With housing insecurity and homelessness as one of the most significant social drivers of health affecting the Washington community, CHNW recognizes the need not just to provide direct care management support to our members to help connect them to housing resources, but also to have a strategy to address the upstream causes of inequities that affect all community members.
Within our social drivers of health strategy, one of our milestones this year was to create a Washington-specific toolkit to provide resources and support to Washington Community Health Centers (CHCs), and housing providers/operators seeking to build partnerships, apply for funding opportunities, and gain an understanding of Washington’s health and housing systems.
We also wanted to highlight the work CHCs are already doing in their local communities to support health and housing partnerships with featured case studies and keys to success.
Cross-sector partnerships are essential to addressing Washington’s housing crisis, and we hope this toolkit will be helpful in fostering those relationships and providing additional support and guidance.
A special thank you to the Department of Commerce Office of Apple Health and Homes for funding this project, the Cooperation of Supportive Housing for allowing us to build on their already existing resource, and of course, our participating CHCs for giving excellent feedback and guidance throughout the learning collaborative and toolkit development process.
If you have any questions about the Health & Housing Partnership Toolkit for Washington State, please email Rachel Briegel, MSW, Program Manager II, Health Systems Innovation, at [email protected].
What kind of care do you need? Not every medical issue needs emergency care. If you have a medical issue that doesn’t seem to be life-threatening, but you’re not sure what to do, see if your local Community Health Center clinic or primary care doctor offers virtual care. If they do, they will tell you how to set up your virtual care appointment.
