The time has never been better for exploration of the possibilities for expanding the Universal Newborn Support System (UNSS) model in Illinois. A group of early childhood and maternal and child health advocates, supported by Health & Medicine, McAlpine Consulting for Growth, and Conlon Public Strategies, has studied and developed recommendations as to how such a system might be shaped, administered, and funded as a universal statewide initiative, learning from those closest to model programs already underway.

In this webinar, Lynn Todman, Ph.D., M.P.C. and Collaborative member Elena Quintana, Ph.D. discuss the link between the social determinants of health, wide spread trauma and emotional unrest, and inequality in Southwest Michigan.

In this webinar, Andrea Ortez of Partnership for Resilience discusses how organizers, educators, and clinicians can utilize community partnerships to provide trauma-informed support to both teachers and students. Ortez addressed the early lessons of the Partnership and the types of relationships that practitioners, educators, and advocates must foster together to ensure the needs of the whole child are met.

This brief is the second in a series focusing on the role that the criminalization of people of color plays on an individual’s life course and ultimately diversity in the health workforce.

The consequences of over-policing and racial profiling disproportionately impacts youth of color’s involvement in the criminal justice system and has emerged in Chicago Area Health Education Center’s (AHEC’s) health workforce development activities as a key barrier to their educational and health career pathways.

This brief is the third in a series focusing on the role that the criminalization of people of color plays on an individual’s life course and ultimately diversity in the health workforce.

Health & Medicine’s Center for Long-Term Care Reform responds to the Rauner Administration’s plans for a major Medicaid managed care “re-boot.” This Critical Issues Policy Brief raises three questions for the Medicaid managed care re-boot and calls on State policy makers to work with stakeholders, including MCOs, Medicaid providers, and Medicaid members to address these issues to set a stronger foundation for a new managed care program in Illinois.

December 2, 2021 Testimony by Policy Director Wesley Epplin on behalf of Health & Medicine Policy Research Group and the Collaborative for Health Equity Cook County at the #StopGeneralIron campaign press conference.

December 2, 2021 Testimony by Workforce Policy Analyst Angela Eastlund before the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, Health Equity and Quality Subcommittee in support of advancing the Community Health Worker (CHW) workforce through voluntary certification and Medicaid reimbursement strategies.

Illinois will need to hire thousands of contact tracers to effectively contain COVID-19. Community Heath Workers are essential front-line public health workers with established, trusted relationships within their communities. It makes sense to hire CHWs to work through public health departments and community organizations to provide critical contact tracing, community education around COVID-19 testing, in person COVID-19 assessment within their communities, and connections to vital health and social services.