Celebrating National Health Center Week 2023!

Our team at Veriteos was filled with joy and excitement this past week as we had the opportunity to visit several health centers across Massachusetts. Health center staff, leadership, directors, patients, and residents celebrated community, health, and culture with cookouts, live DJs, ribbon-cutting ceremonies, and more.

Growing up in predominantly Mexican-immigrant neighborhoods in Southern California, I vividly recall my experiences receiving care at community clinics. As I drove across the Commonwealth, I couldn’t help but become nostalgic, seeing my childhood experiences on full display, this time through the eyes of future generations.

Across the nation, we saw numerous reasons why health centers play such a critical role in the communities in which they operate, and Massachusetts was no exception. In total, we visited six health centers:

Manet Community Health Center

,

NEW Health Center

,

Charles River Community Health

,

Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center

,

Community Health Center of Cape Cod

, and

Caring Health Center

. Events were attended by groups of supporters, including local leaders, small businesses, elected officials, and the

League of Massachusetts of Health Centers

.

While the patient mix varies in each community, our conversations often touched on the overwhelming need to serve behavioral health needs better — in essence, too many patients and not enough providers. However, health centers are adjusting their care models, hiring more providers where budgets allow, engaging community partners where necessary, and increasing their development efforts.

Given our vision to bring coordinated, culturally relevant, and dignifying mental health care to people living in low-wealth communities, we continue to see the importance of our work in empowering health centers to manage their operations more effectively through our

Community Care Navigation Platform

.

We’re grateful for all the health centers that opened their doors to us and the community last week, and for all health centers across the nation — we celebrate you!

With gratitude,

Carlos Rodarte

Co-founder and CEO @ Veriteos

Thanks to Kyloon Chuah for reading drafts of this article. Please visit our website for more information or watch a recent video about our work from Verizon’s Health Equity Showcase.