Root of the Issue

This week on Root of the Issue, we are revisiting a conversation from last year with Susan Fuehrer of the MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio. Susan, who serves as President of the Institute of H.O.P.E. (Health, Opportunity, Partnership, and Empowerment), works with her team to address the social determinants of health in an ambitious, comprehensive, and coordinated manner.

Susan goes on to say that:

“You know, people are recognizing that none of us can do this alone anymore. And we are breaking down barriers amongst healthcare institutions and there's organizations like The Root Cause Coalition that are really stepping up and bringing the collective voice together. [We are] relying on each other to share best practices, identify lessons learned from things that don't work so others don't make the same mistakes. I think what's really brings me hope is that we are, in many ways, working much better together and recognizing that none of us can do this alone, and that the only way we're going to be successful is to form alliances and coalitions and do this work together.”

Lilian Ho, M.D., a pediatric hospitalist, provides care to infants and children at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. Dr. Ho is a fierce advocate for addressing the social determinants of health to help ensure all of her patients and families have access to the most basic needs. Dr. Ho discusses the obstacles patients must tackle while living in remote areas of Alaska, some of her early influences, and the Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program. The CHGME is the only federal program devoted to the training of pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists designed to compensate for the disparity in the level of federal graduate medical education funding.

Dr. Ho emphasizes the importance of a community approach towards addressing the causes of health inequity:

“I think of health equity as first and foremost, allowing every individual to have access to healthcare. And then I'd say the equity part, to me, is the fact that different people need different amounts of healthcare access […] I think as a community, it is our responsibility to ensure that every individual has the access that they need based on their individual healthcare needs. So I think that this is definitely a community and social issue and we're never going to get to a place of health equity unless we have our community behind it.“

To learn more about the CHGME program you can visit their website: here.

On this special re-release of a conversation from last year, Rachelle Reyes Wenger, System Vice President of Public Policy & Advocacy Engagement for CommonSpirit Health, joins host Barbara Petee to discuss the power of collaboration in the face of seemingly insurmountable societal obstacles. From climate change to social justice reform to health inequity, Rachelle believes that through the determination of many working in lockstep, change is always possible.  “I think what the beauty is about collaborating with so many different folks within the RCC (Root Cause Coalition), is because we have the advantage of not only looking through our own individual lens, but through the lens of others within healthcare and our friends outside of healthcare. Those who are really committed to this work and who have various ways of looking at the problem, I think that's really what's needed and also what Congress needs to hear.”

This week on Root of the Issue our host Barbara Petee is joined by Alfreda Rooks, MPA, Director of Community Health Services (CHS) at Michigan Medicine, UM Health. In this role, Alreda works to advance the mission to identify creative solutions to address the various health and social needs of the community. Over the course of their conversation they discuss the work that CHS does across the region and state, Alfreda’s familial roots in Jim Crow era Birmingham, as well as the moments that launched her on the path towards working in community focused medicine. When asked what how she defines health equity, Alfreda responded with this:

 “To me, health equity is making sure that the person that is sitting in front of you is seen as a person, and has the opportunity to have world-class, quality healthcare that anyone else has…I don't believe that anybody has to die to get good healthcare.”

This week on Root of the Issue our host Barbara Petee is joined by two guests from the Food Bank Council of Michigan, Dr. Phil Knight, Executive Director, and Dr. Dawn Opel, Chief Innovation Officer, and General Counsel. The Food Bank Council of Michigan (FBCM) has a unified strategy to address and alleviate hunger statewide by increasing emergency food resources and advocating on behalf of the hunger relief network. Over the course of their conversation they discuss the history of the Council, how transportation factors into fighting hunger, and much more. Dr Phil Knight, when asked how he perseveres in such difficult days had this to say:

“As long as we're not scared to have the difficult conversations, then I think we can work through the difficult, challenging issues. But first we have to be willing to find that peace that is known only on the other side of conflict, and having those conflicts, having those conversations where we disagree will only make us better. We just can't be too scared to have them.”

