Abstract
Based on a specific community benefit analysis of Greenville, South Carolina, we identified the Dunean community with its increased prevalence of health inequities with respect to access to health care, poverty burden, and disease mortality on a county, state, and national level. The Dunean community's data reflect poorer health outcomes in terms of disease and unhealthy lifestyle as well as inadequate access to medical resources compared to other communities in South Carolina. Students, residents, attendings, faculty, and staff from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville (UofSC SOMG) formed a task force to engage the community and combat the root causes of diseases. This task force built partnerships with community leaders to create Root Cause, a monthly health event designed to bring community members to a unified space, share a free community dinner, and provide a wide range of health and wellness resources to educate and inspire them to make healthy lifestyle choices. Outcomes: This report describes the formation of the community engagement task force and execution of Root Cause. In five Root Cause events, we partnered with 36 community agencies and our academic health center partners who shared their resources, served 207 Dunean neighborhood members, and facilitated 1,237 total interactions between community members and partners. Under the Root Cause model, medical students and neighborhood partners have initiated a trusted, bidirectional dialogue to determine their specific needs with the desire to positively transform the health and wellness of the Dunean community. Our data suggests that based on our efforts, the neighborhood of Dunean, SC increased community cohesiveness and improved perceptions of access to health care. Additionally, participating medical students advanced their understanding of social health and economic challenges which helped to facilitate their development along the active citizen continuum, as well as increase empathy for their future patients in the local community.
Highlights
Approach: Students, residents, attendings, faculty, and staff from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville (UofSC SOMG) formed a task force to engage the community and combat the root causes of diseases
Our goal was to ensure that we were making a noticeable and reproducible change within the community in which we chose to start our initiative, while eventually leaving the community better than when we arrived. In forming this task force, we sought to reflect the UofSC SOMG Community Outreach group mission statement: "To positively impact and address a diverse array of health disparities that are present within the Greenville community, the Upstate, and South Carolina while maintaining an intentional, collaborative, and engaging experience for our members."
We address the health disparities of obesity, heart disease mortality, and diabetes by providing a free healthy meal from Project Host, healthy cooking demonstrations by a chef involved with UofSC SOMG and the Greenville Technical College Culinary Institute, sign-ups for monthly produce boxes from FoodShare Greenville, and various student interest groups from Furman and UofSC SOMG that discuss healthy alternatives in the form of food and exercise
Summary
Our goal was to ensure that we were making a noticeable and reproducible change within the community in which we chose to start our initiative, while eventually leaving the community better than when we arrived In forming this task force, we sought to reflect the UofSC SOMG Community Outreach group mission statement: "To positively impact and address a diverse array of health disparities that are present within the Greenville community, the Upstate, and South Carolina while maintaining an intentional, collaborative, and engaging experience for our members.". Root Cause engages UofSC SOMG students and faculty, Prisma Health physicians, residents, and staff, and community partners with our neighbors in Dunean and to address the root causes of disease by increasing access to health care and promoting healthy lifestyle choices. We are confident that our experience and data will only serve to improve the effectiveness of the events as we move forward
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