Submitted by Unity Care NW, written by Marissa McGrath
Unity Care NW is a non-profit health care provider that serves Whatcom county from three locations in Bellingham and Ferndale. Started nearly 40 years ago by a coalition of community leaders, health professionals, volunteers, faith-based organizations, and concerned citizens, Unity Care NW is part of a national network of community health centers.
The nation’s community health center movement began during the War on Poverty. For over 50 years, community health centers have provided whole person health care to underserved populations, reduced barriers to health care, and offered high-quality care at lower costs. Unity Care NW is proud to be a part of this legacy and works to expand access to affordable primary medical, dental, behavioral health, and pharmacy services for friends and neighbors of all ages here in Whatcom County.
Core Values: a Guiding Light
CEO Jodi Joyce “could not be prouder of how our entire team and our community partners have responded in the face of this pandemic.” In a recently published 2020 annual report, Joyce credits Unity Care NW’s Core Values — carefully chosen by staff in 2019 — for the health center’s successes during such a challenging year. “Covid-19 has helped to clarify the essential role that Unity Care NW plays in our community,” writes Joyce.
Those Core Values of respect, accountability, integrity, collaboration, and innovation are what have guided the resilience, and problem solving that Joyce says her team has consistently demonstrated in response to the pandemic. A stroll through the offices of one of Unity Care NW’s health centers reveals these values aren’t merely a recruitment tool or an hollow refrain from Senior Leadership, but a guiding force for staff, some of whom have been with Unity Care their entire working lives.
Unity Care NW’s Core Values are everywhere; print offs are posted in cubicles and full-sized multi-colored posters are framed proudly on walls. New staff attend a training session on the Core Values and a recognition program celebrates colleagues who live the values through their actions.
2020 Hindsight
Jodi Joyce began as CEO of Unity Care NW in January of 2020 and she likes to say she had six normal weeks in her new leadership role before COVID-19. Emergency response became the primary focus, new policies, procedures, and technologies all had to be ironed out while maintaining a commitment to their mission to increase the healthy years of life in the people and communities they serve. COVID-19 was a credible threat to that mission and without moving quickly to address potential sources of infection staff risked exposing themselves and their patients to the deadly virus.
Screening procedures and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) mandates were put in place, administrative staff were set up to work from home and a new Telehealth system for Behavioral Health appointments was set up in just 10 days.
The non-profit health center was hit hard financially by a reduction in clinical visits overall in 2020 but also experienced the impacts of what has become a secondary major health concern — the nation’s mental health crisis. Behavioral Health visits surpassed previous projections in 2020 while medical and dental visits dropped. During some months, income generated by billing patients’ insurance for visits was more than 50% under budget. Layoffs were only avoided thanks to reserve funds and a forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loan from the Federal Government.
At the beginning of the pandemic, it was clear that COVID-19 was hospitalizing and killing Black and Hispanic Americans at a disproportionate rate. In May, the murder of George Floyd launched a nationwide movement and a process within Unity Care NW to address racism as a long-standing public health crisis. Jodi Joyce, and the Board of Directors compiled feedback from staff concerning how to respond, and The IDEA Council was formed. The IDEA Council, draws members from multiple departments across the organization to guide Unity Care’s inclusion, diversity, equity, and anti-racism (IDEA) efforts by defining priorities, formulating recommendations, and supporting and accelerating UCNW’s IDEA action plan. This effort empowers staff to act with integrity and to expect the same from leadership – to speak up when they see inequities and to do the right thing even when it is difficult.
707 individuals were found to be homeless in Whatcom county in 2020 during the annual Point in Time Count. Homelessness in our community reflects a worsening crisis across our country. In 2020, 15% of Unity Care NW patients were unhoused and 51% were living below the poverty line. Through outreach efforts in partnership with social service organizations, Unity Care NW addresses the underlying health issues of economically disadvantaged patients. Recently, Unity Care NW announced that $4 Million would be allocated from the Washington State Capital Budget for a new facility called The Way Station. This unique project, in partnership with Opportunity Council and PeaceHealth, will provide primary medical, behavioral health, showers and laundry, case management, respite beds and other wrap around services to individuals and families experiencing homelessness to support their journey to permanent housing and a healthier life.
Vaccines and the Path Forward
With a patient population of over 30 million and growing, Community Health Centers across the country have always been key in the effort to vaccinate America’s most vulnerable residents. When COVID-19 vaccine roll-out began, Unity Care NW was eager to become a vaccination site and expand protection from the deadly virus to their patients and the community at large. They began vaccination efforts in January and partnered in the Health Department’s efforts to establish a Community Vaccination Center at BTC by helping with planning, promotions and staffing the clinics, which administered over 9,000 vaccines.
Community Health Workers were recruited to help with contact tracing and vaccine outreach to rural communities. Spanish and Mixtec speaking Community Health workers were recruited to engage those communities that can often face complex barriers to health care access. Unity Care NW communications staff collaborated with community organizations across the county to craft vaccine confidence messaging aimed at reducing hesitancy across diverse populations.
Unity Care NW has also championed the vaccine through social media and outreach to their patient population. “At first, we were struggling to keep up with demand for the vaccine from early adopters,” said Chris Kobdish, Director of Planning & Development. “Eventually, it became clear that there were barriers for many of our patients and that outreach was needed to make sure they were getting good information about the vaccines.” Unity Care NW produced video messages to send to patients from their primary care providers and other staff to encourage them to get vaccinated. These efforts have paid off with over 9,800 vaccine doses administered at their health centers to date.
2020 brought harsh realities of the role that racism, housing and income inequality play in the health outcomes of many Americans. Unity Care NW’s resolve to address these issues as barriers to public health, was deepened by the pandemic. With the role of community health centers as trusted providers of care, their own strong sense of their values, and ties to the community, Unity Care NW was uniquely poised to respond to COVID-19. Through testing, treatment, and eventually, vaccination, the health center fought to keep their patients, their community, and each other safe. Through it all, zero transmissions occurred at Unity Care NW’s health centers. It seems that a commitment to their chosen core values formed a united front in the fight against COVID-19. A strength in unity that turned out to be just what the doctor ordered.
