RI Diabetes Health Equity Challenge Wave Two Momentum Sessions

For April’s webinar momentum session, the WE Team invited David Waters, MA, Chief Executive Officer of Community Servings, to present on the work they are doing to actively engage the community to provide medically tailored, nutritious, scratch-made meals to chronically and critically ill individuals and their families. Community Servings has over 30 years’ experience of delivering medically tailored meals and serve 3,200 people each year. With 15 medical diets tailored to nutritional and medical needs using whole, fresh ingredients, Community Servings has been able to demonstrate an ROI. Research and clinical studies show that the high-quality meals improve quality of life and health outcomes and has a 16% reduction in monthly healthcare costs. The study also shows 49% fewer hospitalizations and 72% less admissions to skilled nursing facilities. (Webinar Recording)

On May 14, teams met for a momentum session that focused on advancing health equity in the context of COVID-19 using the pathways approach. Somava Saha, MD, MS, Well Being in the Nation, facilitated a discussion on how the COVID-19 “syndemic” requires a coordinated strategic response across sectors to address physical, mental and social health together. With an equity-first approach to the response of the corona crisis, there is an opportunity to build community-based infrastructure for a primary health and well-being system. "Why Trust — And Trusted Messengers — Matters: A Dialogue with Abeni Bloodworth" during the momentum session touched on the importance of leveraging and building trust messengers and local webs of trust in communities to support rapid scale-up of strategies that work. This is an opportunity to chart a path toward long-term equitable recovery, resilience, and renewal. (Webinar Recording)