Webinar: Fostering Healthy Families Through Stable Housing—The Role of the Health Care System

July 26, 2012, 1:00 PM EDT

According to a 2010 study, there are 1.6 million homeless children in the U.S. each year—that’s 1 in 45 kids. Not surprisingly, children with inadequate or unstable housing situations have disproportionately high rates of chronic disease, asthma, hunger, traumatic stress, and emotional and behavioral problems. Strategies to stabilize housing for children who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless are important for diminishing the health risks facing this vulnerable population.

This webinar on the role of the health care system in fostering healthy living environments for families featured health and housing experts discussing the following topics:

• the effects of unstable housing on children’s health and the scope of the problem across the nation
• the potential impact of health system changes, including Medicaid expansions and new funding for community health workers
• the efforts of health plan foundations to improve access to stable housing
• additional opportunities for health care stakeholders to advance the health of at-risk families

More information:

• Agenda
• Speaker Biographies
• Presentations
  
  • Child Homelessness and Health, A Nationwide Perspective, Natalie Coupe, Policy Director, Campaign to End Homelessness, The National Center on Family Homelessness
  • Growing Up Healthy: Kids and Communities, Jocelyn Ancheta, Senior Program Officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation
  • Health for the Homeless, Patrick O'Sullivan, Executive Director, Blue and You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas
  • Health Care for the Homeless and the Affordable Care Act, Barbara DiPietro, PhD, Director of Policy, National Health Care for the Homeless Council
  • Reactor/Discussant, Jennifer Ho, Deputy Director, US Interagency Council on Homelessness
• Additional Resources
• Fostering Healthy Families Through Stable Housing—The Role of the Health Care System, NIHCM Foundation fact sheet, November 2012.
• Evaluation
• Archive