PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- Families dealing with serious health issues such as COVID-19, cancer or heart failure often need assistance with non-medical issues too, according to Tyesha Hightower, Wellness Program Coordinator for Project Home.
The social services nonprofit is part of a network of companies and organizations, called CommunityLink, which is designed to find out what patients need, so help can be arranged.
"Older patients needed help with fixing up their homes. So we were trying to look into school system's tech programs so that we could send people over to patient's houses to just help do every day stuff like change light bulbs and clean the gutters," Hightower said.
Some people don't have enough to eat. Others can't find a ride to appointments.
"We have stress, social exclusion issues, educational opportunities and job training, unemployment, social support, addiction," Hightower said. "We have some food insecurities, transportation insecurities and housing insecurities."
Project Home, Independence Blue Cross, Signify Health and several other community groups such as MANNA, Penn Asian Senior Services, and the Greater Philadelphia YMCA are working together to make it easier for people to access the non-medical services they require in their own community.
