The Smoketown Family Wellness Center (SFWC) has a dream that every child will grow up healthy, living up to their potential regardless of the neighborhood where they live. Smoketown has the highest rate of death attributed to poverty in our city. Six in ten children live in poverty, growing up without basic resources, decreasing their chance to succeed in school and increasing the chance of developing chronic conditions.
The SFWC model of healthcare delivery will move care upstream to provide primary prevention of diseases that begin in childhood. We will empower parents with the tools they need to raise their children to be healthy in mind, body and spirit. In this way, they become health experts themselves, spreading their knowledge to family, friends and neighbors to create a culture of health and wellness.
Services will include:
- Well Care
SWFC’s well care services will include comprehensive pediatric care. SFWC will offer group well visits that will enable parents and children to act as support systems for other parents and children as they face challenges. Hours will be flexible based on the need in the community.
- Sick Care
SFWC will offer same day sick visits as well as access for medical advice by phone. On-call services will be provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week. SFWC will also provide diagnosis as well as ongoing management of asthma and ADHD.
- Family Coaching
A “Family Coach” will be vital to SFWC and will meet with each family with strengths-based approach. The Family Coach will be a trained, licensed social worker who will evaluate the status of each family: housing, food security, physical health and safety, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and mental health disease. They will be a vital part of the team to maintain health and wellness in our community. Rather than waiting to connect with families once there is a problem, the coach will work with families routinely to help establish good habits and to promote the importance of social determinants as vital to our health. This service will normalize the inclusion of social determinants of health and healthy lifestyles in maintaining wellness. Families will be supported in navigating the rough spots in day to day living and parenting.
- Parent coaching and support groups
Parenting classes will provide a basic understanding of child development to guide caregivers to develop a positive, responsive relationship to promote wellbeing and to protect against the effects of toxic stress. They will be offered for each age group.
- Mental Health Services
SFWC will partner with skilled mental health providers to provide step up care when necessary. As the Center grows, these services will be offered on site.
- Healthy Eating
All SFWC team members will have a working knowledge of the benefits of healthy eating. We will partner with the Department of Public Health and Wellness, WIC, and local food organizations to provide resources. We anticipate having a Fresh Stop (a fresh local food pop-up) within the Center to provide fresh food access. SFWC will be built around a teaching kitchen, focusing on simple, fast food preparation and encouraging the family meal as an important factor in raising healthy, successful children.
- Active Living
In addition to encouraging active play and lifestyles, SFWC will partner with exercise coaches and facilitators to offer a variety of classes to families based on the interests of the community. Partners include the YMCA, Heuser Health, Hope by Hope Performance LLC and independent teachers.
- Financial Literacy
Finances are an important part of life. SFWC will offer financial empowerment classes through certification from Louisville Metro Department of Community Resources and The Center for Nonprofit Excellence’s Community Financial Empowerment certification.
- Family Literacy
Education and health are closely tied. Supporting parents to promote literacy across a lifetime is an important part of health. SFWC support the city’s cradle to career education path. Providing access to books will help prepare children for school and provide important resources for parenting and health. SFWC will begin with its own Little Free Library and partner with the Louisville Free Public Library to promote further opportunities for literacy.
- Stress Management
Managing stress is a vital part of wellbeing. SFWC will partner with existing programs of mindfulness, exercise, music therapy and other modalities for both children and adults. Developing social emotional intelligence will be a focus. Stress management will be modeled by SFWC staff in day to day encounters with children, families and other staff.
- Dental Education
Partner with local Pediatric Dental providers to provide dental education. Good dental hygiene will be taught and fluoride varnishes will be applied as a part of routine care.
- Smoking Cessation
SFWC will partner with the Department for Public Health and Wellness to provide smoking cessation through the evidence-based Cooper Clayton method.
- Tracking results
The nation is looking for new models of healthcare delivery. By providing integrated primary prevention and healthy lifestyle support in a community-based setting, SFWC will deliver measurable results and serve as a replicable model for healthcare in other neighborhoods. Research will track not only traditional health outcomes such as vaccination rates, emergency department visits and successful management of asthma and attention deficit disorder, but also educational and socio-economic outcomes. Outcomes will help guide shifting insurance reimbursement to value-based care.
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CommentTrisha Finnegan