50th Anniversary Celebration

“In order to move past a transactional relationship with patients to one that’s meaningful and sustaining, community health organizations need to deliver care in ways that continually build on those relationships.”

~ Jenny Englerth, President and CEO of Family First Health

Caring for the health of a community requires resources, support, well-trained providers, a dedicated staff, and so much more. What we intrinsically know at Family First Health, however, is that you can’t deliver the highest level of care if you haven’t first earned the trust of the communities you serve.

Nothing Happens Without a Level of Trust.

When you’re caring for a highly vulnerable population within a community, building trust is the first step toward meeting their needs and providing high-quality, whole-person care.

This is the philosophy guiding Jenny Englerth, President and CEO of Family First Health.

“We need to understand the patient a whole, not just the health concern they’re facing,” she said. “That means going into their neighborhood and meeting them where they are. None of this happens without a level of trust.”

Over the past 50 years, Family First Health has built trust within the community it serves because of a very intentional focus on becoming a part of it. As Jenny explains, “In order to move past a transactional relationship with patients to one that’s meaningful and sustaining, community health organizations need to deliver care in ways that continually build on those relationships.”

Successfully Building Trust a Community Comes Down to the Way Care is Delivered

Trust takes time. It requires a series of intentional actions at both the point-of-care and organizational level to create and sustain.

According to Jenny, the core of Family First Health’s relationship with its patients is rooted in 3 ways it looks at care. We asked her to share with us, in her own words, how Family First Health has successfully earned the community’s trust throughout its first 50 years, and how it will continue to build on that trust over the next 50. Here’s what she had to say.

1. We Listen to Understand, Not to Explain or Defend

   Building trust begins by listening. A patient’s family life or other social aspects they’re experiencing can have a large influence on their health. Listening to what a patient has to say and pairing that insight alongside the health concern a provider is treating them for can make a difference in whether they feel heard.

   An example of this type of listening could occur if, let’s say, a chronic diabetes patient came to our office with a cold. That patient came to see us for help treating his cold. As a provider, we also notice that the patient hasn’t been into the office in a while to get proper diabetes care. If we weren’t ‘listening to hear’ we may place priority on the diabetes treatment over the reason he came to see us and not fully address his immediate need to get back to work.

   So, we listen to understand him. We address the immediate need first. And, in this case, we simultaneously suggest the patient receive bloodwork while in the exam room so we can also care for his diabetes.

   When you look at community care through a wider lens, we also see that ‘listening to understand’ has ripple effects. When we listen to understand our patients at an individual level, it helps us better understand the needs of the overall community.

2. We Hire from Within Our Community

   When patients come to their appointments, it’s important that they receive care from people who live, look, and speak like them. It’s incredibly empowering to see people who may face the same challenges and who share the same race, ethnicity or language when trusting someone to care for your health. Diversity in every corner makes us stronger and it builds a bridge that connects our entire organization to the communities we live and work within.

   In the case of Family First Health, 30% of our staff members speak Spanish and are bi-lingual. We find that when communicating a health concern, being able to speak in your native language, even if you speak English, is an important element in building trust.

3. We’re Visible Beyond Our Walls

   Wide-spread community trust doesn’t happen if you’re not visible. Community health organizations need to be viewed as valuable and trustworthy by residents, including those who are not patients. By immersing ourselves in the neighborhoods where our patients live, we’re able to zero-in on those vulnerable populations. Then, with that understanding, we can influence how our providers work with patients and provide the best possible care.

   A great example of this is our breast cancer screening program. The care we provide is always data-driven which requires marrying health data from around the region with a big-picture-look at our own community’s health. When we looked at the rate of breast cancer, the number of screenings and cancer rates in our region was on par with surrounding counties. However, our community includes a large population of minorities who are at a higher risk for breast cancer. So, we created a campaign to encourage Black and Latino women to get screened.

   Because we had a relationship with community members, including non-patients, we learned that fear was driving many women to ignore breast cancer screening recommendations. So, our campaign asked family members to encourage their moms, sisters, daughters and neighbors to get screened. We also took more time to educate patients about the importance of screenings at the primary care level. As a result of the campaign, we quickly saw our breast cancer screening rate improve.

