NEW PROGRAMS
While we know that a healthy life involves more than clinical care, it is now widely accepted that 80% of our overall health outcomes are determined by non-clinical factors, such as housing, employment, and education.
This concept informs the ViM model, which includes both clinical care as well as comprehensive Patient Services appointments to evaluate our patients’ non-clinical needs. This year, we provided 2,153 Patient Services appointments, each conducted by one of our multilingual Community Health Workers.
This scaffolded approach to whole health care ensures not only that our clients’ basic needs are met, but also that they are equipped with the skills to achieve a safe, healthy and independent life. In 2024, we enhanced these services in several ways.
2024 INITIATIVES
A New Patient Group
This year, we established a New Patient Group to foster a greater sense of belonging for patients new to the Berkshires. Led by ViM’s Care Coordinator Janell Hostetler and Community Health Worker America Lopez, the group helps patients build local friendships and integrate into the Berkshire community. In just one year, our group has taken trips to Jacob’s Pillow and Tanglewood; experienced the Berkshire outdoors through hiking trips, canoeing, and camping; and shared a traditional Thanksgiving meal and a Christmas party.
These services improve patient health outcomes: our New Patient Group is driven by the need to address mental health concerns that result from isolation, and these meetings help patients create local social safety nets. They also allow ViM to build long-term trust with patients, an element that becomes crucial when they arrive for clinical care appointments.
Our inaugural New Patient Thanksgiving Dinner
Collaborative Social Determinants Clinics
Through a grant from the Massachusetts Attorney General, we organized a collaborative series of three free legal clinics with the Berkshire Immigration Center in North Adams, Pittsfield, and Great Barrington. At these events our patients had the chance to meet with lawyers, bankers, take part in English language classes, and learn more about local food access.
Responsive Community Partnerships
Responding to the increasing anxiety our patients feel about their legal documentation and court dates, we have integrated legal screenings into our services and engaged immigration lawyers to provide essential counsel. This is part of a broader strategic initiative to grow our community partnerships and legal counseling services.
Expanded Educational Programming for Student Clinicians
Because a whole health model of care can be so effective, we open our doors to local medical and dental students to show them our approach in real time.
Through a collaboration with Berkshire Health Systems, Medical Residency students practice at ViM twice a week. For the next three years we will have one medical resident volunteering every week. In addition, we host a rotating cast of visiting students from the Tufts School of Dentistry, Springfield Technical College of Dental Hygiene, and the UMass Nurse Practitioner Program.
This summer we also brought on a new group of volunteers: high school students with an interest in healthcare. Fifteen local high school and college students worked in the office and shadowed our clinicians, interpreters, and Community Health Workers. Many of our young volunteers were also immigrants, and this experience helped open the door to a career in health care.
