Whole Person Care in Underresourced Communities: Stakeholder Priorities at Long-Term Follow-Up in Community Partners in Care

In: Ethnicity & disease: an international journal on population differences in health and disease patterns, Band 28, Heft Supp, S. 371-380

Abstract

Objective: Depressed individuals may require help from different agencies to ad­dress health and social needs, but how such coordination occurs in under-resourced communities is poorly understood. This study sought to identify priorities of Latino and African American depressed clients, ex­plore whether service providers understand client priorities, and describe how providers address them.Methods: Between October 2014 and February 2015, we interviewed 104 clients stratified by depression history and 50 representatives of different programs in health and social community agencies who participated in Community Partners in Care, a cluster-randomized trial of coalition-building approaches to delivering depres­sion quality improvement programs. Clients were queried about their most pressing needs; program representatives identified their clients' needs and explained how they addressed them.Results: Physical and mental health were clients' top priorities, followed by housing, caring for and building relationships with others, and employment. While persistently depressed clients prioritized mental health, those with improved depression prioritized relationships with others. Program repre­sentatives identified housing, employment, mental health, and improving relationships with others as clients' top priorities. Needs assessment, client-centered services, and linkages to other agencies were main strate­gies used to address client needs.Conclusion: Depressed clients have mul­tiple health and social needs, and program representatives in under-resourced commu­nities understand the complexity of clients' needs. Agencies rely on needs assessment and referrals to meet their clients' needs, which enhances the importance of agency partnership in "whole person" initiatives. Our results illustrate agency capacity to adopt integrated care models that will ad­dress clients' multiple needs through multi-sector collaboration and describe potential strategies to help reach the goal of whole person care.Ethn Dis. 2018;(Suppl 2): 371- 380; doi:10.18865/ed.28.S2.371.