Sustaining Trust Over the Next 50 Years and Beyond

The 50^th anniversary of Family First Health also happens to mark a shift in how care is delivered across the entire healthcare system. With COVID-19 and the pandemic uprooting many in-person visits and community health events, building trust is going to require an even more intentional focus in the years ahead.

More of our patients will likely suffer the effects of economic-related stress, especially as it pertains to employment, like working multiple jobs or dealing with reduced assistance stipends, and the health challenges these issues create. Meeting our patients where they are may mean that providers are now interacting with them over a lunch break or in their free time.

Efforts that were already occurring, like the integration of our behavioral health services into primary care and the addition of new tools like telehealth and video health services are all helping us to continue to support the bridges we’ve built between our organization and our community.

“It all goes back to the importance of ‘listening to understand,” Jenny said. “While the circumstances have changed, building trust in our community will always be about listening and working alongside our patients to provide them with the best possible care.”

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Our ability to serve our community over these first 50 years is thanks to the trust our patients and families have placed into the hands of our providers and our entire staff. Join us in celebrating our ‘First 50’ and support Family First Health as we continue to share our story and care for our community.

When Dr. LaJuan Mountain first started practicing at Family First Health, she spent most days caring for patients in need of immediate pain relief. Patients weren’t coming to her for regular cleanings or to take care of the long-term health needs of their teeth and gums.

“We had to transform the way patients in our community looked at dental care,” Dr. Mountain said. “When I started at Family First Health, our patients came to us when they were in pain, not for ongoing oral care needs. We had to shift from an acute model of care to a comprehensive model so patients would come to us to maintain the health of their teeth.”

Community Dental Care Outcomes Depend on Trust

As in many underserved communities, making that switch and getting patients into a preventive maintenance care routine isn’t always simple. Dr. Mountain and her team still have to convince patients to walk through the door.

“Treating patients is easy,” Dr. Mountain said. “Getting them to trust the dentist enough to get treated is where the hard work comes in. It takes us engaging with them and treating them like human beings. Trust is what it takes to move a patient from only coming to us when they’re in pain to coming back every six months so their mouths stay healthy.”

Once a patient does start coming in regularly for oral care visits, there’s even more trust-building that needs to take place.

“If my patients don’t trust me, then they’re not telling me what’s really going on with their health and in their lives,” Dr. Mountain said. “And, if I don’t know about their history and the issues they’re dealing with, I can’t provide them with the best care. It’s my job to get them to feel comfortable.”

As community dental care providers, our team at Family First Health can’t look at dental patients in a vacuum. Patients come to us with other health challenges that must be considered and addressed when planning dental care.

“A patient may come to us to treat tooth pain,” said Dr. Mountain. “Let’s say we determine that the tooth must be removed. But, when we take the patient’s blood pressure during the appointment, we see that it’s elevated. The patient also discloses having taking blood pressure medicine in the past. This changes the way we provide treatment.”

In this patient’s case, Dr. Mountain and her team would provide over-the-counter medication to treat the tooth pain. Then, they’d warmly introduce the patient to Family First Health’s medical office for a blood pressure evaluation. Once the patient’s blood pressure was stable, the tooth concerns would be addressed.

Community Dental Services Need to Be Accessible to Be Effective

After trust, getting a patient into the dentist’s chair comes down to accessibility. For a large number of our patients, making it to a dental appointment means taking a day off of work.

Accessibility is often a barrier for the children in our community, as well. When Dr. Mountain saw how difficult it was for parents to bring their kids to the dentist, she decided to go to them. She co-launched our Kids for Cavities program, treating students in K-8 across eight schools in Southern York. She and her team can now clean teeth and care for students right from inside the school.

“We realized that accessibility was a main issue with children in our community seeing a dentist,” Dr. Mountain said. “So, we established our Kids Against Cavities program and brought the dentist to the students.”

Dr. Mountain and her team provide students with preventive dental care such as exams, x-rays, cleanings, fluoride, and sealants during their school day. Mobile dental equipment is utilized to deliver care. In addition to the preventative care, the students receive hands-on oral hygiene instructions. During the visit, the students sit in front of a mirror so Dr. Mountain can demonstrate proper brushing and flossing techniques, as well as feedback and instruction.

