Violence

address food insecurity and housing. We look forward to continuing the Community Investment Fund to support our community partners and their expert work in the community, while recognizing the dynamic financial climate in health care. ChristianaCare has also partnered with Roundtrip to provide transportation to medical services for eligible patients who have a transportation barrier. In 2020, ChristianaCare piloted this program in two departments and has since expanded to fifteen participating programs and departments using Roundtrip for patients facing transportation barriers to receiving medical services. Our expectation is that patients’ health will improve when the transportation barrier is removed. Importantly, our foundational strategy in addressing social determinants of health is partnering with community-based organizations to support their ability to address social need. At ChristianaCare, we believe we have an obligation to help our patients address the needs they identify. While we have some ChristianaCare programs that successfully address social need, many of which are described in this document, it is not realistic to expect that we can address all need without the support and resources of experts and partners in the community. We worked to bring Unite Delaware to our state, launched the Community Investment Fund, and integrated with our clinical system to provide our caregivers with a direct line to our community partners and facilitate maximum utilization of existing resources.

Violence

ChristianaCare recognizes violence as a public health issue and launched a Hospital Based Violence Intervention Program (HVIP), to directly address violence as a healthcare issue. This program, Empowering Victims of Lived Violence (EVOLV), began seeing patients in February 2021. Patients who have suffered a gunshot wound (GSW), stab wound (SW), or violent blunt assault (VBA), are residents of New Castle County, and aged 13 years or older are eligible to participate in EVOLV. The length of the program is three months and provides the patient with access to a dedicated social worker and Community Health Worker (CHW). The CHW will actively follow patients and support them by providing them with access to care, addressing any social determinates, and identifying and achieving patient centered goals and outcomes. In its first year of operation, EVOLV increased access to care for its participants by providing insurance application support and transportation support for follow-up appointments. Follow-up appointment compliance and connection to primary care were improved among participants. The EVOLV team was also able to assist patients in meeting their social needs by helping them with victim compensation applications, providing food, assisting in attainment of a driver’s license, and connection to education and employment among other supports.