Greater Lawrence Family Health Center: Open to Tufts University School of Medicine

Monday, June 6th from 12:00am to Friday, July 29th, 2022 12:00am (ET)
The application period has ended or been marked as full.

About

This position is open only to students enrolled at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Location: Lawrence, MA

ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW
Greater Lawrence Family Health Center (GLFHC) is a Federally Qualified Health Center serving the city of Lawrence and the larger Merrimack Valley. Our mission “is to improve and maintain the health of individuals and families in the Merrimack Valley by providing a network of high quality, comprehensive healthcare services and by training healthcare professionals to respond to the needs of a culturally diverse population.” The population of Lawrence is largely Latinx and Spanish-speaking, and Lawrence is one of the poorest cities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. At the same time, there is a vibrant culture of health care and civic organizations striving to improve the health and economic vitality of the community, and Lawrence was awarded the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation “Culture of Health” award in 2015 (https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/articles-and-news/2015/10/coh-prizelawrence-ma.html). The health center is building coalitions with community-based organizations to address social determinants of health and support overall community development and health status. The health center is also part of an Accountable Care Organization which is working to include population-based health as a core component of its work in the Merrimack Valley.

For more information, visit: https://glfhc.org/

POSITION DESCRIPTION
GLFHC has partnered with a number of community organizations to identify ways in which to screen patients for social needs and address those needs through community partnerships and direct services. The organizations involved in this working group include Lawrence Community Works (LCW), Northeast Legal Aid, and the Mayor’s Health Task Force, among others. In prior years our fellows have worked with us to pilot a social needs screening instrument, explore the development of a formalized medical-legal partnership (which has subsequently been implemented), develop workflows for positive social needs screening, and establish a partnership for financial health education between GLFHC and LCW. We are continuing to expand upon this work, working both with the Mayor's Health Task Force and the My Care Family ACO. This will open up increased opportunities to think about programs and services to address social determinants of health in our community. There is still much work to be done to expand upon the work of our prior fellows, and multiple potential directions for a fellow to pursue depending on interests. Potential components of the fellow’s work could include (but are not limited to): participation in ongoing research on our pilot screening, implementation of a formal social needs screening process, expansion of our partnerships with LCW, NLA, and others to further meet patient needs, and direct community-based education and outreach to better understand patient needs and interests regarding programs to meet these needs. As part of the fellowship the fellow will participate in the ongoing activities of the Lawrence Physical and Financial Health Working Group, the GLFHC Social Determinants of Health Committee, and the Lawrence Mayor’s Health Task Force, and will have the opportunity to work with additional community-based organizations as dictated by the needs of the project.

Participants will gain:

1. Experience working with an underserved immigrant population
2. Project implementation and evaluation
3. Research experience, if applicable to final project selection
4. Experience identifying and addressing social determinants of health
5. Implementing and evaluating a strategic plan.
6. Working in cross-sector collaborations striving to improve community economic and health outcomes.
7. Experience in a health care setting with potential for clinical shadowing

REQUIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in managing a project.
• Able to execute agreed upon action steps
• Critical thinking and problem solving skills
• Research and data evaluation capabilities
• Cultural competency and empathy
• Excellent verbal and oral communication skills
• Competency in Spanish, including reading and writing, highly desired
• Prior research experience is highly desirable though not required for this fellowship.
• Experience with commonly used office-based computer resources is highly desired, particularly Excel

Applicants may address the cover letter to Keith Nokes, MD, MPH.
Supervisor(s)
-
Paid
Not Paid
Timeframe
Summer
Credit
No