The Kids Against Cavities program provided 4,000 visits last year to kids who would not have received dental care had it not been for Dr. Mountain’s team. And now, thanks to the program, Dr. Mountain is treating far more kids and preventing many more cavities than if she’d relied on each student coming to her in the office.

“We also see that the kids we treat end up being a doorway for the parents’ own oral health care,” she said. “If a parent has one child taking part in Kids Against Cavities, they may bring their younger children into the office or make an appointment for themselves.”

When We Build Trust with Our Dental Patients, We Can More Easily Identify Other Urgent Health Needs

This year, as Family First Health celebrates its 50th anniversary, we’re seeing another evolution in dental care in our community. We’re using dental care as a seamless referral system for our behavioral health and primary care services. This starts by connecting our practitioners who can then better connect our patients to the other care services they need.

“A patient with elevated blood pressure, as I mentioned, will be connected to a primary care provider for an evaluation,” Dr. Mountain said. “If a patient comes in for a cleaning and I notice evidence of trauma or emotional distress, I’ll have the right behavioral health provider in the room on the spot.”

Family First Health has always been ahead of its time, evolving our services to the changing needs of our community’s underserved population for our First 50 years. We’ll continue to set new standards and be there for our community members over the next 50, as well.

Help Our Community Dental Services Team

Our ability to serve our community over these First 50 years is thanks to dentists like Dr. Mountain and innovative programs like Kids Against Cavities. Join us in celebrating our First 50 by supporting us as we continue to care for you and our entire community. Click below to make a donation and help us continue to provide high-quality health care services over the next 50 years!

Caring for the Whole Patient and Building Trust Within Our Community for the Past 50 Years

When Dr. Marie Kellett first started working with her patient, Peter, in February of 2018, he was struggling to stay healthy.

“Peter suffered from opioid addiction. His health came and went in swings. He’d stay sober for months, then relapse,” said Dr. Kellett. “This is the reality for our patients and why they need our support. Recovery is lifelong.”

Supporting Patients Through Lifelong Recovery and Wellness Requires a Team Approach

Dr. Kellett, the lead physician of Integrated Behavioral Health at Family First Health, began practicing here five years ago. When she arrived, behavioral health was already integrated into primary care. She was able to jump right in and work with primary care providers, and together provide care that allowed her to treat the whole person.

“No other health system was integrating behavioral health to the extent Family First Health was doing even five years ago,” she said. “Other organizations had behavioral health services, but Behavioral Health Consultants were always set aside as specialists. Bringing them into the primary care setting to be a part of the conversation was a new concept and something only a few health centers like Family First Health were doing.”

At Family First Health, the team approach to care also provides Dr. Kellett with on-site access to a licensed social worker if a patient were to ever require urgent intervention.

“Our patients often live chaotic lives,” Dr. Kellett said. “This ‘one-stop-shop’ team approach allows us to immediately intervene if we find our patients in distress or facing an emergency caused by substance abuse or trauma.”

Treating Peter Has and Will Continue to Require an Entire Team of Caregivers

Dr. Kellett shared Peter’s story with us and how the integrated approach to care has positively impacted his recovery journey.

“When Peter first came to Family First Health in 2018, he was sober, having recently completed rehab for his addiction,” she said. “We worked to help him maintain his sobriety with support from both medication and group meetings.”

Peter’s needs also extended beyond addiction support to include treatment for depression, PTSD and other issues. It was important for Dr. Kellett to understand his history of trauma in order to support the full extent of his needs.

“He’s sustained significant amounts of trauma, from being shot to witnessing people die,” she said. “He hasn’t had an easy life.”

With an integrated approach, Family First Health treated him as a whole person, not as a series of health challenges.

“Our integrated approach helped him work towards living a healthy life,” said Dr. Kellett.

After Peter Started on an Addiction Treatment Plan, it Began to Work

“Peter was much more stable,” she said. “He reconnected with his son and was doing well.”

Unfortunately, Peter later relapsed and started using again. After his relapse, he came back to Family First Health to see Dr. Kellett and the rest of his care team. He wanted their help to get sober again.

“I know it was his trust in us that led him to come back to Family First Health and get back on a path towards recovery,” Dr. Kellett said.

