By Alexandra Newman
Life has become very segmented.
You probably have several different streaming services to watch the television programs you like. You have to be on four or more social media platforms constantly to understand all the pop culture memes and references. You have to fact check your news across a variety of different sources.
I find myself making lists for several different grocery stores based on pricing and product needs. For my health, I must go to a primary care doctor, a women’s health doctor, an eye doctor, and a dentist. And I’m sure as I get older that list will get longer.
For me, balancing all these different things creates stress and anxiety: what am I forgetting?
But when it comes to balancing the care needs of older adults and people with complex care needs in Southwest Michigan, there is a new solution – the Southwest Michigan Community Care Hub.
The Community Care Hub was created by a coalition of partners who have worked together for years to address the fragmentation of services in our region. Its strength lies in a collaborative foundation built through enduring partnerships among health systems, public health, behavioral health, and community organizations, including Area Agency on Aging, Corewell Health, Berrien County Health Department, InterCare, Riverwood Center, and a wide array of community-based organizations.
While Area Agency on Aging (AAA) has served as the “Easy Button” for access to aging and disability resources for over 50 years, the Community Care Hub represents a new, shared approach. This initiative is coordinated through a robust network, anchored by AAA and its partners, ensuring seamless access to health care, social services, and community supports.
Community Care Hubs make it easier for individuals and families to access the care and support they need, when they need it—removing barriers and streamlining connections to trusted local resources. By coordinating health care and social services, the Care Hub helps consumers achieve better health outcomes, greater independence, and a higher quality of life.
On the back end, the Care Hub will enable efficient contracting, billing, compliance, data security, and reporting capabilities. On the front end, it will serve three groups:
- The Consumer: Helping navigate care and community-based services for you and your family.
- Service Providers: Helping amplify the work of other nonprofits and community-based organizations.
- Health Systems: Helping bridge clinical care with other support that keeps people healthy.
The biggest goal of the Care Hub is to improve health outcomes for people in Southwest Michigan. By linking and coordinating care across organizations, the Care Hub helps close gaps in access to needed community-based supports, so individuals and families can get the right help at the right time.
This model is especially powerful for those facing complex health and social needs, ensuring that care is not only comprehensive but also equitable and tailored to each person’s goals and circumstances.
When you can monitor someone’s entire health – physical, mental, and social – you can see the whole picture and intervene before there is an emergency. That means less doctor’s appointments, lower health care costs, and longer, healthier lives.
During our pilot study of this model a few years ago, we found that it reduced emergency room visits by 33 percent and nearly eliminated unplanned inpatient hospital stays for patients served.
Another benefit to the Care Hub is keeping people living in their own homes longer. When you provide holistic and integrated health and social care, you can better prevent or delay the type of care people seek in a nursing home or other long-term care facility. And it’s cheaper. The average annual cost of nursing home care is $85,614 per person per year, while AAA’s home-based care program, MI Choice Waiver, costs only $34,741 per person.
Together, we can move away from such segmented services and work together for home, health, and community.
To learn more about the Southwest Michigan Community Care Hub, visit https://swmcommunitycarehub.org/ or give us a call at 1-800-654-2810.
The Generations column appears each weekend in The Herald-Palladium.