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Unite Us community engagement manager Janie Belliston explains the platform during a training session, Cedar City, Utah, Aug. 23, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News
CEDAR CITY — A shared online platform that enables community health and social service providers to refer clients and match them with needed resources and services has officially launched in four additional Southern Utah counties as of this week.
The service Unite Us is designed to build coordinated care networks of health and social service providers. Since the company was founded in 2013, Unite Us now operates in 44 states.
“As of today, we are live in 25 counties in Utah, with only four more to go,” Unite Us Community Engagement Manager Janie Belliston said during a training session held Tuesday for newly registered participants from Iron, Beaver, Garfield and Kane counties.
Approximately two dozen people were in attendance at the rollout session at Cedar City’s La Quinta Inn & Suites, with a handful of others participating online. Collectively, the attendees represented a variety of local community organizations and agencies that have committed to joining the network.
The four Utah counties that haven’t joined – San Juan, Uintah, Daggett and Duchesne – are scheduled to be brought online by November, Belliston added.
Utah’s rapidly growing statewide network, officially known as Connect Us, was started in Washington and Weber counties in 2019, through the collaborative efforts of the Alliance for the Determinants of Health.
“Connect Us partners are connected through a shared technology platform powered by Unite Us,” the alliance’s website said. “This platform allows network partners to send and receive secure referrals to one another on behalf of those they serve. It also provides network partners data on how individuals’ needs are being met and the outcomes of referrals.”
“I think as of yesterday, we had over 325 organizations on the platform throughout the state, which is amazing,” Belliston told the attendees on Tuesday.
Peggy Green, executive director of Iron County Care and Share, has helped spearhead the effort to bring together local agencies and organizations and get them on board.
“I can’t think of a more amazing thing than to be able to offer our community that connection and that ability to refer people in the moment, to where they need to be,” Green said as she welcomed the attendees on Tuesday. “I really appreciate everything that you’ve done to get to this point, and everything that you’re going to do going forward, to pull this into your work and into your organizations.”
During her introductory remarks, Belliston noted people who are in need of a particular resource or service are also often in need of one or more others.
“Say that I’m the local food bank that’s working with a client,” Belliston said by way of example. “While we’re talking about her food insecurity, she mentions that she’s looking for more stable employment.”
Even though the food bank may not directly offer such job-related assistance, Belliston said, “I can create an employment referral and send it to the coordination center. From there, the coordination center finds the best resource and sends the referral directly to that partner.”
Addressing the issue of privacy, Belliston said no personal information is shared on the platform without client consent and that data is kept secure.
“Client privacy is our priority,” she said, adding that the platform is fully HIPAA-compliant and HITRUST certified.
Thanks to the support of Intermountain Healthcare and other local health care partners, the Unite Us platform is provided at no cost to community-based organizations, said Katie Prawitt, senior community engagement manager for Unite Us.
“Unite Us is focused on elevating social care to the same priority level as clinical care,” states a United Us news release sent to Cedar City News via email on Aug. 5 by Prawitt. “This is hard work and not a short-term fix; it requires a long-term vision.”
“Better care coordination will lead to better outcomes,” the news release adds, noting that the platform will help participating local organizations “support their clients and communities in accessing community resources in a more streamlined and coordinated manner.”
For more information visit the Unite Us website.
Local participating organizations, groups and agencies that have signed on to use the Unite Us platform include the following: Iron County Care and Share, Southwest Utah Public Health Department, Southwest Behavioral Health Services, Canyon Creek Services, Youth Futures Utah, SUU Community Engagement Center / HOPE Food Pantry, SUU Head Start, Iron County School District, Visit Cedar City BrianHead Tourism Center, NetGain Property Management, Family Healthcare, Cherish Families, Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness, Family Support Center, Red Rock Center for Independence, plus multiple programs operated through the Five County Association of Governments, including Community Action Partnership, HEAT, Area Agency on Aging and Mobility Management.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.
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