After some time passed, she said she discovered that Peter was homeless and living in a shelter.

“So, I reached out to the shelter and got him back on his medicine,” Dr. Kellett said. “When he came back to our office again, he sat down and we talked about rehab. In the end, I was able to get him into a detox and rehabilitation program.”

Today, Peter is doing well in rehab. He’s back with his son, is stable, has a full-time job and is trying to do the right thing.

“He still reaches out to me when he needs support,” Dr. Kellett said. “He trusts that his Family First Health team has his best interest at heart and will always be here. If he didn’t, he would never have come back for help.”

Our ability to create a truly integrated approach to care is the reason that Peter and so many other Family First Health patients are on a path towards recovery and wellness.

Please join us in continuing to celebrate our ‘First 50’ years as we share more stories like Peter’s and look ahead to the next 50 years of providing care throughout our community.

Dr. Asceline Go is an irreplaceable member of our team at Family First Health. She joined us in 1999 as a family practice physician and, fast forward to today, she provides incredible care to underserved HIV patients across our region.

We sat down with our colleague to learn a bit more about how she made her way to Family First Health and how she’s cared for our community ever since.

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Q. Tell us where your story began, Dr. Go. What path did you take that eventually led you to Family First Health?

A. My interest in medicine started in the Philippines where I grew up. I received my pre-Medicine degree from the University of the Philippines and then went on to medical school at the St. Louis University. My interest in the U.S., however, actually started before medical school. I was a foreign exchange student in California when I was 15 years old. After receiving my degree in Internal Medicine back home, I came to visit some members of my family who were living in the U.S. At that point, I became convinced that I needed to practice Medicine here.

Q. How did you begin practicing medicine in the U.S.?

A. I did my residency in the Bronx in New York. I happened to be there in the thick of the HIV pandemic and was thrown into intense HIV training. At that time, the training of the care of HIV patients fell on the Family Practice residents. We saw an influx of patients because we were treating such a large population of AIDS patients in the city; however, that training and caring for patients with HIV became a big part of my role as a physician later on.

Q. Going from your residency in the Bronx to serving communities through Family First Health is a pretty big shift. Why did you decide that this was where you wanted to practice?

A. I cared for an underserved group of patients during my residency and when the opportunity to care for another underserved population at Family First Health came to me, I felt connected to the mission. This tied to my goal earlier in life of becoming a “village doctor” and helping those who are marginalized. I found that village in the counties that Family First Health serves.

When I first started at Family First Health, I practiced Family Medicine and did that for 11 years. At that point, I decided that I wanted to start caring for patients with HIV again and include HIV treatment in my practice.

Q. What was it about caring for HIV patients that led you back?

A. Many things but mostly believing in the way Caring Together, our HIV treatment program, was approaching its support of patients with HIV in a comprehensive manner. You have to remember that when the AIDS crisis started, as is COVID-19 currently, the medical community was still learning much about the disease. The practice then was to refer HIV patients to the Infectious Disease specialists. The Caring Together program already existed when I started working at Family First Health in 1999. Our organization was well ahead of its time in recognizing the over-all needs of HIV patients early on and then integrating the care of patients with HIV into Primary Care Medicine.

HIV is not a condition merely for the infectious disease specialists. With the advance of medications and treatment, HIV has become a chronic medical condition wherein patients whose HIV is stable can live for many years. This was not the case 20-30 years ago when we were losing patients to AIDS which is a condition when HIV is not under control causing patients to have many complications that may eventually lead to death.

The care of patients w HIV should be a part of Primary Care. Family First Health knew this 20 years ago. It has taken 20 years for the rest of the country to catch up.

When I see patients with HIV, their HIV may be one of many other conditions they may have such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, asthma, tobacco use—-all conditions that are chronic, including HIV. The approach is to treat the patient as a whole individual; a person with medical conditions who needs treatment and care, both clinical and non-clinical such as help with food, housing, transportation.

My residency in the Bronx prepared me for the way I approach and treat the whole patient when I work with someone who is HIV positive. I believe that I was led to the Bronx for a reason. That experience put me on this trajectory and is the reason that I am here and am able to treat our community’s underserved HIV population.

