Healthy Communities Initiative | Healthy Communities Initiative

“Of all forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Annual Meeting of Medical Community for Human Rights 1966

Healthy Communities Initiative was created to investigate and help reduce the health disparities driven by a complex network of economic, social, cultural, and medical influences. Chronic disease has a devastating impact in rural areas. Healthy Communities Initiative is collaborating with community members, healthcare providers, and scientists to improve the health of eastern North Carolina residents.

Healthy Communities Initiative utilizes a community-based model that uses a geospatial approach to target underserved neighborhoods with the highest rates of out of hospital premature death for a patient-centered and health worker-based intervention. Healthy Communities Initiative will select communities using death registration data to identify specific US Census blocks with disproportionally high rates of Out-of-Hospital Premature Natural Death (OHPND), which is defined as an individual aged 18-74 who died outside a healthcare facility of natural causes (excluding cancer). Healthy Communities Initiative has a team of community health workers that travel within the targeted communities. The community health workers are trained, trusted community members that use a door-to-door approach in the neighborhoods that have been selected within the eastern North Carolina region and they will engage with the adult members of the household.

For the Community

Healthy Communities Initiative wants to educate and empower members of the community to improve the lives of those impacted by chronic illness and premature death.

The community health workers of Healthy Communities Initiative will share programs and resources available for managing social and medical factors that lead to cardiovascular disease with participants of the program. The enrolled participants will become a part of a ‘living registry’ which Healthy Communities Initiative will examine to determine the impact the program has on health outcomes within target communities.

The mission of Healthy Communities Initiative is to make community the foundation of health and well being in the areas the program serves.

For the Participants

Healthy Communities Initiative understands the health-disparities in rural areas and the barriers that stand in the way for receiving care for chronic diseases. Our community health workers are there to serve the members of the community and assist in improving chronic disease management.

The Healthy Communities Initiative wants to engage, educate, and empower members of the community to assist in bettering their health and wellness.

For the Researchers

Many of the people whose deaths are classified as out of hospital premature death suggests that prevention and intervention models should be focused on community-level intervention, patient engagement, and consistent follow-up.

Healthy Communities Initiative is a community centered program. We value teamwork and the ideas of other investigators. We encourage investigators from all areas to explore our research agenda and reach out with innovative ideas for collaboration to improve the health and well-being of eastern North Carolina residents.

Healthy Communities Initiative is focusing on a holistic, patient-centered, and community-focused approach on reducing the health-related disparities in rural, underserved communities and improving the quality and impact of the community-based programs available.