To learn more  about the work of the FBCM, visit them at their site: Here

Host Barbara Petee joins Dr. Shannon Orr, Founder and Director of the Falcon Food and Resource Community and /Falcon Food Pantry at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio to discuss Orr's pathway towards tackling

• food scarcity,
• how hunger impacts the outcomes for college students, and
• the personal connections she has made that led to the creation of the Falcon Food Pantry.

When asked what keeps her going, Shannon said, “My teacher once told me that enthusiasm was my greatest strength but also my greatest weakness. And just knowing that we have so much that we can do, that we have so many opportunities out there…it's one reason I love the work I feel lucky to have the job I do. To take advantage of these opportunities and work with such amazing students … I think it's that sense of opportunity, what can we do next?”

Learn more about Shannon’s work at the Falcon Food Pantry here.

In this special encore episode, host Barbara Petee talks with David Waters, CEO of Community Servings, a critical regional program providing medically tailored meal (MTM) plans in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Waters discusses the role that MTMs play in tackling a variety of issues often facing underserved communities, both in terms of social justice, food insecurity, and health care.

Waters says, “When we think of trying to right the ship of healthcare in America, nobody in healthcare was talking about medically tailored meals or food as medicine even five years ago. And it seemed so daunting to get anyone's attention.

"But through groups like Root Cause, Community Servings, and the Food Is Medicine Coalition, I rarely go into a meeting anymore where a doctor, or a healthcare leader, or an insurer doesn't already know the term - medically tailored meals - and know of the research that we've published. So when you think that one person or one small agency can't have an impact, we're doing such major work together and things really are changing.”

This week on Root of the Issue our host Barbara Petee is joined by Mike Curtin, CEO of the DC Central Kitchen in Washington, D.C. DC Central Kitchen (DCCK) is an iconic nonprofit and social enterprise that combats hunger and poverty through job training and job creation. Over the course of their conversation, Mike details his unconventional path into the non-profit space, his childhood upbringing in which giving back to the community was always a constant, as well as what he believes to be the pathway towards ending childhood hunger by 2030. When asked what keeps him so hopeful on a path that seems, at times, insurmountable, Mike responded with this:

“Whether you're a teacher or a doctor or a banker or a recovering addict, or someone who's been incarcerated for 25 years or 30 years, or if you're the president of United States, we're all standing around the same table, working with the same food, trying to make our community a little bit better every single day.”

To learn more about the DC Central Kitchen, please visit them

at: their website, https://dccentralkitchen.org

This week on Root of the Issue our host Barbara Petee is joined by Shenandoah Chefalo, a certified coach and member of the Foster Leaders Movement, as well as president and owner of Chefalo Consulting: Trauma Informed Specialists that helps private government and public organizations implement sustainable trauma informed strategies. In their conversation, Shenandoah shares the compelling story of her childhood in the foster care system and how her experiences, and the role models she met along the way, shaped her into who she is today. When asked what she would like to leave the audience, Shenandoah shared this compelling line on the power of perspective: 

“I would just challenge listeners to think about something that I often refer to as the paradigm shift, which is moving from this idea of “What’s wrong with that person?” and move into what I call the strength-based framework, which is “What’s strong in them?” When we can begin to see our deficiencies as our strength, when we can make that shift for ourselves, when we no longer begin seeing our coworker as stubborn, but we see our coworker as passionate and steadfast, it can change everything for us”.

This week on Root of the Issue our host Barbara Petee is joined by Christa Barfield, the founder and CEO of Farmer Jawn Agriculture, a community greenhouse and CSA (community supported agriculture), in Philadelphia. Over the course of the conversation Christa shares her “aha” moment, a January 2018 trip to Martinique. Her experiences there catapulted her out of a career in healthcare and into her new identity as an urban farmer and wellness herbalist. When asked how she could use her healthcare experience in taking on this new venture with Farmer Jawn Agriculture, Christa shared this:

“I like to focus on health disparities because obviously that's my background and I'm passionate about people knowing how to care for themselves through food. You know, I like to say agriculture is the culture. Regenerative healthcare through organic food is how we do that and how we teach people to take care of themselves and the world around them.”