Q. This year we’re celebrating Family First Health’s ‘First 50’. How do you see the work you’re doing and the entire Caring Together program evolving over the organization’s next 50 years?

A. I think that Family First Health will continue to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to community care and in providing quality care to our underserved populations. One example is TeleMedicine. When COVID-19 hit our communities, we were able to adapt fast to the change by using our telehealth service. Prior to this, we were already thinking in the direction of telehealth; but I must admit that COVID-19 is the reason for its rapid implementation during the lockdown when patients could not be seen in the office.

That made a big difference because primary care essentially changed overnight. Telehealth made it possible for us to treat patients remotely; making sure that they were taking their medications and keeping up with their care; reminding them of COVID-19 precautions; checking if they have enough food or need food assistance.

Family First Health was already ahead of its time by taking care of our community’s underserved population 50 years ago. We’ll continue to set standards in community health in our next 50 years.

Help Our Caring Together Team

Our ability to serve our community over these First 50 years is thanks to physicians like Dr. Go and all of the providers and staff members at Family First Health. Join us in celebrating our First 50 and support us as we continue to share our story and care for our community. Click below to make a donation and help us continue to provide high-quality health care services over the next 50 years!

People living with HIV need special treatment and care, especially many of the underserved HIV patients in our community. What some people sometimes forget, though, is that these patients also need the same primary medical care that all of us do. We can’t adequately care for a patient if we only treat their HIV.

Our Family First Health providers treat their patients’ HIV no differently than any other health challenge they may have, like diabetes or heart disease. HIV does not define who our patients are. And, it certainly doesn’t define Family First Health patient, Ed.

Caring for Our Underserved HIV Community

Ed is a part of our Caring Together program, a treatment program specifically designed to help HIV patients get both the HIV care and the primary care they need. He’s been a part of Caring Together and a patient of Dr. Asceline Go’s since he first moved to the area in 2014.

“Before I moved and began seeing Dr. Go, I wasn’t always taking my meds like I was supposed to,” he said. “I received good care, but it wasn’t like it is here. From day one, Family First Health was welcoming. There’s a family-like feeling with everyone I talk to and who helps me with my treatment. I’m not a number.”

Caring Together Also Supports the Mental and Emotional Impacts of Living with HIV

Ed shared how his case manager, Erin, and Dr. Go are two people he can rely on for the mental and emotional support he needs.

“Since moving here, life is 1000% better,” Ed said. “I feel safe and feel that I can ask Dr. Go or Erin anything.”

Still, it’s been a tough road, he said.

“I was a part of the group of people affected back when HIV first hit our country,” Ed said. “Everyone around me just started dying. Everyone I knew was gone, except me. I had survivor’s guilt for the longest time. It’s still hard sometimes and some days I don’t want to take my meds. But I know it’s going to help me stay healthy.”

Ed’s Success is The Result of a Team Approach and Many Services Found Outside the Doctor’s Office

There’s an entire team behind Ed providing him the care he needs to stay healthy. Erin, his case manager, works alongside Dr. Go and coordinates all of the resources he needs within Family First Health. She also coordinates all of the services Ed needs outside of Family First Health, like connecting him with his psychiatrist.

If Ed ever needs help with transportation to get to his appointments, help with basic needs like food and housing, or any other number of services or resources necessary for him to remain healthy, Erin finds those for him, too.

Just as important, she’s always there when he has a question or concern. Ed attributes his success in large part to Erin and her guidance.

“I don’t know what I’d do without her,” Ed said.

Family Care in a Family-Like Environment is Everything to Ed

Ed has a strong support system at home with a long line of family members helping to care for him. He sees the same support from his Caring Together team and believes it’s this approach that gives Family First Health its family-like feel.

“Family is everything to me,” he said. “Family First Health treats me like family.

Our ability to take care of patients like Ed through our Caring Together program is thanks to the continued support of our community members over the past 50 years. Please join us in celebrating our ‘First 50’ by making a donation to our organization. As we continue to share our stories and look ahead at caring for our community over the next 50 years, your help and generosity are much appreciated.

“We’re empowering first-time mothers to transform their lives and create a better future for them and their babies.”

