We’ve collectively learned a lot about ourselves in 2020. In the face of tremendous loss, fear, and exhaustion, we discovered tenacity, compassion, and strength. At Unite Us, 2020 challenged us to meet adversity with a renewed commitment to our mission to help people who are struggling the most right now.

And through it all, we’ve had the great privilege to work in partnership with those of you on the frontlines serving people every single day. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed decades-long health disparities that we suspected were there all along, offering us an opportunity to affect systemic and lasting change in health and social care.

Our plans at the onset of the year may have looked slightly different, but our purpose was clear and we rose to the challenge. We’ve expanded our coordinated care networks in over 42 states, growing our team to more than 300 good humans from New York to Louisiana and everywhere in between, including Hawaii! Together, our team and partners rapidly responded to the growing needs of people impacted by the pandemic. With each new partner and community that joins us, we’re proving that our solution is the foundation for sustainable and equitable public health infrastructure that will eliminate barriers and ensure that everybody has the chance to live a healthy, promising life.

In 2020,

We hit accelerate.

For almost eight years, we’ve been busy building the public health infrastructure to meet this very moment. When the pandemic hit, our team and nationwide partners immediately pivoted to do what we do best – help people who need it most. Here’s what acceleration looks like at Unite Us: Standing up eight COVID-19 rapid response networks, network expansion into over 41 states and the District of Columbia, growing our team to over 300 members, and pioneering 23 game-changing partnerships across entire states and regions.

Community by community, state by state, Unite Us remains unflinching in our resolve to deliver on our mission:

• We expanded to all 100 counties with the nation’s first statewide coordinated social care network, six months ahead of schedule.
• We partnered with national leaders including, CyncHealth, Lyft, Metro Health and others, while deepening alignment and collaboration in Louisiana, Virginia, and Oregon.
• We rolled out the nation’s first seven-state partnership with NEHII (now CyncHealth).
• We tripled the size of our team, adding experts from the very communities we serve.
• We acquired Staple Health, boosting our data analytics capabilities and setting social care data standards.

We were ready to respond.

The pandemic made clear what we’ve known all along: we need reliable public health infrastructure to ensure people get the care they need, when they need it most. Working together with our partners across our unifying platform, we kept people in their homes, coordinated critical supplies to isolated COVID-19 patients, supported individuals and families with the food and economic help they desperately needed, and aided state and local government with rapid COVID-19 response strategies.

Coordinated care networks, structured outcomes, and national social care data are critical to assisting the rising numbers of Americans impacted by the pandemic, putting our state and local governments on the road to recovery, and ultimately, building resilient, healthy, and equitable communities. The network data tell us we are only as powerful as our partners’ participation, and together, we are transforming a broken system into one that works for people.

At Unite Us, we know every data point is a person, and we use that knowledge to drive our decisions to improve lives and build healthier communities.

• We’re leading the national conversation on COVID-19 response and social needs at a time when service episodes have increased 937% since 2019.
• Our networks are driving outcomes (utility payment assistance, food access, transportation, etc.) with a 93% reduction in average time to referral acceptance across all service types since 2014.
• State and local governments look to Unite Us to efficiently distribute critical CARES Act funding and track the impact of those funds.
• Partners use the network data to drill down to race and gender disparities within their communities to identify and address critical gaps in service.

We prioritized health equity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing health equity challenges across the country, and brought into clear focus the inequities between races and historically marginalized populations. The network data tell a similar story and have made clear our purpose and the impact we can have on advancing health equity across the nation.

We acknowledge our responsibility to step up and do the hard work, both within our company and in communities. We’re applying our tenacity, innovation, and willingness to take risks to build an authentically inclusive, diverse, and equitable culture–now with renewed energy to do even better.

• We’re moving upstream, supporting the health of the communities in which we work, investing in health equity.
• We’re listening to our communities’ voices and creating seats at the table, both with our growing on-the-ground community engagement teams and through our Network Advisory Workgroups.
• We’re using data meaningfully to inform the development and implementation of a health equity strategy that guides all aspects of our work, with the ultimate goal of reducing health disparities in the communities we serve.
• We’re advancing the national conversation on the role of state strategies to create health equity.
• We’re continually ensuring that the accountability and growth resulting from intentional and ongoing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives are reflected in our community impact, as we strive to be an example to our partners in this work.

We stuck to our mission and kept it simple; we’re still people helping people.

If nothing else, 2020 illustrated that health and social services must be connected and tracked to ensure delivery. The endless headlines of job loss, eviction, food insecurity, social isolation, and excessive stress have been all too real for many Americans. Far too many faced quarantine and isolation away from critical services, or worse, having to say goodbye to a loved one from a distance. At Unite Us, our goal remains clear and simple: partner with communities to deliver a person-centered care coordination platform and a hands-on community engagement process to ensure services are seamlessly delivered to the people who need them most.

