Health Care
Needs
Health care is expensive, as is health insurance to cover some of those costs. Work First participants need health care services and insurance coverage. They also need information on ways to reduce disease and injury. The family plays a pivotal role in diagnosing the symptoms, encouraging home treatment, deciding whether professional medical help is needed, and gaining access to medical services. With more education, families gain a better sense of preventive health care practices that could be cost effective.
Concerns
Medicaid coverage for health care costs will end after one year for most Work First participants, and many jobs do not include health insurance benefits. Health promotion will assume new importance, but serious problems of access and affordability must be addressed.
The costs of medical care are always a major concern; they affect both the family and the community. Access to affordable care is a major issue in rural and urban areas.
Community Response
Communities can work with the Health Department to provide health fairs, immunization programs, and preventive health education rograms to promote health and prevent diseases and injuries. Rural task forces can work with the Office of Rural Health to increase the availability of affordable services and awareness of these services.
Strategies
1. Individual Self-Care
Encourage people to try initially to prevent, manage, or treat problems themselves. Self-helpers can use medical reference books, computer on-line resources, and self-knowledge.
2. Friends and Family
If self-treatment is ineffective, family and friends become the next resource for information and support. Many people prefer ongoing conversation within a caring community of people who share their interests.
3. Employers
Employers can offer health screening services and promote the well-being of employees and their families.
4. Self-Help Networks
A larger circle of experienced self-helpers, mutual-aid networks, and face-to-face help groups may be tapped if family and friends cannot help.
5. Health Professionals as Facilitators
Direct communication between patients and providers can help consumers obtain information and avoid unnecessary clinic visits. Workshops by nurses and physicians in the health facility could be arranged.
6. Health Professionals as Partners
Laypersons and clinicians could work together as teams, guided by computerized medical systems, to resolve serious problems. Hospitalization and face-to-face clinic visits are minimized.
