Center for Excellence in Rural Health-Hazard

About Kentucky Homeplace

Mission

The mission of the Kentucky Homeplace Program is to provide access to medical, social, and environmental services for the citizens of the Commonwealth.

Vision/Goals

The goal of the Kentucky Homeplace Program is to educate Kentuckians to identify risk factors and use preventative measures to become a healthier people with knowledge and skills to access the healthcare and social system.

Objectives

• Provide access to medical, social and environmental services by networking with a service provider at the lowest cost possible.
• Decrease uncompensated hospitalization and emergency room visits by educating individuals to access appropriate health care.
• Act as a liaison on behalf of individuals and their families by networking with multi-disciplinary agencies.
• Promote a better quality of life by providing education on primary and preventative care.
• Identify health trends, socio-cultural and economic barriers to bridge the gaps between uninsured and underserved individuals and the health care delivery system to find solutions by collecting and analyzing data.

Future Visions and Goals

• Secure the needed funding to provide full time coverage for the 58 counties we are currently serving.
• Secure funding to provide services in all rural counties in the Commonwealth.
• Secure funding to provide services in all urban counties in the Commonwealth.

Background

Since its inception 13 years ago, this lay health worker initiative has linked tens of thousands of rural Kentuckians with medical, social and environmental services they otherwise might have done without. From July 1, 2001 through June, 30, 2008 over 87,165 unduplicated clients have received over 2,017,977 services and have accessed over $135 million dollars in medications and other items such as medical equipment, supplies and other basic needs of life. In fact, during fiscal year 2007 alone, Homeplace workers provided more than 482,699 services to approximately 13,000 clients - and accessed $27 million worth of free medications and more than $2.6 million worth of other items (eyeglasses, hearing aids, wheelchairs, etc.) on their behalf. The overall return on investment for fiscal year 2007 equals $15 dollars per dollar invested.

But numbers tell only part of the Homeplace story. The goals and objectives are met through four main components: access, advocate, education, prevention and research. The program’s ultimate purpose is to address health disparities throughout rural Kentucky, where cancer, diabetes and heart disease rates are unusually high. Its lay workers are trained to help medically underserved residents access appropriate health services, and emphasis is placed on preventive care, health education and disease self-management.

Homeplace originally was developed by the University of Kentucky Center for Rural Health-Hazard, based in the eastern Kentucky coal-mining town of Hazard, Ky., as a demonstration project in just 14 counties. Because of its success, Homeplace has expanded into 58 counties and now has 49 employees. Its geographic service area spans the length of the state, including most counties in eastern and western Kentucky and those along its southern border. Residents of these areas statistically are poorer, less educated and less likely to have medical coverage than those in other parts of the state and nation.

Further complicating the matter is that most of the state’s 120 counties are designated as medically underserved areas. Yet, in Kentucky, even availability of services is not synonymous with access. Barriers, especially for poor rural people, include lack of knowledge about services, inadequate information on their own conditions, social and cultural inhibitors, lack of money, no transportation, and numerous other factors.

Because so many rural Kentuckians were going without health care services - particularly preventive care - the state’s General Assembly took the unique step in 1994 of earmarking taxpayer money for a lay health worker program whose aim was to link underserved residents with available services. The initial impetus for Kentucky Homeplace was the leadership of the late Paul Mason, a state representative who advocated for a more responsive - and compassionate - health care system for those with limited access to medical services. While most lay health worker programs rely on funding from state or federal grants, Homeplace has been a line-item in the executive branch of the state’s biennial budget for nearly a decade now. This is a testament to its importance as part of Kentucky’s health care safety net.

See Also

• Quarterly Reports [pdf]
• Statewide Service Area Map [pdf]
• Frequently Asked Questions