Julie Williams*, RN, Family First Health

Every young mother we work with has a story filled with a long series of challenges that led her to our Nurse-Family Partnership program. This is certainly true of Trina*, a pregnant 18-year old from York County who was in desperate need of care.

Our Nurse-Family Partnership program, or NFP, is Family First Health’s dedicated support program for mothers in need. We help these women find their way through pregnancy and the first stages of motherhood. Whatever they need, whether it’s medical care, safe housing, social services, therapy, employment, or any other resource to protect their health and the health of their baby, we find it for them.

For most of our patients, the resources they’re missing are symptoms of a larger challenge: poverty. We work with young mothers to remove the grip poverty has on their lives. Trina’s story is an incredible example of the work our nurses do each day to end this cycle and ensure that babies who begin their lives in poverty have the chance to escape it and live a healthy life.

Trina’s Story

Trina was newly pregnant when she began working with Family First Health’s NFP registered nurse, Julie Williams.

“During my first visit with Trina, she told me about how she had spent her entire life in foster care, attending 20 different schools by the time she was 16,” Julie said. “She went through significant trauma and abuse as a child. Trina had been living on the streets for months before going to a shelter just prior to becoming pregnant. Trina then confided in me that her pregnancy had been the result of a rape during her time in the shelter. When I left that appointment, I had to sit in my car and collect myself. I somehow had to wrap my mind around what she had just shared with me.”

Julie said she couldn’t help but admire the young woman’s perseverance.

“What I admired about Trina immediately, and even more so after hearing her story, was her resilience,” Julie said. “She was both excited and scared about having a baby. I kept thinking about how thankful I was that she wanted to be a part of our program. I was instantly ready to get started and do everything I could to help Trina and her baby. Then, the world shut down from COVID-19.”

Prenatal Care During a Pandemic

When Pennsylvania went into lockdown to fend off the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing measures and the diversion of healthcare resources to only the most critical of needs meant that a lot of services were on hold. Simple things like attending a doctor’s visit to check on the health of the baby was now a challenge.

“I knew that Trina needed to be wrapped in support,” Julie said. “I just did not know how that would be possible with the new social distancing guidelines. My goal was to get every agency working with Trina on an email chain so we could at least communicate and be on the same page.”

That email chain turned into an Integrated Practice Team or IPT. An IPT is a multi-disciplinary, community-oriented group of people working together to identify and resolve issues, and make recommendations.

Julie held the group’s first IPT meeting over the phone and pulled everyone in. Trina, along with her caseworker from the shelter, housing agency representatives, mental health workers, hospital social workers, and Pennsylvania’s Cyber School officials were all talking and brainstorming the best ways to get Trina into safe housing and to the necessary physician and therapy appointments she needed. Within a week, housing was in place, transportation to and from appointments was arranged, and therapy began.

Now that Trina is surrounded by the resources that Family First Health provides, she works with Julie regularly to prepare for motherhood.

“Trina didn’t grow up with a family,” Julie said. “She doesn’t know what it means to be a parent. She also has challenges related to learning and retaining information. So, for Trina, in addition to the work she does with me and Family First Health, we have her enrolled in online parenting classes. I’ve taught her things like how to bathe a baby and change a diaper. Then she receives repetition through the classes to help her retain what she’s learned.”

Caring for Our Mothers Requires That We Earn Their Trust

Providing this level of care for mothers like Trina requires trust.

“It’s been proven that nurses are the most trusted people within the healthcare system from the patient’s perspective,” Julie said “When I or any of our program nurses work with patients, no question is off-limits. We’re here to help. There’s no judgment.”

Julie said she believes it’s the emotional and mental aspects of the program that made the biggest impact on Trina’s health.

“She’s had so many people in and out of her life and is, understandably, untrusting of professionals,” she said. “In our case, however, I visit with her every week and I’m one of the few people in her life who’s listening to her. If I meet with Trina to talk about labor and delivery, but she’s having a bad day and wants to share what’s on her mind, then that’s what we talk about.”

Once the pandemic set in, though, Julie lost her ability to visit Trina at home. It was Family First Health’s prior investment in telemedicine that became Julie’s biggest asset and what she leaned on to care for Trina during the shutdown. Being able to still see Trina’s face and maintain a visual connection helped build the trust she needed to provide Trina with the best possible care.

