RESILIENT YELLOWSTONE

What does it take for a community to be resilient? The Resilient Yellowstone project seeks to answer that question. The Healthy by Design (HBD) Coalition recently received a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help build and strengthen community resilience in Yellowstone County. In order to accomplish that goal, HBD is partnering with the Adult Resource Alliance of Yellowstone County (ARAYC), Billings Clinic, Billings Chamber of Commerce, Billings Urban Indian Health and Wellness Center, Living Independently for Today and Tomorrow (LIFTT), Riverstone Public Health, St. Vincent Healthcare, Montana Office of Rural Health (MSU-Bozeman), Montana Public Health Network and the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders, Council. We all know that the pandemic put significant stress on all of community and health systems. This impacted the most vulnerable members of the community in unique ways. Each of the organizations named above will be working to address the challenges faced by the populations they serve. What they will have in common is a trained and skilled Community Health Worker (CHW) workforce. CHW’s are frontline public health workers who are trusted members of the communities they serve. Over the next few issues we will be focusing on each of the partners involved in this project. The first of these programs is the Foster Grandparent Program:

St. Vincent Healthcare Foster Grandparent Program

The Foster Grandparent Program (FGP) is an AmeriCorps Seniors national service program. Sponsored by St. Vincent Healthcare for more than 50 years, the program matches limited income senior volunteers (age 55 or older) with community schools, Head Start centers, and after school programs to serve as classroom tutors/ mentors to children who need extra help. Eligible volunteers earn a tax-free stipend of $3.15/hour as well as other benefits, and commit to a minimum of 12 hours/ week. We participated in the Resilient Yellowstone Project to help our staff connect Foster Grandparents with community resources. The program includes in-service education and training sessions, so Resilient Yellowstone has helped enable our CHW to better assess training and educational needs and connect with community partners that can offer support. If you can IMAGINE yourself as a Foster Grandparent, call 406-237-3485.

Reduce stroke risk and bleeding worry, for life.

Billings Clinic was the rst health care organization in the region to o er the WATCHMAN device and is recognized nationally as a leader in providing the WATCHMAN procedure. Based on excellent outcomes and procedural success, Billings Clinic is the only health care organization in a multistate area to be selected as a site for a major national clinical study.

WATCHMAN is for people who: • Have atrial brillation not caused by heart valve problems • Have been recommended to take blood thinning medicines by their doctor • Can take blood thinners but need an alternative to blood thinners because they have a history of bleeding or a lifestyle that puts them at risk for bleeding • Can take blood thinners, but want an alternative to blood thinners. We are currently enrolling patients in a clinic trial for this reason

For more information on the WATCHMAN trial, please contact Tanja Sloan at 406-238-2004 or 1-800-332-7156 ext. 2004 billingsclinic.com/watchman