Page 9 - Christiana Care Focus January 2018

THE CHRISTIANA CARE WAY
Together, working closely with our community partners, we’re making an impact
By Linda Brittingham, ACM, CCM, LCSW, Corporate Director of Social Work
At Christiana Care, we serve our neighbors as respectful, expert,
caring partners in their health.
We can be even better partners when we collaborate with community groups, working together and in innovative ways to meet the diverse health needs of the people we serve.
In my career as a social worker, I
have learned over the years that to succeed in creating options for people in our community,
we must build relationships. Do our community partners understand what we are trying to do? Do we understand their goals and what they can contribute?
A few years ago, a retired colleague called me with a great idea. She said we need to do something about people coming to the Emergency Department for non-medical needs — things that are social needs.
So, in 2012, a small group of us got together for our first Community Partnership meeting. In the beginning there were 15 people from very basic shelter providers, such as the Ministry of Caring, Friendship House and the Salvation Army.
The first thing that we noticed was that all of our organizations kept the same hours. Outside of those hours, there was nothing. No wonder people were going to the ED, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week!
So we worked on expanding hours, with some centers opening early and others staying open late, and allowing people to come in for services beyond the normal business hours. This was a real change in service delivery.
Next we partnered with food banks, clothing banks, state and city service agencies and faith-based agencies. Soon, our Community Partnership blossomed into more than
60 agencies. Today we have a robust network of people all working together to help others. The varied, challenging issues of the people we serve are no longer hot potatoes to be passed around from agency to agency. We work together to provide services so needs are met and service gaps are bridged.
In 2013, we embedded social workers at St. Patrick’s Center in Wilmington, located in the poorest ZIP code in the state. It’s the only day shelter in the city, the only place many people can just walk into and be connected with resources.
We recently worked with our partners in the community to develop a map, which we produced through the support of the Junior Board. It shows the locations of places where people can find resources. It provides such basic and life-saving information as when the centers are open and what services are available.
We’ve also partnered to create options for neighborhoods. Getting people housing is like magic. Medical issues related to being on the street go away. Having a permanent place to stay means that they can keep their belongings — including medications and medical supplies — in one place so it is easier to use them as their care team intended. They have access to a bathroom and kitchen so they can keep clean and eat as they should. Many of the problems with being on their feet and in the weather all the time go away, and their health stabilizes.
With every individual we serve, we learn new ways to help others. Connecting people with healthy food; collaborating to prepare for Code Purple alerts on freezing nights; addressing substance use and transportation barriers — working together, we identify gaps and devise ways to address unmet needs. When partners collaborate in planning services, we gain efficiency and eliminate redundancy.
We are all on the same page, the same team, and we’re making a positive difference in the health and lives of the most vulnerable people in our community. It’s The Christiana Care Way in action. And it’s working. ●
JANUARY 2018 FOCUS • 9