Community-Driven Responses To Meet Urgent Basic Needs

April 18, 2020

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Marcela Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS Associate Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases)

ID5082

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00:00Thank you very much. I would like to introduce our next speaker.
00:05The next speaker is Doctor Marcella Nunez Smith.
00:08Dr Nunez Smith earned her Andy from Jefferson Medical College in 2001 and her Masters of Health Science from Yale University in 2006.
00:18She is an associate professor at both the Yale School of Medicine and the Yale School of Public Health.
00:26She is also director of equity research and Innovation Center and director of cancer of the cancer for Research Engagement.
00:35She's core faculty in the national clinicians college program and deputy director at the Yale Center for clinical investigation doctor Nunez Smith.
00:44Thank you very much for being here.
00:54Good afternoon everyone and many things to Dean Brown and the workshop organizers for this invitation to join with the other presenters this afternoon.
01:03I walk in this opportunity to share some of the initiatives that exemplify the benefits of longstanding collaborations between Yale schools of Medicine and public health and the broader New
01:14Haven community. As we respond to the recent surge in urgent basic needs.
01:21Today I will highlight 5 examples of our colleagues quickly building up on their establish relationships with New Haven Community Partners,
01:30responding to their direct requests to work together to address specific and urgent needs.
01:36And I want to take a moment to acknowledge all of the critical work so many of you are doing to be of help in New Haven at this time.
01:46Beyond what will be highlighted today.
01:51So far today we will discuss efforts to address the growing local rates of food and housing insecurity.
01:57And In addition, we've heard from community partners with the need to also help with mobilizing volunteer networks,
02:05opening additional lines for communication and information sharing,
02:09and quick deployment of physical resources to community based organizations on the frontline.
02:16But first I want to step back and further frame the partner work that is underway.
02:22People are united anew in a shared mission to intervene and narrow racial,
02:28ethnic and socioeconomic disparities. Or witnessing alarming disparities in COVID-19 clinical outcomes.
02:37Across the entire country, communities and patients of color up your hardest hits,
02:42but staggering and disproportionate mortality burden.
02:47In Louisiana, 70% of patients who died as a result of Corbin 19th were African American.
02:53Compared with 32% of the general population.
02:57And in the city of Chicago,
02:58black residents are dying at nearly six times the rate of white presidents.
03:04Even as we push to improve the quality of data and include other demographic factors,
03:09we see New England is not spared from this national trend.
03:14In neighboring Boston, 40% of known positive kovit cases were among African Americans compared with the population representation around 25%.
03:25Locally, we are similarly concerned about communities that are at higher risk for infection and poor clinical outcomes.
03:35As we work hard to improve demographic data accuracy here,
03:38there are worrisome trends in Connecticut and New Haven.
03:43Hustle azatian rates for African Americans and Latin next patients already surpassed population representation of the state and local level.
03:51And within our health system,
03:53we know patients require ICU care have been disproportionately patients of color.
03:58And the local media and community leaders are certainly sounding the alarm.
04:06It's important to note that the contributions of COVID-19 disparities are multi factorial.
04:12We recognize several social realities that predate the pandemic.
04:17And also increase risk for patients of color.
04:20Such as their potential inability to socially distance because of low wage,
04:25essential work, and living in densely populated areas.
04:29The spread of misinformation action in combination with institutional distrust represent additional challenges.
04:38And In addition, limited access to health care and higher rates of coexisting conditions can worsen clinical severity once infected.
04:50So we know that many New Haven residents.
04:53Have high levels of social risk.
04:55The population of New Haven hovers around 130,000 residents.
05:00With a median household income of $39,000.
05:04Almost 1/3 of our residents self identifies black or African American.
05:09An almost 1/3 self identifies Latin next.
05:14The high rates of income inequality,
05:16food insecurity, and housing instability in New Haven that predate the pandemic have only been worsened by the company economic consequences.
05:27And from left to right you'll see that prior to COVID-19,
05:30the highest earning 5% of New Haven residents.
05:34May 10 times more money than the lowest 20%
05:37of earners. The burden of food insecurity was already alarming with rates ranging.
05:44From one quarter to half of all residents across our neighborhoods.
05:51And the rates of housing instability for adults and children in New Haven were also high,
05:56with notable disparities by race and ethnicity.
06:02With this background, I'll spotlight some of the yield community collaborative responses to each of these basic needs in turn,
06:09and will turn first to the pressing issue of food insecurity.
