On May 20, leadership from UnitedHealthcare and Daughters of Charity Health Centers will gather to announce the results of the $1.5 million UnitedHealthcare provided to Daughters of Charity Health Centers (DCHC) in 2018 for a community health workers program and to announce a new grant to continue support of the Care Fellowship through 2019. These grants are part of UnitedHealthcare’s Empowering Health commitment, which strives to make an impact on the health of communities by providing significant funding to address social determinants of health in high-risk and high-need areas. According to United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings, in 2018, Louisiana ranked 50th among U.S. states in overall health due to factors like a high prevalence of smoking, obesity, and children in poverty.
To date, the UnitedHealthcare grant has enabled a full-time team of 15 community health workers to connect more than 11,000 underserved and uninsured people across New Orleans with vital community health and social services. These include health screenings, scheduling appointments with doctors for preventive care services, and working with community partners to ensure people have access to the critical resources they need, including assistance in finding affordable housing, applying for SNAP food stamp benefits, accessing substance abuse treatment, primary care, financial education and counseling, and job training.
The additional funding from UnitedHealthcare will continue to support the full salaries, benefits, and training of DCHC’s community health workers and allow the program to continue its outreach to the greater community.