What Is National Health Center Week?

Today begins National Health Center Week, specifically community health centers, the mom-and-pop stores of the overall health care system. You might not think about them very often, but they are an integral part of the system.

They represent the community, including its demographics, its needs, and its voice. Most members of the health center boards live in the community.

Because they are smaller and community-based, they see emerging problems first, such as the opioid crisis and its links to mental health issues. They also are forced to innovate to cope with these problems. As a result, more than three-fourths of health centers can work with clients who have both a substance use disorder and a co-occurring mental health disorder (dual diagnosis).  

While the National Association of Community Health Centers isn’t the organizer or sponsor of National Health Care Week, it is an interested party. It provides an online toolkit to make participation by individual community health centers easier, including:

• Ideas for activities and events 
• Help finding local sponsors
• Webinars
• Themed focus days for each day of National Health Centers Week

Today’s focus day theme is Public Health in Housing Day. Understanding the social determinants of health — living conditions, work conditions, social networks — affect how and how well community health centers can treat their clients. Explaining to the public how they do this will help increase awareness and drum up support for community health centers.

We’ll look at other focus days as the week progresses.

Sources

addiction.surgeongeneral.gov –  Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health

modernhealthcare.com – Community health centers use innovation to address opioid addiction crisis

sunshinebehavioralhealth.com – Highest Opioid Death Rates Per State

sunshinebehavioralhealth.com – Dual Diagnosis Addiction Treatment

healthcenterweek.org – Tools & Resources

healthcenterweek.org – Activities & Event Ideas

healthcenterweek.org – Finding Sponsors

healthcenterweek.org – NHCW Webinars and Presentations

healthcenterweek.org – Focus Days

healthcenterweek.org – Sunday, 8/9 – Public Health in Housing Day