This post offers a curated collection of articles, toolkits, white papers, and/or other resources on how engaging community partners strengthens primary care systems by creating a robust, inclusive approach that aligns health policies and programs with the interests, concerns, assets, and needs of the communities they serve. Click on the toggle for any reference to view a brief summary of the document, its source, and an active link for access.
2024
LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory. (n.d.). Find LGBTQ+ friendly healthcare near you
Overview: The website provides valuable resources for patients, including the LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory—a free, searchable database of primary care physicians, specialists, and therapists. This directory highlights providers across the U.S. and Canada who are sensitive to the unique health needs of LGBTQ+ individuals. The LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory is a collaborative initiative by the Tegan and Sara Foundation and GLMA – Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality.
LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory. (n.d.). Find LGBTQ+ friendly healthcare near you. Retrieved December 3, 2024, from https://lgbtqhealthcaredirectory.org/
National Committee for Quality Assurance. (2024). Co-developing cross-sector partnerships to address health-related social needs: A toolkit for health care organizations collaborating with community-based organizations
Overview: This toolkit provides practical resources and recommendations for health care organizations (HCOs) to establish and sustain equitable partnerships with community-based organizations (CBOs). It guides HCOs in addressing health-related social needs by clarifying motivations, cultivating equitable relationships, and developing strategies for effective collaboration. Core focus areas include partnership motivations, equitable practices, CBO structures, agreements and funding, data sharing, evaluation, and partnership growth. The toolkit, along with a Reference Guide for Community-Based Organizations Collaborating with Health Care Organizations, was developed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance using insights from interviews and focus groups. Both resources aim to advance health equity by leveraging the unique strengths of HCOs and CBOs in addressing unmet social needs. For more information, visit www.ncqa.org/cross-sector-partnerships-to-address-health-related-social-needs/.
National Committee for Quality Assurance. (2024). Co-developing cross-sector partnerships to address health-related social needs: A toolkit for health care organizations collaborating with community-based organizations. National Committee for Quality Assurance. https://www.ncqa.org/wp-content/uploads/NCQA-HCO-Toolkit.pdf
Prior to 2024
Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Ahmed, S. M., Anise, A., Azzahir, A., Baker, K. E., Cupito, A., Eder, M., Everette, T. D., Erwin, K., Felzien, M., Freeman, E., Gibbs, D., Greene-Moton, E., Hernández-Cancio, S., Hwang, A., Jones, F., Jones, G., Jones, M., Khodyakov, D., Michener, J. L., … Zaldivar, R. (2022). Assessing meaningful community engagement: A conceptual model to advance health equity through transformed systems for health
Overview: The conceptual model Achieving Health Equity and Systems Transformation through Meaningful Community Engagement offers a comprehensive framework for evaluating authentic community engagement. It underscores the importance of grounding health and healthcare policies and programs in the interests, concerns, assets, and needs of the communities they aim to serve. Without this alignment, efforts often fail to achieve meaningful impact. In contrast, true community engagement involves collaborative partnerships with individuals who share similar challenges, concerns, or experiences. These partnerships are powerful drivers of environmental and behavioral changes that enhance community health. The model informs the formation of partnerships and coalitions that mobilize resources, influence systems, build stronger relationships among stakeholders, and serve as catalysts for transforming policies, programs, and practices.
Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Ahmed, S. M., Anise, A., Azzahir, A., Baker, K. E., Cupito, A., Eder, M., Everette, T. D., Erwin, K., Felzien, M., Freeman, E., Gibbs, D., Greene-Moton, E., Hernández-Cancio, S., Hwang, A., Jones, F., Jones, G., Jones, M., Khodyakov, D., Michener, J. L., … Zaldivar, R. (2022). Assessing meaningful community engagement: A conceptual model to advance health equity through transformed systems for health. NAM Perspectives. https://doi.org/10.31478/202202c or https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9303007/
Bromley, E., Figueroa, C., Castillo, E. G., Kadkhoda, F., Chung, B., Miranda, J., Menon, K., Whittington, Y., Jones, F., Wells, K. B., & Kataoka, S. H. (2018). Community partnering for behavioral health equity: Public agency and community leaders’ views of its promise and challenge
Abstract – Objective: To understand potential for multi-sector partnerships among community-based organizations and publicly funded health systems to implement health improvement strategies that advance health equity. Design: Key stakeholder interviewing during HNI planning and early implementation to elicit perceptions of multi-sector partnerships and innovations required for partnerships to achieve system transformation and health equity. Setting: In 2014, the Los Angeles County (LAC) Board of Supervisors approved the Health Neighborhood Initiative (HNI) that aims to: 1) improve coordination of health services for behavioral health clients across safety-net providers within neighborhoods; and 2) address social determinants of health through community-driven, public agency sponsored partnerships with community-based organizations. Participants: Twenty-five semi-structured interviews with 49 leaders from LAC health systems, community-based organizations; and payers. Results: Leaders perceived partnerships within and beyond health systems as transformative in their potential to: improve access, value, and efficiency; align priorities of safety-net systems and communities; and harness the power of communities to impact health. Leaders identified trust as critical to success in partnerships but named lack of time for relationship-building, limitations in service capacity, and questions about sustainability as barriers to trust-building. Leaders described the need for procedural innovations within health systems that would support equitable partnerships including innovations that would increase transparency and normalize information exchange, share agenda-setting and decision-making power with partners, and institutionalize partnering through training and accountability. Conclusions: Leaders described improving procedural justice in public agencies’ relationships with communities as key to effective partnering for health equity.
Bromley, E., Figueroa, C., Castillo, E. G., Kadkhoda, F., Chung, B., Miranda, J., Menon, K., Whittington, Y., Jones, F., Wells, K. B., & Kataoka, S. H. (2018). Community partnering for behavioral health equity: Public agency and community leaders’ views of its promise and challenge. Ethnicity & Disease, 28(Suppl 2), 397-406. https://doi.org/10.18865/ed.28.S2.397
Gertel-Rosenberg, A., Viveiros, J., Koster, A., Thompson, G., Taylor, B., Blackburn, K. B., & Bo, C. (2021). Moving the needle on health inequities: Principles and tactics for effective cross-sector population health networks
Abstract – Purpose of review: To summarize elements of cross-sector population health networks to support systems and policy change to achieve equitable access to health services and healthy development opportunities for young children and families, allowing everyone to have a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. Recent findings: The principles and tactics of Equity and Inclusion, Readiness, Joint Planning, Governance, and Data can guide cross-sector networks in effectively supporting communities in addressing health inequities. These principles are not linear or siloed, but rather, they overlap and reinforce each other. The principles require equity and the participation of community members to be central in all aspects of cross-sector network work. Summary: By building strong relationships among community partners, cross-sector population health networks can ensure the network is not a short-term, transactional one-time project, but rather, a sustained collaboration through enduring processes and infrastructure. Networks can gain a fuller understanding of the needs and assets of a community through engagement and leadership by community members than they could gather from data and surveys alone. This approach to serving a community by making members equal partners in the effort helps to place equity at the center of a network’s focus, as does embedding equity-related decision-making tools and processes into daily operations of the network. If cross-sector networks build resilient, inclusive structures and procedures, they can utilize them to quickly pivot and adjust to emerging needs or respond to crisis.
Gertel-Rosenberg, A., Viveiros, J., Koster, A., Thompson, G., Taylor, B., Blackburn, K. B., & Bo, C. (2021). Moving the needle on health inequities: Principles and tactics for effective cross-sector population health networks. Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 34(1), 27-32. https://doi.org/10.1097/MOP.0000000000001085
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2022). Community engagement: An essential component of an effective and equitable substance use prevention system
Abstract: By engaging community members, prevention systems learn firsthand from individuals and community systems about substance use problems and social determinants that influence behavioral health. Community engagement brings together the skills, knowledge, and experiences of diverse groups to create and/or implement solutions that work for all members of the community. This guide focuses on how community engagement can play a critical role in the equitable scale-up of evidence-based programs and policies within the substance use prevention system. The guide presents what we know about community engagement from research studies, reporting on common community engagement activities and outcomes. It also discusses practical considerations drawn from on-the-ground experience regarding how to participate effectively in community engagement.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2022). Community engagement: An essential component of an effective and equitable substance use prevention system (SAMHSA Publication No. PED22-06-01-005). National Mental Health and Substance Use Policy Laboratory. https://www.samhsa.gov/resource/ebp/community-engagement-essential-component-substance-use-prevention-system