How would you describe yourself if you had to choose from the following: Male, female, female-to-male, male-to-female, genderqueer or an additional gender category?
If you decline to answer, provide a reason why.
These questions are among a series that a nurse practitioner within York-based Family First Health is asking every patient over the age of 13 that comes into her Hanover practice.
Gov. Tom Wolf signed two executive orders Thursday to expand non-discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity for commonwealth employees under his jurisdiction.
That will have an immediate effect on the 79,000 employees under his purview and will affect “tens of thousands” of workers contracted with the state as those contracts come online, he said.
A week before the governor signed the orders, Family First Health announced its participation in a collaborative to transform primary care for LGBT patients.
Vision problems left untreated can affect a child’s overall health and learning, and Family First Health is working to make sure kids get the treatment they need — for free.
Jenny Englerth, CEO of Family First Health, said the organization is a member of the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved, which put out a call asking what communities could use the service, and so Family First Health jumped on it.
“We have consistently, within our interactions with York City schools, heard a challenge around both vision screenings and then exams and getting corrective lenses,” she said.
Family First Health knows how important getting personal care is to one’s health. Different groups of people have different health issues, and making sure everyone gets the same level of care is a top priority to Family First, according to the health care provider.
Sexual identity and orientation is a very personal issue, said Karen McCraw, director of social services for Family First. It is something that could affect the quality of health care if someone decides not to disclose information.
“We don’t know how we’re doing unless we’re measuring this,” she said.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Family First Health to participate in LGBT collaborative to “transform care”
How a person self identifies when it comes to sexual orientation or gender identity plays an important role in life. But imagine going to your medical provider and never being asked those things about your life.
How can a provider do the best for their patients if they don’t know who they are? How comfortable would you be with forms that ask about your mother and father’s medical histories when you in fact have two mothers?
Family First Health wants to change that. The community health center is one of 10 in the nation chosen to participate in a year-long learning collaborative with the National Association of Community Health Centers and the Centers for Disease Control designed to “Transform Primary Care for LGBT People.”
“Until we ask them their sexual orientation and gender identity along with all of the other questions we ask in a medical visit, we can’t give them that quality care,” said Karen McCraw, director of social services.
The most recent statistics showed that 2.7 percent of Pennsylvania’s population is LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender), but many believe the number is underreported since most people aren’t asking.
Family First Health will start with one provider in Hanover – Jennifer Fernandes. The goal is to then expand the work to the entire site, and then Family First Health’s other four sites.
Staff will start small with just asking Fernandes’ patients about their sexual orientation and gender identity and making it a part of their charts.
The end goal is better care. How can staff at any point in your visit be better equipped to meet your needs? And how does Family First Health’s paperwork and processes best reflect the work in a more inclusive way? How do we best take care of the health of LGBT people, and how do we track and measure our outcomes?
Fernandes will do national training every other week that she can bring back and teach in house.
Signs will also be going up in provider’s’ rooms with the phrase “Do ask, do tell,” letting patients know that we want to talk and have created a safe space in which to do so.
Why does it matter? Here are some facts from HealthyPeople.gov:
LGBT youth are 2 to 3 times more likely to attempt suicide.
LGBT youth are more likely to be homeless.
Lesbians are less likely to get preventive services for cancer.
Gay men are at higher risk of HIV and other STDs, especially among communities of color.
Lesbians and bisexual females are more likely to be overweight or obese
Transgender individuals have a high prevalence of HIV/STDs, victimization, mental health issues, and suicide and are less likely to have health insurance than heterosexual or LGBT individuals.
Elderly LGBT individuals face additional barriers to health because of isolation and a lack of social services and culturally competent providers.
LGBT populations have the highest rates of tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use.
Media contact:
Kate Harmon, marketing and outreach coordinator
717-801-4855
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About Family First Health
Founded in 1970, York Health Corporation, now Family First Health, is a non-profit, federally qualified health center dedicated to providing a broad range of primary health, dental care and social services at its sites on South George Street in York, Hannah Penn Middle School, Lewisberry, Hanover and Gettysburg. As a Federally Qualified Health Center, Family First Health offers a reduced fee program for the uninsured and accepts most other health insurances. For more information regarding the programs and services offered through Family First Health, please visit the website at www.familyfirsthealth.org. Se habla español.
For kids in the York County area, keeping their eye on the prize of an education is key. But sometimes that can be difficult when your vision is blurry.
Family First Health and Envolve Benefit Options have teamed up with the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved to bring the Vision Van to York City and Delta this week.
“There are a lot of kids unable to afford glasses,” said Courtney Lewis, director of development and community engagement at Family First. “We have to be thinking how it affects kids’ performances when they can’t see correctly in class.”
The Vision Van is rolling into York Friday at Hannah Penn Middle School, 415 E. Boundary Ave. Children up to age 18 in York City can get their vision checked for free from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. with parental permission.
Since our youth, we’ve been indoctrinated to eat our vegetables with dinner. Parents shared persuasive arguments about carrots aiding our eyesight and spinach making us strong, but many kids still hid Brussels sprouts in their napkins to dump elsewhere later.
It seems we haven’t changed much as adults: The Healthy York County Coalition and Healthy Adams County released a summary report of the community health needs for 2015 that found only 4 percent of York and Adams county residents consume the daily recommendation of fruits and vegetables.
That’s why Family First Health is focused in April on our “Eat Your Greens!” campaign, which encourages individuals to make fruits and vegetables part of the conversation with their doctors and dentists.
Read more from our CEO, Jenny Englerth, in this guest column published in the York Sunday News.
Family First Health Corp. has received more than $350,000 in funding for substance abuse services through the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Family First is one of five health centers in Pennsylvania to receive the funding. CEO Jenny Englerth said the money will be used to help provide routine screening to 14,000 patients served in York City and Hanover, as well as medication-assisted treatment for addiction for 400 to 500 people in the area.
Friday brought two developments regarding the opioid and heroin epidemic in the U.S., both of which will impact Central Pennsylvania.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released additional funding for substance-abuse services, and the Senate passed an act to enhance programs seen as critical to tackling the nation’s prescription opioid and heroin crisis.
In the midstate, two organizations have received funding to expand substance-abuse services, specifically those related to opioid use. Family First Health in York received $352,083 and Keystone Rural Health Center in Chambersburg received $352,083.
