Partnerships Among Community Development, Public Health, and Health Care Could Improve the Well-Being of Low-Income People
Safe, vibrant neighborhoods are vital to health. The community development “industry”—a network of nonprofit service providers, real estate developers, financial institutions, foundations, and government—draws on public subsidies and other financing to transform impoverished neighborhoods into better-functioning communities.
Although such activity positively affects the “upstream” causes of poor health, the community development industry rarely collaborates with the health sector or even considers health effects in its work. Examples of initiatives—such as the creation of affordable housing that avoids nursing home placement—suggest a strong potential for cross-sector collaborations to reduce health disparities and slow the growth of health care spending, while at the same time improving economic and social well-being in America’s most disadvantaged communities.
We propose a four-point plan to help ensure that these collaborations achieve positive outcomes and sustainable progress for residents and investors alike.
Linking Community Development and Health
- 1. How the Health and Community Development Sectors are Combining Forces to Improve Health and Well-Being
- 2. Building the Scaffold to Improve Health Care to Advance Americans' Health
- 3. Partnerships Among Community Development, Public Health, and Health Care Could Improve the Well-Being of Low-Income People
- 4. Despite Obstacles, Considerable Potential Exists for More Robust Federal Policy on Community Development and Health
- 5. Bringing Researchers and Community Developers Together to Revitalize a Public Housing Project and Improve Health
- 6. Community Health Centers and Community Development Financial Institutions
- 7. Training New Community Health, Food Service, and Environmental Protection Workers Could Boost Health, Jobs, and Growth
- 8. The PROMETHEUS Bundled Payment Experiment
- 9. Mayo Clinic Employees Responded to New Requirements for Cost Sharing by Reducing PossiblyUnneeded Health Services Use
- 10. Gaps in Residency Training Should be Addressed to Better Prepare Doctors for a Twenty-First-Century Delivery System
- 11. How the National Prevention Council Can Overcome Key Challenges and Improve Americans' Health
- 12. Evolving Brand-Name and Generic Drug Competition May Warrant a Revisionof the Hatch-Waxman Act
- 13. Strengthening Children's Oral Health