Health Starts at Home is an initiative hosted by the Boston Foundation that brings together housing and health-care organizations to support work that focuses on the positive benefits of stable, affordable housing on children’s health outcomes. -
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Megan Sandel, MD, MPH, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine, the former Director of Pediatric Healthcare for the Homeless at Boston Medical Center, a Co-principal investigator with Children’s HealthWatch and a nationally recognized expert on housing and child health.
Designing and Stocking the Housing Pharmacy: Pairing Health Care and Housing Dollars to Improve Stability and Health
Partners: Children’s HealthWatch, BMC HealthNet Plan, Boston Public Health Commission, Madison Park Development Corporation, Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation, Boston Housing Authority, Tohn Environmental Strategies, Medical-Legal Partnership Boston, Vital Village Network, Project Hope and social service and community engagement advocates
Model: Based at Boston Medical Center, this partnership includes organizations that represent a wide range of players in the housing and health care sectors in Boston. Together they will create a seamless system of services for children under the age of four who receive medical services at Boston Medical Center. Medical staff often do not ask about a family’s housing situation because they can offer no “treatment.” This model will build on the existing Children’s HealthWatch interview protocol, enabling trained interviewers to ask the right questions and link families to the broad array of services that already exist in their community to help them find, retain, and improve their housing.
- See more at: http://www.tbf.org/impact/initiatives/health-starts-at-home#sthash.wbRacKF5.dpuf