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Boston. It's part of our name and it's the city we call our home. We perform life-saving surgeries here every day and discover cures for rare diseases. Families from across the country-and around the globe-come to us to care for their children and give them hope. But we are also a leading provider of care for children in our own neighborhood and improving the health of these children is one of our core missions. We consider the children of Boston to be our children. Therefore, our partnership with the city and our commitment to its children is enduring.
In difficult economic times like these, families in Boston's low-income neighborhoods have even greater needs. Children's strives to reach these families by developing programs and supporting our community partners to address the difficult health issues affecting them.
We're tackling problems in which change does not happen overnight: asthma, obesity, mental health and injury prevention. But we feel that we have a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to these issues and we're working to prove that our programs can have measurable outcomes-an important step in achieving long-term results.
Over the next 10 years, our goal is to effect change on a broader scale to improve the health of more children across Boston and Massachusetts. We'll maintain our longstanding
partnerships with Boston schools, community health centers and local organizations, as well as programs in our health focus areas. At the same time, Children's will place a growing emphasis on the neighborhoods closest to the hospital's main campus and our community health center, the Martha Eliot. We're concentrating on Fenway, Mission Hill, Roxbury and Jamaica Plain in order to make an impact and show results. We'll also take our advocacy efforts a step further to ensure that children and families will have access to the services and care they need. We're using the data and outcomes from programs to continually improve our efforts and we will share what we've found with decision-makers such as insurers, legislators, pediatric providers and public health advocates to make a case that our interventions and approaches do work.
One example of our approach is the Community Asthma Initiative (CAI), which aims to improve asthma care for children living in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury. CAI provides parents with asthma education and case management support so they can better understand how to successfully manage their child's asthma.
It's been remarkably successful. Children enrolled in CAI have needed fewer hospitalizations and emergency department visits after participating in the program for one year (see cover for this story). This is a significant improvement, but there is more that can be done to help children throughout the city and state. Working with community partners, we have developed a "business case" that highlights the merits of providing asthma case management, as well as the savings that can result by offering this kind of intervention. We hope that our continuing work with insurers, the legislature and advocates will improve the availability of these services in the community.
provides benefits beyond improving the health of children and families in our community through its missions of clinical care, research, and training for pediatric providers. As it relates to improving the health of our community, Children's takes a four-pronged approach.
Serving as the community's safety net hospital by caring for all patients in Massachusetts regardless of their ability to pay, and providing and subsidizing hospital and community-based services that are in limited supply.
Focusing on some of the most pressing community health needs for Boston families: asthma, obesity, injury prevention and mental health.
Speaking out as a voice for children to change laws, policies or systems that will lead to improvements in the health of children and families.
Supporting essential community partners to make Boston an even more vibrant and livable city for families.
For more information on these missions, visit childrenshospital.org/
communitybenefits. |
Going forward, we'll expand our advocacy efforts to create change in other areas, too. For example, we've taken the lead to reform the state's mental health care system. Using the lessons learned from our partners and the Children's Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships program (more on page 8), which provides mental health treatment and prevention services for children in health centers and schools, we've made recommendations and pushed for needed changes within the system. Children's has been a lead partner in a statewide coalition of more than 130 members, which successfully passed legislation to reform the mental health care system in Massachusetts last year. We're now in phase two of this campaign, during which we'll evaluate the impact of the new legislation, identify missing pieces and develop solutions to fill the gaps.
We'll also explore other innovative ways to broaden our injury prevention and obesity efforts by connecting directly with providers and policy makers. For instance, we'll continue working with health center providers to identify the most effective ways to prevent and treat obesity (see page 5). We can't do any of this work alone. Providers throughout the hospital, along with our community partners, will continue to learn from each other so that our programs can be better implemented and improved. Together, we'll find the best ways to put Children's expertise to use.
We are excited and inspired to lead our institution in its community mission, one of the four core missions of the hospital, along with patient care, teaching and research. Having community as part of our mission is a strong reminder that we support community health because we want to do it-and we want to do it right.
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