The DFW Hospital Council is posting blogs submitted by our Associate Members. The following was provided by YMCA Dallas. For guidelines, please contact Chris Wilson at chrisw@dfwhc.org.

YMCAs, healthcare providers and other community organizations across the country are increasingly finding new ways to collaborate to address the health of their community members.

The “Y” aims to improve the nation’s health and well-being by providing programs and activities that promote wellness, reduce the risk for disease and help others reclaim their health. These programs and everything else the Y does are in service of making our communities better. The result is a country that values health and communities that support healthy choices.

Community Integrated Health
Community Integrated Health is the effort to strengthen the linkages between traditional health care and community-based prevention strategies to help individuals prevent, delay or live better with chronic conditions.

Community Integrated Health:
• Increases access to care;
• Lowers costs;
• Prevents and addresses chronic disease;
• Reduces effects of some social determinants of health.

YMCAs have begun to collaborate with healthcare providers and others in the community on evidenced-based programs. On a national scale, the Y offers programs such as:
• YMCA’s Diabetes Prevention Program – a part of the CDC’s national prevention effort;
• Livestrong at the YMCA – to help reduce the effects of cancer treatment and improve recovery;
• EnhanceFitness – a program for those living with arthritis;
• Moving for Better Balance.

In 2012, the Dallas Y was one of 17 YMCAs across the country to be selected to participate in a grant from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) to study the effects of the YMCA’s Diabetes Prevention Program on Medicare recipients. Our Y worked closely with physicians at USMD and other local healthcare providers to implement the program at our various YMCAs over a three-year period.

The program enjoyed enormous success, not only in the Dallas area but also in the other 16 participating YMCAs across the country. Actuaries for CMMI determined that outcomes from the program saved $2650 per person over a 15-month period. Thus, Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USHHS), decided to promote the program to a Medicare benefit beginning in January 2018.

The YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas also collaborates with other healthcare systems on a local level including Children’s Health. The Dallas YMCA works with their Population Health Department to offer a suite of classes around childhood obesity. “Get Up and Go” is the primary program, and is a physician-referred program for youth at or above the 85th percentile for BMI.

The 9-week program involves the entire family and focuses on developing healthy choices and behaviors. In 2016, we graduated nearly 450 youths at 18 different locations in the Dallas Metro area.

The YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas continues to work with many other community leaders and organizations to help change policy and physical surrounding to bring healthy living within the reach of all people.

Gordon Echtenkamp is the President and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas. The Dallas YMCA Diabetes Prevention Program is in collaboration with the YMCA of the USA and the Center for Disease Control. The Y is one of the nation’s leading nonprofits strengthening communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. Anchored in 21 North Texas communities, the Dallas Y has the long-standing relationships and physical presence not just to promise, but to deliver, lasting personal and social change. For more information, please go to www.ymcadallas.org.