The Washtenaw Health Initiative will celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2021. The WHI’s 2019 impact report focuses on the activities undertaken by active work groups, comprised of representatives from dozens of Washtenaw County organizations that have much to be proud of.
2019 highlights include:
- MMOE Work Group members trained college students to distribute more than 10,000 flyers in low-coverage neighborhoods, giving residents and businesses contact information for local agencies that can assist them with Medicaid, Healthy Michigan Plan, and Health Insurance Marketplace applications.
- MHSUD Work Group members strengthened connections between behavioral health care providers and social service agencies across the county, helping to identify the community’s most pressing unmet needs, particularly around substance use treatment, and collaborated on action plans designed to address them.
- The Opioid Project recommended 19 strategies to address root causes of Washtenaw County’s opioid crisis and organized three subcommittees to carry out the work. They also organized an opioid summit that focused on the negative effects of stigma surrounding substance use disorders.
- The Senior Service Group conducted key informant interviews with physician offices and senior centers to learn about how they communicate with seniors about local services and which additional resources would be most useful to them.
- Care coordinators at 11 health and human service organizations that have been providing patient-centered, coordinated care to individuals with complex medical, behavioral, and social concerns redesigned the State Innovation Model intervention under a new name, MI Community Care, and began accepting referrals into the redesigned program.
- Dozens of representatives from Washtenaw-area organizations that are deeply involved in the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders participated in a system transformation process and developed seven action plans to improve the county’s service and support system.