Teaching Young Mothers How to Care for Their Babies Has the Power to Break Cycles of Poverty

Our NFP nurses make an incredible impact on the lives of the mothers and babies they support. At the same time, however, their support extends well beyond their patients and ripples across each of the neighborhoods and communities we serve.

This ripple effect is most evident when we look at the impact that our Nurse-Family Partnership makes on poverty. Many times, the support our patients need most after childbirth is finding employment and adequate childcare. Teaching young mothers how to be independent and provide for their child creates an intervention to the otherwise compounding consequences of persistent poverty.

By breaking the cycle of poverty, our Nurse-Family Partnership program is reducing each mother’s chance of having subsequent pregnancies, supporting them to become self-sufficient, and helping them give birth to and raise healthier babies.

And, it’s in the quality of life of each baby we care for that we see our program’s biggest impact.

“Imagine a child who was never read a bedtime story,” Julie said. “There are a lot of mothers I meet that simply aren’t aware of the importance of reading to their child. Sometimes I have moms who tell me that reading doesn’t matter because the baby doesn’t understand the story anyway. What we know, however, is that consistently reading to a child wards off developmental delays and prepares that child for kindergarten.

Julie said this sets them on a positive path for the rest of their lives. Children who are not read to have greater challenges later in school—challenges that follow them into adulthood, she said.

“Something as simple as encouraging a mother to read to her baby can dramatically help reduce the cycle of poverty and lead to healthier children and communities,” she said.

Trina and Julie Are Now Working Together and Creating a Plan to Care for Trina’s Baby

Today, Trina is a new high school graduate and is getting ready to have her baby. After Trina gives birth, Julie will continue to work with her for two years. She’ll help her get the baby to pediatric appointments, check-in to see how the baby looks, make sure it’s hitting developmental milestones, and provide Trina with whatever type of support she and her baby need.

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Patients like Trina hold a special place in the hearts of our nurses, physicians, and the entire Family First Health team. Join us in celebrating our First 50 and support us as we continue to share our story and care for our community. Click below to make a donation and help us continue to provide high-quality health care services over the next 50 years!

*Names in this story have been changed to protect the identity of the patient. 

 

Family First Health was born during a moment in history when York City’s most vulnerable citizens were in desperate need of care.

In 1970, a group of community leaders held a meeting known today as the York Charrette. This meeting became the catalyst for a series of changes addressing the needs of our city’s underserved population, including education, housing and race relations.

At that time, one of York City’s biggest challenges was the lack of quality healthcare for the most vulnerable members of our community. Family First Health, then called York Health Corporation, was created in response to the York Charrette to fill this gap and provide exceptional care to the underserved populations of York City.

Accessible Care Becomes a Reality for Our Community’s Most Vulnerable Members

When we opened our doors in 1970, our team consisted of a small group of volunteer nurses and physicians who were intent on creating a healthier community. Our founders recognized, however, that simply opening a health center in the city wasn’t enough. We had to make our care accessible by getting out into neighborhoods, understanding our patients’ needs and developing relationships with them founded on trust.

With this realization, making healthcare accessible to our region’s most vulnerable populations and addressing health disparities became our mission, and it continues to be our guiding light to this day.

Expanding Our Footprint and Our Services

In the 1970s, the number of physicians who joined in our mission grew substantially as our model of care showed increasingly greater success in closing the healthcare gap. After two years of sharing space with the Visiting Nurse Association, Family First Health moved into a facility at 118 N. George Street in York City. The new facility meant additional services, additional hours, and even better care for the York City community.

More expansion quickly followed. In 1972, Family First Health opened its second location in Hanover, followed by Lewisberry in 1973. Then in 1983, just over 10 years later, the York City office moved a few blocks down the street, and we expanded our services even more, including adding dental services for our patients.

In the early 1980s, we took a huge leap forward in the quality of care we provided to our Spanish-speaking population with the hiring of our first bilingual interpreter. Since then, the resources available to serve our Latino community have grown with every passing year. Today, over half of our medical administrators and staff are bilingual, and they serve the nearly 25% of Family First Health patients whose primary language is Spanish.

