Statements
Mission
Our mission is to advocate for true preventive health interventions to exist in parallel and to support our current healthcare system in order to obtain better health for everyone.
Background
Preventive Health Initiative is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) community health organization based in Nashville, TN. Our founders are health professionals who during many years of primary care, have witnessed an ever increasing trend toward chronic health conditions such as diabetes and obesity among many others. Despite an intensive nationwide focus on general health education, we continue to witness ever increasing numbers of patients in poor health. We saw the need for an alternative, first option solution to find the root cause of poor health instead of simply treating symptoms with prescription medication. Most causes of poor health can be traced to detrimental lifestyle habits such as a bad diet, lack of exercise, minimal diet/exercise education, poor time management skills, and lack of personal accountability. We provide and advocate for the education and support needed to develop good lifestyle habits, which will lead to better ongoing health for a lifetime.
Impact
Covid-19 definitely threw a speed bump our way! Now in 2023, we are better able to resume our activities and focus on our mission. We have provided primarily in-office programs since our inception which has been effective, however, we were unable to obtain funding in 2022 for free services for lower income individuals. As a result, we are now primarily providing fee for service preventive health interventions with some discounted services available based on income. With our organization being so small - 3 Board members and a Director who provides most services, we have failed to gain any traction with funders, at least in part, because most funders are currently only providing support for minority led nonprofit organizations. Due to this limitation and lack of support, we have decided our best way forward is through advocacy and by providing video educational material that will be freely available to everyone.
The PIK Foundation of Middle TN reached out to us earlier this year and are now providing support to produce educational exercise content from a medical and science perspective. Now instead of reaching a few hundred people per year, we can reach tens to hundreds of thousands as well as providing support for other health programs across the state and country.
Our vision has changed out of necessity, but we are more dedicated than ever to finding ways to help others. Our biggest accomplishment since our inception in 2012 is simply our survival. We have had almost ZERO support since inception! We have been very discouraged with the racial discrimination that we have encountered, both in Federal grant applications as well as local ones. We do understand the concern that funders want those they fund to be as diverse as possible, but when an organization is extremely small and the intent is to primarily help a majority minority population, why the laser focus on the Director's skin color instead of the work we are trying to do?
Our forward impact will be much greater because of the difficulties we have faced. By choosing to embrace advocacy and providing free educational internet content, our way forward is clear and we will now have the ability to help many more people. Of course we will still provide some office and homecare based preventive health services for those who can afford them, but our main priority is to help the United States as a whole through comprehensive health system change and education.
Needs
Our biggest need is to be given a fair opportunity with grant applications. Because we are not a minority led organization, we literally cannot even apply for many grant opportunities available in Middle Tennessee. We will be initiating our advocacy efforts and producing educational exercise content over the coming months. We will now focus on healthcare system change from the State and National level and require funding to accomplish this. Do to our poor track record with fundraising, we are currently looking outside of the Middle Tennessee area for the support needed in order to accomplish nationwide change.
CEO Statement
Our current healthcare system is primarily symptom based. When a patient develops a chronic health condition such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes, medication is prescribed, which will in most cases, need to be taken for a lifetime. While primary care physicians do counsel patients concerning lifestyle change such as the need to lose weight or begin an exercise program, most patients simply don't know how to make the needed changes. Primary care physician offices do not have the resources or the time to provide the support that patients need to successfully make the habit changes needed to become healthy. The 'shotgun' approach of providing mass media preventive health education has been minimally successful in achieving a healthier population. We feel that the 'missing link' in our healthcare system is a lack of individual & family support needed to help the patient properly follow their physician's counseling advice. In addition, most of the preventive care programs currently in place simply concentrate on screening for hidden health conditions, that after discovery, are primarily treated with prescription medication. Our ultimate goal is to push the current healthcare system toward more individual based, lifestyle habit change solutions and away from the first line prescription medication symptom treatment model and to achieve greater insurance company funding for these true preventive health solutions.
Board Chair Statement
The main advantage our organization currently enjoys is that our society is placing an ever increasing emphasis on preventive health. Our healthcare system is in the early stages of major changes that are needed to reign in spiraling healthcare costs. We simply cannot afford business as usual. On the other hand, we do face challenges concerning the integration of our preventive health solutions into the current healthcare model. Health insurance companies and employers currently provide limited reimbursement for true individual preventive care services that address lifestyle habit change including diet and exercise. To date, most solutions have focused on providing mass media education, discounted gym memberships, discounted fruit & vegetable purchases, weight loss challenges, and wearable devices that track body movement or steps taken. Despite these interventions, obesity and chronic health conditions continue to occur at high rates. The main problem that our health professionals have identified is that most patients have been misled and confused by commercial advertising, peer opinions, and the perception that health attainment is too difficult. Healthcare professional guidance is increasingly necessary to combat the tide of misinformation. Incorporating a new individual based approach to address these issues must overcome initial cost barriers that are necessary to enable overall healthcare cost reduction. Physicians on the front line of patient care know all too well that an additional level of support is necessary. I have personally witnessed many patients who enter the office with chronic back or neck pain that would be optimally treated by weight loss, resistance exercise, and habit change to address the root cause of the pain. I can counsel the patient concerning what needs to be done, but unfortunately due to lack of ongoing education, guidance, and support, few take the steps needed to address the cause of the problem. This is hugely frustrating to providers who must continually provide symptom based care to patients who suffer from reversible/curable conditions.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Public & Societal Benefit - Alliances & Advocacy |
| Secondary Category: | Health Care - Health Support |
| Tertiary Category: | Diseases, Disorders & Medical Disciplines - Alliances & Advocacy |
Areas Served
Our advocacy efforts are meant to create healthcare system change at the state and national levels. Our online health education resources will reach state, country, and international citizens in need.. We offer homecare services in Davidson, Williamson, and surrounding counties. Our main office is located in Nashville, TN.
| TN - Davidson |
| TN - Tennessee (Entire State) |
| National |
| International |