Our solution solves a complex problem, easing the burden on providers and the people they serve.

• We ask the hard questions. What if we all could thrive?
• Behind the technology is our passionate team who wrote 131,999 lines of JavaScript, 65,009 lines of Go, and 50,087 lines of Ruby, and 15967 lines of Python.
• Our community engagement team grew by 113 new team members, seamlessly pivoted to all virtual strategies, and expanded our networks into 197 new counties.
• We help leaders such as the VP of Community Health and Engagement at Christiana Care, Delaware’s largest healthcare system,make criticaland strategic community benefit decisionsby understanding the outcomes of her providers’ referrals.

2020 didn’t change our mission. It reinforced it.

We hear the call now more than ever to push for change, challenge the status quo, and break down silos that stand in the way of people receiving the care they need. No excuses. This is hard work, but if it’s not hard, it’s not worth it. We hope you’ll join us.

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The post Reflections on 2020 appeared first on uniteus.com.

A Social Care Crisis

New York experienced its surge with the benefit of quickly enacted eviction moratoria and the passage of the first two Congressional stimulus packages. Even with these vital protections, New York State’s unemployment system collapsed under a record number of claims, and social care needs skyrocketed.

Today, as the virus spreads like wildfire across the South and large swaths of the West, many communities will face a surge in infection rates, hospitalizations, and the resulting social needs crisis without:

• Eviction bans (many set to lapse this month)
• The $600 weekly Federal unemployment benefit (ending July 31st)
• Clear plans for schools or childcare

Regardless of employment, people need to feed their families and provide for basic services. Many will not be able to pay their rent. The result? One leading expert estimates that homelessness is likely to increase 40-45% as compared to 2019. It is common knowledge that community-based organizations will bear the brunt of this fallout, but is there another critical role they can play in stopping the spread?

Community Entry Points of Care – A Key Testing and Contact Tracing Opportunity

On Saturday, America broke its own record and hit 74,000 new COVID cases in a day as hospitals in the South and West near full capacity. To reduce the stress on the public health system, it’s critical to identify other points of entry to help identify individuals for testing and contact tracing before they hit the healthcare system. In the absence of a national strategy, counties and states have been left to devise their own testing and contact tracing protocols.

As we took a deeper look at our national Unite Us network, comparing data from the New York surge to the latest surge, we asked the question: Where are we seeing the most COVID mentions from individuals seeking help, and could this be a key for state agencies as they develop or improve their testing strategies?

In fact, New York’s surge showed a steady and steep increase in COVID mentions at three specific points of entry across our social care networks: housing and shelter, utilities, and income support. This information offers potential lessons for our networks in 38 states across the country. State agencies, counties, and healthcare partners should be able to pinpoint spikes in COVID mentions within their communities weeks before individuals potentially wind up in a healthcare setting.

Community COVID Mentions During New Southern/Western Surge

Looking at our network data from June 1st – June 8th as this new surge across the South and West occurs, we are already starting to see similar drastic spikes in COVID mentions in those three same service types, representing the largest groupings of mentions across all service types: housing and shelter, utilities, and income support.

Increased Social Care Demand and Changing Profiles: More Opportunity for Testing

Our data and analytics team continues to monitor changes in needs across the country and has identified a growing demand for Utilities and Housing, which we expect to rise. In a one-week period from June 14th to June 21st, Unite Us networks nation-wide experienced a 200% surge in requests for utility assistance, indicating a clear need for financial support. Since mid-March, Unite Us has seen a 220% increase in services provided for housing.

The faces of those seeking help are shifting as well. Our United Way of South Hampton Roads partner in Norfolk, VA shared the story of one single father:

A gentleman called asking for help paying his rent. He had been laid off from his job as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. He is the single father of a one-year-old son. As I went through the questions, working to identify what other needs he may have, he shared that he was very worried about losing his son and that he didn’t normally ask for help, but he knew that if he lost his home, he could very likely lose custody of his son. I asked if he had food and he said he had some noodles and bread that would get them through for a little while. I let him know of school breakfast sites near their home and lunch pick up locations from the food bank to make sure they could get by while we coordinate additional resources.

Thanks to our network partners, more and more individuals who have never sought help before are being connected to care. Our partners, in turn, are able to use their network data to learn where they have gaps in service as social needs rise, how quickly they can deliver services, and who in their community is being most impacted by COVID-19.

