Partner with organizations to address the root causes of health disparities, such as poverty, racism, discrimination, and inequities in health, education, and socio-economic position.
The Health Trust aims to take a leadership role in building capacity to address the root causes of health disparities. This strategy includes engaging in partnerships with other leaders in this arena to raise awareness across the county about the root causes of health disparities and to help communities address these root causes. One specific aspect of our root causes work will focus on increasing the diversity of healthcare professionals in the local workforce. This “root causes” strategy also encompasses policy and advocacy efforts, such as taking an active local role in promoting Unnatural Causes, a groundbreaking seven-part documentary on the root causes of health inequities being released in the spring of 2008.

Provide access to prevention, screening, and management of chronic diseases.
The Health Trust seeks to contribute to the wellness of Silicon Valley residents by reducing the preventable illness and disability caused by chronic diseases such as diabetes, CVD, cancer and HIV/AIDS. This strategy focuses on the factors that contribute to chronic diseases, again shifting the conventional focus on individual behavior to the systemic conditions that allow missed opportunities for early detection of chronic diseases, that perpetuate disparities in the burden of illness and disability related to chronic diseases, and that allow chronic diseases to develop in the first place. This three-pronged strategy comprises: (1) prevention of diabetes, cancer and HIV/AIDS, with a focus on structural interventions, while still addressing the individual role in preventing disease; (2) screening to detect these chronic diseases early for optimal treatment; and (3) management of chronic diseases for maximum quality of life and wellness.

Support linkages to healthcare coverage and services. The Health Trust, currently investing nearly one million dollars per year in children’s direct access to healthcare, is strengthening its strategy for linking community residents to healthcare coverage and services. Outreach services to maximize enrollment and utilization of any and all available healthcare coverage and services and active support for Universal coverage are key components of this strategy. Additionally, patient or “client” health services navigation services will be promoted to ensure enrollees get the most out of their coverage.

Provide Oral health prevention, education, and treatment services.  The Health Trust’s oral health strategy includes three key components: (1) a high volume children’s oral health clinic, whose targeted patients are 70% underinsured children and 30% fully insured, will serve between 7,000 and 17,000 children per year. This clinic is currently under construction and is expected to begin serving patients in the late spring of 2008 (2) Oral health education efforts aimed at Head Starts, preschools and underinsured and uninsured families; and (3) a fluoridation policy strategy.

Support employee wellness for businesses with uninsured or underinsured employees. For further explanation see Healthy Living.