Finding a Home for Those in Need
Meet Martin, through his story, one can see that housing is health. It demonstrates the community partnerships needed to advance health. Martin suffered from significant back pain and was homeless for four years. He was unable to heal properly, lacked access to healthcare, physical therapy, and pain management. Through partnerships with LifePath Ministries and WellSpan Arches to Wellness program, Turing Point Inter Faith Mission, WellSpan Market Bucks program, PennDOT, Rabbit Transit, and community donations, Martin recovered from his immediate issue, engaged in his treatment plan, obtained long term services like a permanent ID, income benefits, transportation, a cellphone, and learned healthy lifestyle and eating habits to better take care of himself.
One can see the joy on his face when he was told he got a permanent place to call home.
Emergency Sheltering
Across the communities WellSpan serves, our staff partnered with local shelter agencies to meet the needs of emergency shelter and cold weather shelters with support from WellSpan grants. These programs served more than 209 neighbors.
Good Samaritan Services opened the first winter shelter in Ephrata, providing shelter to 41 individuals throughout the season.
Fifty-eight neighbors participated in COVID hotel quarantine across the communities.
South Central Community Action Program in Adams county served 72 people in emergency shelters.
In partnership with Bell Socialization, we provided emergency shelter for 38 neighbors.
Arches to Wellness
Served 79 patients who need a safe place to heal. The 30–45-day program addresses medical and social complexities while offering shelter, basic necessities, and access to community resources. Programs serve Adams, Lebanon, and York county with two COVID-19 recuperative care programs in Lancaster and Franklin counties. These programs helped to improve hospital capacity by five beds a day and demonstrated improved health outcomes by reducing no-show rates for medical appointments (4 percent) and emergency room visits (70 percent).
Omega Bed Program™
This program supports community members who experience a delay in accessing skilled nursing home care due to social barriers. The program works to help neighbors get the right care at the right time. The program served 170 patients across all five counties in the WellSpan service areas and is a partnership with local nursing facilities.This goal-oriented program brings together social support agencies, and legal services to resolve patient barriers. This innovative program improved access for hospital care by 23 beds per day.
Housing Authority Community Health Worker
In partnership with Franklin County Housing Authority, 50 residents receive monthly health screenings and navigation to services. Support to community-based homeless shelters included deployment of electronic tablets for clients to access virtual care, rapid COVID-19 testing for staff and clients, and providing other supplies like personal protective equipment to keep everyone safe.
Prison Re-entry
WellSpan Special Programs began aligning with the strategic initiatives of the York County Reentry Coalition to support timely access to medical and behavioral health care for reentrants to our community, as well as engage with vested community partners to reduce barriers related to Social Determinants of Health. WellSpan Special Programs engages with staff from York County Prison to develop transition plans that will support the reentrant’s journey, they act as a conduit for information transparency, and connect processes by providing support for inmates presenting with medically acute needs and re-entry into the community. This program presents outcomes through connection with housing, insurance, primary care, medication management, and care provisioning while reducing recidivism to 9% of the participants, and the reduction of re-admission and admissions to the hospital.
Alliance for Low-income Personal Care Home Advancement (ALPHA)
An initiative of the Healthy York Coalition, which garners local and state support for low-income personal cares homes across the state. Expanded connections across the five counties in WellSpan Service area which serves 997 low-income persons who need assistive living support in Adams, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York Counties.
Our Accomplishments
- Conducted an advocacy campaign which resulted in state elected officials directing $8 million in federal CARES Act and ARPA funds to specifically support low-income personal care homes across Pennsylvania.
- Partnered with the York County Commissioners to support $70,000 in funding to help maintain operations and supplies for low-income personal care homes during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in York County through the CARES Act and an additional $215,000 in 2021/2022 through York County ARPA funds.
- Partnered with the Lancaster County Commissioners to support $1.1M in renovation or construction dollars to ensure the 11 low-income personal care homes in Lancaster are more healthcare or pandemic ready through the Counties’ ARPA Funds, plus an additional $55,000 in CARES Act funds to support PPE for these 11 homes.
- Raised $8,618 in grant and other funding to support enhancements to quality programming of residents and home improvements in 7 York County homes serving 145 residents.
- Ensured that each York County home had resources for vaccinations as well as access and coaching for PPP Loans during the Pandemic, ensuring continued operations for these essential businesses and safe space for the residents.
- Over 38 individuals have stepped forward to participate in our targeted advocacy efforts through Congressweb and an additional 34 people have signed on to participate in our next advocacy campaign. We were assisted this year by 20 volunteers, 47 donors and over 180 individuals continue to engage with the ALPHA initiative.
