About
The Health in the Heartland Information Alliance (HHIA) is a network of health and social service professional/clinical providers and community health workers, administrators, faith-based leaders, and academics. Our goal is to be an information and resource hub for health, healthcare and social services throughout Southeast Missouri. Please join us to continue to build this information hub to ensure better health outcomes in the Southeast Missouri region.
Over its twenty-five-year history, One Heart - Many Hands (OHMH) has operated on the premise that each person brings a talent, ability or resource that can be harnessed to serve the greater good. It has dedicated its mission to connect people with opportunities to serve in local and global communities. While some of its projects are designed around specific large-scale events, engaging thousands of volunteers from diverse backgrounds, others engaged local residents over a longer period of time to nurture strong local partnerships. Health in the Heartland (HiH), an initiative of OHMH based in the Bootheel/Ozark region of Missouri, is focused on improving access to health services and resources.
One Heart - Many Hands (OHMH)
As part of this work, Health in the Heartland (HiH) partnered with Saint Louis University (SLU) to conduct an in-depth community-based participatory assessment of the root organizational and structural barriers to accessing and utilizing health and social services in the Bootheel. CHWs across the region worked together to collect information from over 2000 individuals (community members and agency representatives) and identified key barriers to care, including lack of: access to providers and quality care, coordinated care across systems/ organizations, trust in healthcare systems and providers, information and support to use services, employment opportunities, access to insurance, transportation, as well as disrespectful treatment based on race and class. HiH then worked with community members and agency representatives to prioritize which barriers required immediate action and developed strategies for addressing them.
As a result of funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Fellowship, HiH and SLU were able respond to these calls for change by:
HiH meaningfully engages community members in understanding the role of systems and structures and developing interventions to address them in order to improve health and social service resources and health equity. HiH has worked extensively with community health workers (CHWs) both internationally and domestically since its inception. The foundation for this initiative was built on experiences worldwide that led to the recognition that strong intersectoral partnerships need to deeply engage community members, not only to effectively manage chronic and emergency events, but also to improve health and social conditions.
HiH and SLU began by listening to the priorities of the network members and responded with training to create a common understanding of the organizational and structural factors that were identified as impacting access to care. As HiH and SLU initiated these activities, the COVID-19 pandemic began to consume all the resources of network members as well as the community at large.
Establishing a clinical and social service network to build relationships
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Collaborating with agencies that employ CHWs to ensure bidirectional communication between providers and consumers of care
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Taking action to begin to dismantle the barriers to care
Responding to COVID-19
In response to these challenges, the COVID-19 Response Network was formed. The COVID-19 Response Network brought together community and faith-based leaders, primary and mental healthcare providers, pharmacists, public health administrators, elected officials, representatives from academic institutions, maternal healthcare providers, and Community Health Workers (CHW)s.
The Network serves a 16-county area in the Southeast corner of Missouri referred to as the Bootheel region (including Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, and Pemiscot counties) and the Ozark region (including Butler, Cape Girardeau, Carter, Howell, Iron, Madison, Oregon, Ripley, Scott, Shannon, Stoddard, and Wayne counties).
These counties:
Primarily comprise individuals who self-identify as either African American or Caucasian, with small Hispanic/Latinx communities. (United States Census Bureau)
Have higher rates of poverty in comparison to Missouri as a whole. (Missouri Community Action Network)
Rank very high or high on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) (Mean SVI=0.69±0.26), which includes socioeconomic, population, and housing/transportation vulnerability measures. (CDC)
Have been identified as health professional shortage areas and higher rates of chronic health conditions than other areas in the state. (Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services)
Refocusing on broader social, economic, and clinical issues facing the community
As COVID-19 has become yet another thread in the complex web of challenges our communities face, Network members decided to refocus their efforts on the broader social, economic, and clinical issues facing the community and become the Health In the Heartland Information Alliance. Alliance members meet weekly via Zoom. During these meetings, members present updates and resources of interest to the group, and the facilitators share data on key health issues facing the region, the state of Missouri, and the US, as well as resources available in and beyond the state to mitigate the challenges.
The Information Alliance website and online presence
The internet has brought new opportunities for communication across a variety of different communities. We are using this technological bounty to build our own communication systems that ensure that we stay safe and happy. This website is for Southeast Missourians to protect each others health and wellbeing and for this reason, it is designed with a number of different interactive components. This website was developed to make health promotion easier.
Partners
