National Foundation Honors Community Public Health Advocate

By Nate Hinkel

 
Naomi Cottoms alongside Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Cottoms was one of just ten nationally to receive the RWJF award. 

Cottoms received the award at the RWJF Community Health Leaders Awards ceremony Nov. 9 in Baltimore. The UAMS College of Public Health recently evaluated the Community Connectors program that Cottoms started and found that its participants were more likely to use home- and community-based long-term care services instead of institutional care. This nursing home diversion program generated a significant cost savings to the Arkansas Medicaid program while providing life-changing benefits to seniors and people with disabilities in the Delta region.

It was because of Cottoms’ unique approach to ensuring that the poorest residents in the Delta can get access to health care that she was given the award, which went to nine others nationally who have overcome odds to improve the health and quality of life for disadvantaged or underserved communities across the country.

“Whatever the health indicator is – chronic disease, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney failure – Delta communities are at the bottom,” said Cottoms. “Getting the predominantly low-income and African-American residents in the Delta to visit the doctor can be a challenge, due to their lack of resources and trust in providers. Food, clothing and shelter tend to come before health care.”

Cottoms’ realization that those in her community ignore pain and rely on home remedies before they see a doctor prompted her to start Community Connectors, which sends community volunteers door-to-door to educate local residents about available health programs while building their trust. The goal is to help seniors and people with disabilities stay in their homes for health care rather than go to a nursing home or other institution.

Results from a UAMS College of Public Health study on the program bucked the popular belief known as the “woodwork effect,” which means that if government makes it easy for people to get Medicaid to help pay for long-term care services for them in their home, more people will “come out of the woodwork” to access those services, thereby increasing costs to the state. The study’s key finding showed that the state’s Medicaid system had a net savings of more than $2.6 million over three years when Medicaid-eligible elderly and disabled adults with unmet long-term care needs in a three-county area were sought out and connected to home and community-based long-term care services.

RWJF’s Community Health Leaders Award elevates the work of those honored by raising awareness of their contributions with a $125,000 award to continue the organization’s mission.

“These individuals represent the best of America,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., president and chief executive officer of RWJF. “Each of our winners identified a dire need in their community and took personal and professional risks to address that need. They are helping the people in their communities live healthier, better lives.”

Community Connectors has expanded to 15 counties throughout the Delta region.

“Often in poor communities, people have no input in decision-making about their lives,” Cottoms said. “It’s important for people to know that sometimes we can determine our own fate. We train people to become informed and create change for themselves.”

Holly Felix, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAMS College of Public Health, who co-led the study of the Community Connectors program, said Cottoms has embraced and promoted the mission of the college.

“She has been a great supporter, lecturing in classes, participating in strategic planning retreats and other meetings, and attending site visits by external partners and others,” Felix said. “She has done a tremendous amount for the Delta communities and for UAMS and the people of Arkansas.”