addresses health inequity at its core - by directly intervening in the cycle of chronic poverty.  This collective impact approach has engaged the major community stakeholders, in part, through the dissemination of the film, Pieces of the Puzzle.  Pieces of the Puzzle features in-depth interviews with the CEO of First Choice Community Healthcare, Bob DeFelice, MPH, M.B. A. and with dozens of family practice doctors, educators, community leaders and others to tell the story of how First Choice is leveraging the community health center to make a measurable improvement in health indicators, including educational attainment, employment and chronic disease prevention.