“Walk in My Shoes” Poverty Simulation Hosted by by HealthlinkNY

Newburgh, NY - In a “Walk in My Shoes” poverty simulation, organized by HealthlinkNY’s Health Action Priorities Network in the Hudson Valley, members of healthcare and community organizations found out what it’s like to live for a month as a low-income family trying to make ends meet.

During the exercise, participants paid a doctor’s visit, went grocery shopping and had to put meals together with very limited funds, had to get around without a car, visited human services organizations, attended school, and more, organizers said.

“They saw firsthand what it’s like to live in poverty and how the difficulties of day-to- day life can impact someone’s healthcare access and choices,” said Adam Hughes, Senior Director for Community Initiatives for HealthlinkNY, in a press release.

A poverty simulation is a guided experience that exposes participants to the realities of poverty, including the challenges of navigating the complex world of government services and other essential service providers. During the simulation, participants assume the roles of up to 26 different families facing poverty.

The task for each family is to provide basic necessities and shelter over a four-week period, while balancing the requirements of various service providers with the realities of daily life.

The exercise is designed to open the eyes of doctors, nurses, social workers, and community-based organizations to what many of their patients and clients deal with every day — and how it can interfere with their interaction with safety net providers.

“It’s a helpful exercise in seeing how people have to struggle on a daily basis, so when you talk about poverty, it’s not an abstract thing, it’s real,” said Lillian Jimenez, Westchester Medical Health PPS. “It’s about money; it’s about resources; and it’s about crisis in families. People have to make difficult decisions that can have a lot of impact on their lives.”

According to Lana Williams-Scott, Planned Parenthood of the Hudson Valley, “it’s daunting for people living in poverty to try to navigate the system. I think the exercise is going to make me a little more empathetic and more aware of where [our patients are] coming from, and how to teach them to lift themselves up.”

Melissa Jacobson of the Rockland County Department of Health was busy playing the role of a 19-year- old who was carrying a doll representing an infant named “Josh.” In the simulation, she couldn’t afford childcare or a car and needed to take “Josh” with her to job interviews and social services visits.

“I really didn’t understand how to access my benefits and what to do when they weren’t accepted at a few places. So, I had to go back a few times to the agencies in the simulation. It was frustrating, and it helped me to understand what others go through,” she said.

At the conclusion of the simulation exercises, the participants committed to take action:

Each organization agreed to form a Health Equity Taskforce within their organizations, and within six months, implement at least one meaningful organizational change to better serve patients and clients living in poverty.

The eleven participating organizations were:

• Bronx Partners for Health Communities (PBHC)

• Human Development Services of Westchester (HDSW)

• Maternal-Infant Services Network

• Mental Health Association in Orange County Inc.

• Montefiore Hudson Valley Collaborative

• Orange County Department of Health

• Planned Parenthood Mid-Hudson Valley

• Rehabilitation Support Services, Inc. (RSS)

• Rockland County Department of Health

• Rockland County Department of Mental Health

• Center for Regional Healthcare Innovation at Westchester Medical Center (Westchester Medical Health PPS)

What is HealthlinkNY and why is it doing this? HealthlinkNY is a New York State-funded nonprofit that runs the health information exchange (HIE) in the Hudson Valley and the Southern Tier in New York. As a neutral organization (no hospital or provider bias), it also is charged to facilitate the New York State Department of Health Population Health Improvement Program (PHIP) in the Hudson Valley. HealthlinkNY calls it the Health Action Priorities Network (HAPN).

Its goal is to improve population health and reduce healthcare disparities in seven Hudson Valley counties — Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester. The network includes county departments of health, hospitals, community-based organizations, and provider organizations.

PHOTOS/contributed

(L-R) Phyllis Zinner, Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation, Seattle, WA; Steve Zeitlin, City Lore, New York City; Cheryl Hunter-Grant, LMSW, Lower Hudson Valley Perinatal Network, Hawthorne, NY; and Adam Hughes, Senior Director of Community Initiatives, HealthlinkNY, Fishkill, NY

(L-R) John Arzuaga, Mental Health Association of Orange County receives his weekly “allowance” from Adyna Gamboa of Montefiore Hudson Valley Collaborative, Yonkers, NY, who played the role of Azuaga’s mother in the HelathlinkyNY/HAPN Regional Poverty Simulation Friday in Newburgh. Healthcare organizations from The Bronx to Middletown experienced the social and health implications of what it’s like to be poor firsthand.