We have worked comprehensively to improve access to care. In West Virginia, for example, 96 percent of all children are now enrolled in a health care plan. In North Carolina and New York, we have dramatically expanded children’s access to oral health care and to some degree have done the same for adults.We are intensifying our diligence to insure that adults have access to full care, not simply to extractions of their teeth to reduce pain. In New Mexico we have gone from virtually no public health dentists to a system of care that networks across the state and to an institution devoted to oral health study and services at the major state university, a model for systems reform. We want the uninsured and underserved men in our communities to have access to care and to use available services and have initiated special programs in outreach, care management and collaborative development to help all of us think about the equity in a system that simply does not offer any insurance to a poor man, even when he is employed.We believe that strong families can be built by helping our men remain strong and healthy.
We have not limited our thinking to just our initial 13 and now 8 national demonstration learning laboratories. We have worked to identify other shortcomings in our system and have fostered the development of a report on the health workforce by the Institute of Medicine, In the Nation’s Compelling Interest: Ensuring Diversity in the Health Professions. In September 2004 the Sullivan Commission released a report on this subject that proposes options to inform policy regarding ways to redress the disparity in access to health professions education and the subsequent inability of the poor to have provider teams that fully understand their culture and their condition and treat them with sensitivity.We have worked with a former United States Surgeon General on the release of an oral health report and have helped to put on the ‘map’ of discussion the disparities in access to care to the degree that there is at least now a national dialogue and some action. Along with our collaborators, we are still working and are confident that the system will move to change as we speak with the voice of communities of need.
We have worked to put the issue of men’s health into the national dialogue and have released six documents that describe the plight of poor men. A robust national dialogue is now in place where before none existed. More and more men are seeking services and we continue to work to build trust so that these men will see our services as friendly and understanding of their needs and their hopes.
And there is so much more. The information below
helps to frame our work in ways that help you see why we act and gives a brief insight into our work, our vision and our commitment to make changes in communities across America. Please read on…