06:15The New Haven coordinated food assistance assistance network or see fan was previously organized to coordinate food programs in the city to better serve residents experiencing food insecurity with support
06:26from the Community, Alliance for research and engagement or care.
06:31Care which is Co located at the Yale School of Public Health and at Southern Connecticut State University School of Health and Human Services,
06:40has worked since its inception to identify chronic disease solutions through community based research and projects focused on social,
06:48environmental, and behavioral risk factors.
06:51Leaning on the established scifan infrastructure and care partnership.
06:56There were quickly pivoted to respond to the crisis and increasing demands on the local emergency food system.
07:06Together, see fan and care have successfully scaled food delivery to are homebound residents.
07:12With essential contributions from Alicia Santilli and Kathleen O'Connor,
07:16Destiny in under three weeks,
07:18the volunteer network rapidly expanded and over 450 home deliveries.
07:24Were made. Uniquely positioned, this collaboration was just awarded $150,000 grant from the yield community for New Haven fund to scale this home food delivery program to 1000 households.
07:40In addition, this team created a database to provide a real time update on open and available food resources.
07:50They work quickly to develop new food distribution protocols and integrate with tech platforms to optimize efficiencies,
07:57and they continue to work on the frontline to add value during this difficult time.
08:04And if you're interested in getting involved with their work,
08:07I will provide contact information and links for you to volunteer or donate at the end of the talk.
08:14And turning next to housing instability and very much,
08:17especially the specific needs of our homeless residents.
08:21This emerged early on as a basic need priority in New Haven.
08:29The city of New Haven's community services administration has long partnered with the National Commission Scholars Program or NCSP,
08:36to conduct research to improve the health and well being of New Haven's residence.
08:42The NCSP itself is a junior Interprofessional Fellowship program that is designed to prepare future clinician leaders to improve health and health care in the United States through scholarship in
08:54action. And several weeks ago,
08:57Machuda Hall himself a former yield CF,
09:00CSP, grad, and New Haven's current community services administrator,
09:04reached out to the NCSP with an urgent need.
09:09To provide safe respite for patients who test positive for kovid.
09:14And are also experiencing homelessness.
09:20The NTSB fellows and program leadership quickly formed a team,
09:24including several other yield experts in the care of homeless stations such as doctor David Rosenthal,
09:30a PRN, Sarah Lipkin, Doctor Emolo and Allison Cunningham.
09:35All to work together on a clinical protocol for the new shelter,
09:39one initiative. How is it a local New Haven high school shelter?
09:43One is a direct response to the cities urgent need.
09:48I will clinical pathways and protocols in place shelter.
09:51One can now temporarily house patients who test positive.
09:55Dave, but do not require hospitalization or who are clinically appropriate for hospital discharge but need to remain quarantined.
10:05As they iterate on this work,
10:07the Yale team in the city of New Haven plan to disseminate this model across their national networks for implementation of other cities.
10:15Again, I'll provide you with contact information at the end if you would like to get involved with the work at shelter one or offer donations of your time or
10:24PPY. So community based organizations on their frontline in New Haven almost from day one have been desperate for additional volunteers as the need rapidly expanded.
10:40And their employees had to deal with home schooling their own illness or potentially caring for other relatives.
10:49They also needed help to coordinate the volunteer response so as to not avoid using their limited resources to field and manage request.
11:01At a meeting of an established group of academic and community partners already working together to improve experiential learning in New Haven.
11:10The group pivoted their work to meet this need.
11:13Already is standing member of the group United Way of Greater New Haven became the host of the new web based portal for volunteerism which went live in two days.
11:26Mr Ng Comedian Community engaged.
11:28Scholarship was founded in 2005 and includes over 30 members.
11:32Mix of New Haven leaders and I could emissions from across several academic and health institutions in the city.
11:40A strong committee meets monthly and facilitates equitable research partnerships and has supported or lead over 40 projects,
11:48many in conjunction with NCSP,
11:50follows. And he'll faculty. And it has been my distinct pleasure to service culture of this group along with Miss Natasha Ray,
11:59who is the director of New Haven.
12:01Healthy start. This group subcommittee on experiential learning,
12:06which is Co led by Susan Nappy at the Yale School of public health and terrorism at Yale School,
12:14medison, along with academic and community based organization numbers,
12:17continue to work together to steer volunteers to the new United Way Portal.
12:25Organizations are able to post their urgent volunteer needs.
12:29Their volunteers can commit in real-time,
12:32streamlining the logistics of voluntarism.
12:34And with multiple yield schools,
12:37Quinnipiac University, southern Connecticut State University and the University of New Haven and a standing committee members,
12:44this resource was quickly disseminated.
