Celebrating successes at the 2018 Annual Summit

On April 20, 2018, over 200 partners in health convened in Wenatchee to attend the North Central Accountable Community of Health's Annual Summit.  Attendees ranged from health care providers, educators, elected officials, community-based organizations, local government, and law enforcement representatives. All came together to share, learn, network, and collaborate as we heard from a variety of speakers who all shared a similar message: healthy communities promote and support healthy people, and in order for the NCACH Medicaid Transformation Projects to be successful, it will require the efforts of the whole community.  Keynote speaker, Francisco Ronquillo of University of New Mexico, shared his experiences recruiting, training, and supporting Community Health Workers in the greater Albuquerque area, and pointed to the success of treating chronic conditions by sourcing local community members to join in as caregivers, educators, and allies.  Teresa Posakony, N.E.A.R. Sciences Leadership Consultant and seasoned facilitator, shared her work studying and addressing the N.E.A.R. Sciences: Neurosciences, Epigenetics, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and Resilience, and the role that all can play in building resilient communities together.  Chris Kelleher from Oregon Health Sciences University's Center for Evidence-Based Policy, shared his findings conducting a series of focus groups across the North Central region addressing transportation and housing barriers and opportunities across Chelan, Douglas, Grant and Okanogan counties. Feedback collected at the Summit will be incorporated into NCACH's strategic plan to support transportation and housing as social determinants of health.  Local leader, Chelan-Douglas Coalition for Health Improvement (CHI) facilitator, and Executive Director of Community Choice, Deb Miller, showed us her Rainbow of Health demonstration, and asked us to reflect on the ways that we all impact community health and Whole Peron Care in our roles.  Director of the Health Care Authority, Sue Birch, shared her vision of the Medicaid Transformation process across the state, and her experiences seeing the North Central region for the first time on a four-county road trip with NCACH Executive Director, Senator Parlette.  Attendees also had the opportunity to hear from several panels and panelists, including: an NCACH Workgroup update detailing the region's six selected Medicaid Transformation Projects and their plans for implementation; a regional Opioid Stakeholder's panel describing local success stories in North Central Washington's Opioid Response; and a group of students from Bastyr University and local partners in health showcasing the Center for Disease Control's "Meeting in a Box" tool to explore and address root causes of health issues using stakeholder collaboration.   At the end of the day, we had the opportunity to hear from Joseph Garcia, lead faculty solutions coordinator for the King County Community Partnership for Transition Solutions, who runs a cognitive skills building program for justice-involved adults who have earned their release back to the community. Joseph spoke about the importance of everyone coming together to support initiatives and programs to support vulnerable populations as a means of increasing the health and success of the entire community.  One of the main goals of the NCACH Annual Summit is to convene and connect partners in health to one another. Through facilitated discussion, organic networking, and open-forums, many voices were heard, many connections were made, and many opportunities for collaboration were identified.   As the NCACH Workgroups continue to build their plans for implementation, we encourage you all to be a part of the Medicaid Transformation efforts happening across the region. The feedback collected at the Summit will be used to inform NCACH efforts and decisions. We are grateful to everyone who came to be a part of the Annual Summit, our Workgroups, Governing Board, Coalitions for Health Improvement, and for you -- our partners in health.   A special thank you to:  Two Chef's Catering for a fabulous breakfast and lunch spread.  Kari Lyons-Price from Meditate Wenatchee, who led us through inspiring and energizing breaks.  All of our speakers and presenters.The Wenatchee Downtown Association for donating local coffee and Wenatchee-themed goodies to our speaker gifts.The Red Lion - Wenatchee for the venue.And, finally, a special thank-you to our amazing photographer, Heidi Swoboda, of Swoboda Photography. To view all of the photos from the Annual Summit, visit this link and enter "ncach" when prompted for the password. 

Charge on!

The staff of the North Central Accountable Community of Health: (L-R) Linda Evans Parlette; Barry Kling, Board Chair; Caroline Tillier; Teresa Davis; Christal Eshelman; Sahara Suval; Peter Morgan; John Schapman