HELP2Day
HELP (Health Engagement Leading to Prevention) has been renamed and has found a permanent home under the auspices of Asheville’s Institute for Preventive Healthcare & Advocacy (IFPHA).
In fact, to keep HELP coming in real time for a long time is the reason IFPHA was formed in the first place.
HELP started as an idea for a grant-funded project in 2018 in response to a national call from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Clinical Scholars program. Community nurse Kathey Avery and a local clinical team answered that call and was one of eight teams selected nationally to pilot and test their idea.
The HELP model was piloted under a three-year, $315,00 RWJF Clinical Scholars grant that ended in October 2022. It was designed to improve the healthcare and overall living situations of residents of public and senior living housing in Asheville, NC.
HELP activities, now an initiative of IFPHA and called HELP2Day, continue at Arrowhead and Klondyke apartments, where the model was piloted, and will be phased in at other locations, starting with Pisgah View and Hill Crest.
The idea is to improve the health of vulnerable residents of subsidized and public housing and senior living facilities and to help them avoid unnecessary and preventable eviction, hospitalization, and other elevated, more costly levels of care.
Community Health Workers (CHWs), overseen by a community nurse, are supported by an interdisciplinary team including medical providers, social workers, and housing managers. And all are working to achieve a safe, healthy environment where seniors, disabled, and formerly unhoused individuals can live and work together in community in a safe, respectful way that allows everyone’s mental and physical health issues to be effectively addressed and managed.
The emphasis is on preventive healthcare that considers the social determinants of health as well as effective chronic disease management and quickly addressing other assessed health needs to improve the likelihood of aging in place and other housing stability. Ongoing COVID concerns means focus on crisis care and infection prevention will continue as well.
Do YOU need help managing a chronic ailment, or getting access to healthcare?
Do YOU need assistance with food, transportation, cleaning support, or housing situations?
Go to www.ifpha.org and click on the “Get HELP” button for information and to complete a request form.