United Health Care: Social Determinants of Health

12152020_5 am

Morning hours.

Overall a very c1 3 kentucky.

I'm here with amy johnston of unitedhealthcare and ricky baker of community action kentucky.

Thank you both so muchfor being here.

Amy johnston: thank you.

Ricky baker: it's my pleasure.

Speaker 1: so often we talk about healthin terms of mental illnesses, addictions, just basic problems that we havewithin our systems, but we don't often talk about being healthy as a whole,that it's just living, basic needs that we need, shelter, clothing, food.that's what we're going to talk about today.

Amy, how is united involved inthis, in the commonwealth?

Amy johnston: so united's mission is tohelp people live healthier lives.

And one of the things we need to remember isthat 80% of what influences a person's health are what we call socialdeterminants of health.

These are the basic needs of life, housing, food,clothing, things that we don't think about, how much they really impact theoutcomes of a person on their ability to take care of their health andwellbeing.

Speaker 1: sure.

And it's so majorbecause a lot of us are just so accustomed to just having it there.

But a lotof people are not.

And that's what your program helps people with across thestate.

Ricky baker: yes we are a network of over23 community action agencies across the state.

We have a physical office in all120 counties.

So we cover the entire commonwealth and we're providing thosebasic services to folks every day for the low to mid income families across thecommonwealth, to make sure that those basic needs are met so that they do stayhealthy.

Those are the social determinants of health that have a direct impacton someone's health, that a lot of times people don't relate to healthcare, butis very much integral and to someone staying here.

Speaker 1: sure.

And ricky, let me askyou, what i guess is the major number one, number of cases and a certain issuethat you're receiving and dealing with on a daily basis?

Ricky baker: well, it's not just a singleissue that we're involved with.

We address all the underlying issues that mayaffect someone's health, whether that includes housing, food insecurity that wetalked about in another segment, transportation, education, employment, all ofthose factors that directly relate to someone ealthy or not ashealthy as they could be.

Speaker 1: sure.

The whole being.

Ricky baker: yeah.

Speaker 1: and how do you help peoplefix this?

Ricky baker: we have numerous programsthat we operate, that's the unique ability of the community action agenciesacross the state.

All 23 provide some of the same services but very muchprovide different services based upon the needs in each county.

We actually doa needs assessment on a regular basis to determine what needs are in needlocally, and then we design services around those.

Speaker 1: got you.

So you kind ofnetwork out to have people get the assistance that they need in whatever issuethey're currently dealing with?

Ricky baker: yes, and the great ability tonetwork with other organizations.

We can't do everything ourself and we don'tsay that we do everything else, but we know that if we don't provide a servicelocally to someone that needs that service, we know who in our community doesprovide that service and we make sure that those individuals are linked up andreferred out to other programs, even if we may not provide those directlyourselves.

Speaker 1: which is so important becausewe all know in life, networking is key in order to get the services we need andthese are crucial things because that's our health, that's all we have.

Nowricky, if we want to get involved to learn more about your organization or needsome help, how do we get ahold of you?

Amy johnston: the easy central way to dothat is to go to capky, that's capky.org, you can go to that website, you canfind out more information and you just need to contact your local communityaction agency.

There's 23 across the state and get involved with your localcommunity action agency.

Speaker 1: absolutely.

Great informationthere.

And amy, if we want to find out more about united health and whatthey're doing across the commonwealth, where could we find that?

Amy johnston: absolutely.

So it'suhccommunityplan.co m.

Speaker 1: all right, well thank youboth so much for being here.

Thank you for all the services you provide.

It'ssomething we all need, and at some point in our life, we all may need thatnetwork on who to contact.

Ricky baker: right.

Speaker 1: we appreciate it.

Amy johnston: thank you.

Coming up in this half hour of good morning kentucky... as the u-s starts the