All In Webinar on Health and Housing Linkages Highlighted Critical Lessons for COVID-19 Response
On April 28th, panelists from Cook County, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; and Los Angeles County, California shared their experiences leveraging current health and housing projects in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally conceptualized as a follow up for the All In Health and Housing Affinity Group, the webinar shifted in focus as the impact of COVID-19 grew exponentially.
Panelists shared lessons on leveraging existing relationships to promote an equity-driven response, how promoting the value of data sharing and community health can be useful in developing new relationships, and technical and relationship-based considerations to sharing data on vulnerable communities. Key takeaways included:
The value of relationship building and collaborative work: Cook County's record of relationship building over the years helped establish the trust among partners needed for an effective response to COVID-19. According to panelist Leticia Reyes-Cook (Cook County Health) this relationship-building helped in addressing the needs of homeless populations being affected by the virus and advocating at the city and county level the needs of our patient population.
Establishing the value of data sharing to new partnerships: According to panelists Adam Perzynski (MetroHealth) and Irwin Lowenstein (Rethink Advisors), they found that COVID-19 opened up opportunities for new linkages across organizations. Their established workaround EcoDistricts encouraged organizations in the Cleveland area to reach out to them about data sharing efforts for COVID-19, highlighting how prior trust and collaboration serves as a core advantage for data collaboration.
Recognizing the combined efforts of technology and relationship building: For panelists Irene Vidyanti and Ricardo Basurto-Davila (LA County Chief Information Office), they found that their health and housing linkages allowed them to have a coordinated response, with a better ability to identify and predict needs. This was done by addressing whole person needs and stressors that require response across sectors. Currently they are thinking about the vulnerabilities in their data infrastructure in order to mitigate breakdowns in linkages.