Childhood poverty is growing in North Carolina. As of 2012, more than half a million children in the state are living in poverty, and of these, more than half are in extreme poverty. The health implications for these children are profound; research shows children born into poor families have higher hospital readmission rates, sick days, rates of chronic illness, and death rates compared to children in non-poor families.
As most pediatricians have patients who fall below the poverty line, they are seeing the negative health consequences of poverty. Pediatricians are looking for ways to address these issues, which are affecting an increasing number of their patients. Unfortunately, conditions of poverty—inadequate housing, lack of access to healthy foods, lack of transportation for appointments—are not easily remedied.
Pediatricians cannot tackle these issues themselves, nor do they have to. Across the state, organizations and agencies across the states are working to address these issues on at the grassroots level. After speaking to North Carolina pediatricians, however, we found that most were unaware of these local resources and the services they provide.
Our team of students at UNC set out to fix this by assembling a community health toolkit—a concise, informative database of local resources, the services they provide, and their contact information. With this toolkit, pediatricians can begin to address these larger issues. For example, if patients come in with asthma symptoms exacerbated by their family’s housing situation, instead of merely addressing the symptoms, the doctor can make referrals to an organization that works to get families better housing. This way, pediatricians can provide more than Band-Aid solutions to the problems they’re seeing. In addition, the toolkit benefits community organizations by helping them reach their target populations.
The idea of connecting pediatricians to these resources is coming at a critical time. The Affordable Care Act aims to shift the health care system to a system of value-based reimbursement instead of volume-based reimbursement. Under a value-based system, pediatricians are paid based on the health of their patients, not the number of medical services they provide. Therefore, pediatricians now have even more reason to look at the health of their patients more holistically and address the larger health factors at play.
What we have done by creating this community health toolkit is only the first step in what we see as a necessary change in how we approach health care. Research shows that the causes of poor health are multifaceted, so our solutions should be, too. We hope to see this toolkit model expanded so pediatricians across the nation can bring in local groups to help address the systemic poverty affecting millions of children.
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $136,000 in one-time donations and to add 1440 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy