Connecting patients and their families with the resources they need to be healthy – beyond medicine
Health Leads envisions a healthcare system that addresses basic resource needs as a standard part of patient care. By providing a transformative experience for hundreds of college volunteers, Health Leads is producing a pipeline of new leaders with both the conviction and ability to champion a new model of healthcare delivery. Health Leads mobilizes college volunteers to connect patients and their families with the basic resources they need to be healthy. With Health Leads, doctors can “prescribe” resources such as food, housing and heating assistance – just as they do medication. Patients take their prescriptions to the clinic waiting room, where volunteers help “fill” them by connecting patients to community services.
Health Leads represents an innovative yet practical approach to removing social barriers to good health. By addressing patients’ non-medical needs as part of health care delivery, Health Leads helps change the circumstances affecting the lives of vulnerable people. With RWJF support, Health Leads is building capacity to spread its model for addressing the social factors that contribute to people’s health, reaching more patients in more cities across the country.
During this Google Hangout vDuring this Google Hangout video chat, Sonia Sarkar (Health Leads Chief of Staff) shared how to improve health outcomes with the social determinants of health.
In her TEDMED talk, Rebecca Onie, Co-founder and CEO of Health Leads, talks about the organization's efforts to link social services to health care, helping to ensure patients have the basic resources needed to heal.
Rebecca Onie of Health Leads, Paul Farmer of Partners in Health, and Heidi Behforouz of the Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment authored the SSIR article which calls for redefining notions of health care services, workforce, and delivery sites to improve health, especially among the most vulnerable.
Four in five physicians say patients’ social needs are as important to address as their medical conditions, according to a new survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. For physicians serving patients in low-income communities, nine in ten physicians believe this is true.
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Health Leads is working to integrate social needs into health care delivery.
$4,539,090.00 awarded to Health Leads - Building capacity in Health Leads to spread its model for meeting vulnerable families' basic health needs
April 7, 2013- Rebecca Onie, CEO of Health Leads, and Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health, share their thoughts with Forbes on how we can get better healthcare for less by delivering healthcare in more accessible places.
Read moreMarch 22, 2013- Health Affairs Blog features the work of Health Leads and how it helps patients with challenges such as unsafe housing and finding high-quality child care.
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March 17, 2013- Health Leads' new help desk in Nassau, NY is a first-of-its-kind program in the county.
January 18, 2013- U.S. News & World Report cites a report that looks at what people experience as a result to their medical expenses. The report and article both mention Health Leads as a model for connecting physician practices with support services that patients need.
December 12, 2012- This New York Times summary mentions the work Health Leads is doing to address the underlying social issues that negatively affect health.
