Living Wellness

San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) is an urban public hospital serving a diverse community of medically underserved patients.  This documentary highlights stories of SFGH’s patients and staff on their respective journeys to wellness with the aim of inspiring and motivating medically underserved patients to participate in community-focused wellness activities.  The film profiles members of the SFGH community for whom social determinants of health often conspire in the development of chronic and acute medical conditions and make prevention and management  of these conditions more difficult.  The film illustrates ways in which individuals have overcome challenges and receive countless benefits through participating in wellness activities at the Community Wellness Center as well as in their respective homes and communities.  The film features patients who have been successful in initiating and maintaining a wide range of wellness practices.  Stories include one of a Latina grandmother who is exuberant as she participates in active living classes at the wellness center and learns to prepare healthy meals at home;  an African American cancer survivor who finds strength and inner peace through creating art and participating in one of the wellness center’s educational support groups; a successful participant in the hospital’s smoking cessation program who contributes to her impoverished community and promotes her own wellness by working in a community garden.   These stories reflect and reinforce the well-documented concept that that peers, more than healthcare providers or public service announcements, play a pivotal role in influencing health behaviors and ultimately health outcomes.