The headlines scroll endlessly across our screens as digital trackers race to keep pace with COVID-19 cases and deaths. But in the wake of this turbulent health crisis, some of the most vulnerable members of our community are fighting a concurrent economic pandemic with enormous stakes: falling behind financially and facing a deadly disease.
卫生的社会决定因素（包括就业，营养食品的可用性，运输和获得医疗保健），约占个人健康成果的80％。不幸的是，Covid-19的经济影响对可能已经在努力维持生计的人们造成了额外的负担，这比以往任何时候都更加难以获得护理和社会服务。
“We have seen an alarming 20% increase in families experiencing food insecurity during the pandemic,” says Shreela V. Sharma, PhD, RD. “A lack of basic resources, such as healthy foods, increases the risk for chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease—the same diseases that make people more susceptible to the fatal complications of COVID-19.”
使有需要的家庭，资源和社会服务的事情变得复杂，因此很难找到帮助。通常，同一个家庭努力将食物放在桌子上也需要额外的帮助，例如住房支持，运输援助或负担得起的健康保险。
As part of UTHealth School of Public Health’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sharma is leading an effort to address the mounting health and social needs of families throughout our communities by facilitating the development of a Community Information Exchange as part of her leadership role in the Health Equity Collective. She serves as co-lead of the Health Equity Collective, a community-wide coalition in the Greater Houston area that consists of more than 120 local organizations with UTHealth, American Heart Association, and Harris County Public Health providing the backbone. The Community Information Exchange is one of the Health Equity Collective’s primary efforts to establish an impactful and sustainable data-driven system to promote health equity in our community.
“我们不想只是记录社会问题impacting health outcomes; we want to do something about them,” she says. “With our school’s infrastructure embedded in our communities, we can meet patients where they are, learn what helps them most, and scale the Community Information Exchange to meet the needs of everyone during this pandemic and beyond.”
医疗保健组织通常会筛查患者的健康决定因素，这使提供者可以理解可能影响患者健康状况的特定因素。社区信息交流将使社会服务和医疗保健组织能够相互推荐并确保满足患者的需求。这也将有助于确定社会服务对人口水平健康成果的影响。
“Similar to how doctors send patients’ prescriptions to pharmacies, health providers will be able to use it to send prescriptions for social services,” Sharma explains. “For instance, a doctor can refer a patient who does not have access to healthy food to a specific food pantry. The exchange will also notify the social service provider to ensure they are prepared to assist the patient.”
Additionally, people will be able to access the Community Information Exchange outside of the health care setting via an online access portal. After a client takes a screening test for various social needs, the exchange will identify services that the client can select.
Sharma说：“社区信息交流将帮助我们改善脆弱人群的健康，并使每个人对Covid-19的抗气者更具韧性。”“大流行后很久，它将继续为我们社区提供出色的资源。”
作为卫生公平集体的一部分，Sharma计划在2021年与一组非营利和医疗保健伙伴一起测试原型。该交易所将逐渐合并更多的合作伙伴，包括医疗保健提供者，为大休斯顿地区的居民提供无缝服务。
Philanthropy can help Sharma’s team expand the exchange and scale it across the state to build a more equitable, accessible health system for every Texan.
“We are all in this together,” says Sharma. “The Community Information Exchange will help shield our communities by ensuring everyone has access to vital resources.”
A brighter outlook ahead
As quarantines and lockdowns rippled through our communities at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sharma recognized an opportunity to help families address mounting health and social needs through Brighter Bites, a nonprofit organization she cofounded in 2012. Brighter Bites distributes fresh produce and educational nutrition resources to low-income families in six major cities across the nation, including Houston. With help from School of Public Health students, they are compiling resources to ensure families have access to the help they need.
“我们首先收集基于证据的信息，例如食品储藏室程序，公共交通计划，驱逐法律和心理健康指导，”三年级/MPH学生Amelia Khoei说。“我们将这些信息组织到每个更明亮的叮咬位置的客户中。”
Amelia also mustered additional student volunteers.
她说：“在向同学发送帮助的五分钟后，每个志愿者职位都被填补了。”“ Covid-19在2020年取消了我们的临床课程，使我们离开了患者，但我们仍然想尽一切可能帮助社区中的人们。”
Maha Almohamad, a second-year PhD student in epidemiology and graduate research assistant at Brighter Bites, is leading the charge to confirm the accuracy of each resource.
她说：“随着法律和准则的变化，我们一直在不断更新我们的资源。”“我们还将资源转化为我们的叮咬家庭所说的语言，以确保每个人都可以访问。”
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the health and social inequalities that torment our communities, but thanks to School of Public Health students like Amelia and Maha, Brighter Bites is helpingto safeguard our most vulnerable families.