Practice Manager Sue Posey, who works out of our George Street center, began her career with Family First Health in 1979. Since then, she has seen the organization grow from 15 employees when she arrived to more than 250 today. She recalls the day when the first Spanish-speaking staff member joined the team and has seen the incredible impact Family First Health has made in the Latino community in every county we serve ever since.

“Our Latino patients display such gratitude for having a health center with staff who speak their language. Language is a huge barrier to care. Being able to see someone who looks and speaks like our patients makes them feel more comfortable and more willing to seek the care they need.”

Practice Manager Sue Posey

New Programs, New Technologies, and New Milestones Allow Us to Provide Holistic Care

Over the last fifty years, Family First Health has given patients better access to primary family care and so much more. We’ve created entire programs that tackle specialized areas within healthcare to better treat the whole patient.

In 1991, we received funding from a Federal program that allowed us to provide HIV/AIDs social services. Today, our Caring Together program provides medical and social services to individuals with HIV/AIDs throughout our communities.

In 1997, we expanded again to establish the county’s only school-based health center in York County with the opening of our Hannah Penn health center in the City of York School District.

Then, in 2001, Family First Health incorporated the national program, Nurse-Family Partnership. The start of this program marked a special milestone for our health center as we began helping first-time mothers through pregnancy and the first two years of their child’s life. This gave us an incredible opportunity to care for a highly vulnerable population within our community and give young mothers the skills to earn a living to support their family well after the birth of their child.

As the 2000s rolled on, we continued to open several new health centers across multiple counties. In 2006, we officially changed our name from York Health Corporation to Family First Health. This shift marked a rededication to our mission of serving those families across our region who needed us the most.

Family First Health reached yet another milestone a few years later – the switch from paper records to electronic records with its first electronic health record system. Making this shift introduced an entirely new way of making care more accessible for patients. Most notably, we introduced a notification system that reminded patients of upcoming appointments. This allowed our physicians to provide more proactive care and decreased the number of missed visits.

These milestone programs are just a sample of what our organization has done since it first opened back in 1970 – treat the whole patient, not just the disease.

2020: A Bright Future Lies Ahead

As we celebrate 50 years of Family First Health and the impact we’ve made on the communities we serve, a new challenge faces us and the people under our care … a worldwide pandemic.

This historic event is shining a bright light on the health disparities that exist among the underserved and vulnerable populations. And across our country and the world, the direct link between these disparities and the inability for at-risk populations to access quality healthcare has become ever more visible. In this unique moment in history, the COVID-19 crisis has driven a recommitment to our core mission to improve the health of the underserved residents in our communities.

For Family First Health CEO Jenny Englerth, the pandemic has revealed what many health care providers have already suspected.

“Over our 50 years, we’ve defined and executed on our mission in many ways. COVID has forced us to look harder at the issues of social injustice and inequity, and the direct impact those inequities have on people’s health,” Englerth said. “We may have known that intuitively, but we’re now seeing it right in front of us.”

Our 50^th year will mark a recommitment to doing the hard work of breaking through the health disparities that can stem from social inequities. As we look ahead to our next 50 years and beyond, we’re making a renewed commitment to our patients and the communities we serve:

• We’re committed to becoming an even louder voice and an even stronger advocate for our patients as we work to break the systemic barriers to health that arise from income, race, and geography.
• We’re committed to becoming even more creative in our delivery models. COVID-19 has given us new ways to make care accessible through initiatives like telehealth. We’re already seeing the positive impacts these new delivery methods are having on our patients’ health.
• We’re committed to placing a greater focus on patient data. Data can play a key role in giving our health centers the ability to drive interventions and support patient health. Collecting and processing data gives us the ability to turn theory into practice and implement those programs and initiatives that are making the biggest impact on patient health.

“As our organization continues to grow and evolve, the one thing that will never change is our whole-patient approach to primary care. Whatever our patients need, we work with them to find a solution. Our patients trust us, and because we’ve built that trust with them, they call us when they need support. This is what makes primary care effective and what lets us deliver the best possible care.”

Family First Health CEO, Jenny Englerth

Our patients and families hold a special place in the heart and history of Family First Health. Join us in celebrating our First 50 and support us as we continue to share our story and care for our community. Click below to make a donation and help us continue to provide high-quality health care services over the next 50 years!