CommonSpirit Health and United Way Worldwide are initiating a series of projects designed to address the social determinants of health by connecting people to the resources they need to be well.
CommonSpirit Health is a nonprofit, Catholic health system created in February 2019 through the alignment of Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health. United Way, the world's largest privately funded nonprofit, notes that the most frequent inquiries to 2-1-1, the nationwide service connecting millions of people to help, are related to food and housing insecurity, both major social determinants of health – and issues that can be remedied.
"United Way is committed to improving the health of every person in every community and we are confident that with our partnership with CommonSpirit Health we will be able to deliver impact at scale," said Mary Sellers, United Way U.S. President, in a prepared statement. "CommonSpirit Health's hospitals and clinics are anchors in their communities, where local United Ways are uniquely positioned to rapidly convene business and community leaders and solve complex problems, such as barriers to health."
CommonSpirit and United Way Worldwide have outlined five priorities for their partnership:
1. Developing new models to provide holistic care for people in their communities;
2. Leveraging technology and innovation to engage and serve individuals' unique needs;
3. Strengthening 2-1-1, the comprehensive immediate needs service that connects people with resources ranging from food and housing assistance to programs for veterans and domestic violence victims;
4. Enabling more efficient communications and coordination among community-based organizations; and
5. Building a strong, accessible safety net of community organizations addressing non-clinical needs.
The organizations plan to pilot programs in several communities served by CommonSpirit's Dignity Health system in California in 2019, with the goal of expanding and scaling the successful models and solutions in other states.