While this increased demand for social care is devastating and only likely to grow, it offers a unique opportunity to meet people where they are, at a time when strategic community-based testing and contract tracing is critical to our country’s ability to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Join us to build a solution fortoday, tomorrow, and the future:

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The post Data Lessons from New York’s COVID-19 Surge appeared first on uniteus.com.

Unite Us has built the most outcomes-focused, impact-driven social care platform in the country. Our intuitive and seamless technology, coupled with our experts working locally, is changing the traditional care delivery model to ensure a “no wrong door” approach for people seeking services. A Unite Us-powered network has always been focused on coordinating services between engaged and accountable organizations to ensure we’re going beyond the referral. Today, our networks span over 35 states, with community-based partners providing services in a coordinated and accountable ecosystem. In this time of crisis, our partners’ service delivery has not stopped.

In New York City – which is, in many ways, one of the most impacted regions in the country – our network partners have maintained a 93% acceptance rate on all referrals during this time. They have continued to make electronic referrals, coordinate care, address critical needs, and serve the community.

Our platform tracks actual service delivery outcomes in the community – 100% of the time.

At Unite Us, data means more than stylized Google analytics. When Unite Us and our partners speak about networks and data, we use the delivery of services (i.e. service episodes) and impact as key measures. Now, more than ever, we must focus on outcomes. The health and human services industry has rightfully shifted its focus to outcomes because that is the only way that we can collectively improve health and reduce costs of care.

That is why since 2013, we have been focused on a data standard that does not simply look at searches for resources, referrals defined as printouts of resources, or users that are only individuals searching a directory. Instead, our data illustrates actual service delivery between organizations who are engaged and part of a trusted network, and thus, electronically coordinating services together around shared clients.

Network partners access real-time metrics on individuals, outcomes, and network performance, but more importantly our local team members support our networks to take action on those insights to improve overall health. Unite Us data shines a light on the complex needs of the most vulnerable populations, and proves the impact of services being delivered. Robust and actionable data is critical to support the long-term recovery efforts from COVID-19. In the months ahead, we will continue to publicly share key metrics, trends, and insights from our networks to ensure we are making better decisions, investments, and choices to improve health and build a more equitable system for all.

Take a look at some of the key trends from the past two months.

A spike in COVID-19-related social needs for food assistance, income support, and individual and family services.

Immediately after March 11, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, our networks experienced a significant spike in demand for services. Subsequently there have been consistent, increased mentions of COVID-19 (defined as any of COVID, corona, SARS-CoV, pandemic, quarantine appearing in free-text fields in cases, referrals, and/or assistance requests) from network partners, suggesting the pandemic’s growing impact on social services.

In March, we saw over a 287% increase in electronic referrals for some of our most commonly requested services types – food assistance, income support, and individual and family services. This increase comes as no surprise, but it’s important to note that these are not searches from individuals in the community, but electronic referrals that have been made between network partners to address these specific needs. This fact highlights the value and accountability of services our partners are actually delivering.

240% increase in food-related service episodes

At the end of March, the total number of unique services episodes related to food grew 240%. In response to this demand increase, our networks rose to the occasion and our team onboarded more providers who could support this growing need. Over the month of April, the number of unique network partners offering food-related services grew 125%.

214% spike in income support-related service episodes

From March 8th to March 22nd, the total number of unique services episodes related to income support grew 214%. Prior to COVID-19, about 44 million Americans had no health insurance, and over 38 million people were living in poverty. The need for income support will only continue to grow as people require support for needs such as SSI/SSD and Disability Benefits, TANF/Cash Assistance Programs, or Unemployment Insurance.

Delayed but steady increase in housing-related service episodes

From the half-million people in the U.S. experiencing homelessness to the 31% of U.S. tenants that did not pay April rent at the start of the month, housing is undoubtedly being impacted by COVID-19. Over the month of April, the total number of unique service episodes per week related to housing grew 137%. This is the highest number of housing-related service episodes across all networks in our company’s history. To respond to this need, the total number of unique network partners grew 124%.

What’s next? Using data to improve community-wide service delivery

As our team, clients, and partners navigate this new normal, our mission has never been more true and the need to get our platform in the hands of health and social care providers has never been more critical. Our networks are adapting and evolving to people’s rapidly changing needs, and we are continuing to make enhancements to our platform to support the communities we serve. Our focus is to connect as many individuals in need to the quality services and organizations that are open to serve them. The overall trend that we have seen so far is a growing need for food, housing, income support, and individual and family services, with this data highlighting some of the service gaps that our local teams are working hand in hand with our partners to fill.

We are building resilient public health infrastructure that eases the unprecedented burden our human and social service system is facing at this time. Unite Us is ready to help, and we’ve already begun.

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The post The Impact of COVID-19: Data from our Social Care Networks appeared first on uniteus.com.