12:47And I thank you, all of them,
12:49many students and faculty members who have volunteered through this portal and continued to give generously of your time.
13:01Thinking now about information sharing as a basic urgent need,
13:06very early on, community members requested an interactive platform where they could engage in dialogue and trustworthy exchange of information with your faculty.
13:18The yell cultural ambassadors raised this need as misinformation began to spread across New Haven and many residents were confused by conflicting messages or messages not tailored for their reality.
13:33The Yale cultural ambassadors includes leaders from Hunter for progressive action and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
13:43This group has worked closely with the L Center for clinical investigation or why CCI for over 10 years to support clinical research and increased diverse participation in clinical trials.
13:57And in response to this request for timely at accurate COVID-19 information contributors from why CCI Yale,
14:04New Haven health heal medison any old School of Madison have helped launch weekly virtual informational town halls.
14:13Our most recent call this week reached over 300 New Haven residents,
14:18including over 100 participants on the call and others joining through Congregational life streaming.
14:26These are some few examples of pre posted questionnaires.
14:30Sorry questions that were addressed during the town Hall and raised by participants.
14:37The yellow cultural ambassadors and other community leaders are invested in learning more about COVID-19 racial ethnic disparities.
14:46Learning more about emerging treatments and opportunities to participate in clinical research,
14:51such as vaccine development and practical information,
14:54to share their within their own networks.
14:57These town halls are open to all community members.
15:01And please consider being available to share your expertise with this group in the future.
15:08And of course, the need to rapidly deploy physical resources to sustain organizations on the frontline is para log.
15:17We are fortunate in New Haven to have many assets.
15:21The community based organizations themselves,
15:24strong academic institutions are neighborhoods and also generous philanthropy.
15:31And in that spirit, the Community Foundation for greater New Haven.
15:37And United Way for greater New Haven joined forces to launch the Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund with unprecedented speed.
15:49I'm honored to serve as a member of the board of directors of the Community Foundation and as a member of this new funds advisory group.
15:58Thanks to the work of the staff and leadership at both organizations.
16:03This process was very streamlined yet thorough.
16:07We were able to disperse our first grand,
16:10a first round of grant funding 2 weeks ago,
16:13pushing over $600,000 out in rapid response grants.
16:18We were able to support over 25 agencies in their work addressing urgent food,
16:26housing, health, social services and utilities needs.
16:31The United Way for greater New Haven is also raising funds to provide direct financial assistance to Alice families.
16:39The acronym Alice refers to families who are asset limited,
16:44income constrained. Yet employed. Yell University also announced the Yale community for New Haven Fund,
16:53which aims to raise $5,000,000 and will match donations from anyone Yale affiliated.
17:00It has already begun dispersing funds as well,
17:04including the $150,000 to support home food delivery.
17:10It's fun, will also include a focus on New Haven small businesses.
17:14And it has been of great benefit to have close an active collaboration between these two funds.
17:24There are very many efforts underway to address urgent basic needs in New Haven,
17:28and I'm grateful to have the chance to share some of them with you today.
17:35Please do consider reaching out to your colleagues with words of support offers to be of assistance.
17:43For shelter one, please contact doctor David Rosenthal or Katie Nash.
17:49Regarding opportunities for urgent short-term needs,
17:52feel free to contact Susan Nappy or terrorism or visit the United Way Portal.
18:01To learn more about the coordinated food assistance network.
18:05To learn more about the food pantries that are open.
18:09Or to make a donation,
18:11you can follow these links.
18:13Or contact Kathleen O'Connor, Defini or Alicia Santilli.
18:20To learn more about the community town halls,
18:23Tiesha, Johnson or doctor Yana Jordan are available as Contacts.
18:29For the New Haven COVID-19 fun and happy to field questions.
18:33You may also make donations at the links provided directly to the Community Foundation for greater New Haven.
18:40And to the United Way,
18:41for greater New Haven. The link for the Yale New Haven fun is also included.
18:46Downtown evening soup, kitchen and new reach are but two of many organizations.
18:52That are on their frontline and their information is also provided.
18:55We will be sure to disseminate this information to you.
19:02So as we look ahead to a hopeful and bright future in New Haven,
19:07I wanted thank you. Thank you everyone who is working urgently to address basic needs to deliver world class clinical care.
19:16To ensure educational excellence. The advocate for the very best in policy and practice and to innovate in research.
19:25And thank you again for joining us today.
19:31Thank you very much. Doctor Nunez Smith.