“Don’t wish your life away, Dawn. Be in the moment and appreciate what you have at that moment instead of pushing towards what’s next. Today is important, and what you do as a leader has impact.”
These are the wise words that Dawn Simonson’s mother said to her, and the words that come to mind as Dawn reacts to receiving a 2022 TRUST Award from the Women’s Health Leadership TRUST. “In this moment, I realize that healthcare professionals recognize that social care delivered by community organizations is important and impacts a person’s health outcomes, and that feels promising.”
As president and CEO of Trellis, Dawn leads efforts to integrate whole-person medical and social care for older adults, addressing the social determinants of health that are essential to their long-term well-being. Together with Trellis staff, she builds collaborative partnerships with like-minded organizations and communities across the state, earning her the TRUST Award.
“As the population of older adults grows exponentially and needs are becoming increasingly complex, funding for older adult services is at a critical low,” Dawn explains. “With approximately 80% of health outcomes attributed to factors outside of the control of healthcare providers, partnerships between social service providers and healthcare organizations can be transformational. By restructuring resources to focus dollars on the most effective approaches to care, Trellis can leverage 50 years of experience in providing social services and supports.”
Trellis takes the complexity out of healthcare partnerships by managing the administrative pieces, marketing, data privacy and practices.
The Juniper network
Trellis is known for many things, including the design and implementation of a statewide network to deliver health promotion classes for older adults under the Juniper brand. Dawn says, “When we started this work, we thought hard about how communities think about health and wellness and how we can encourage people to engage in their own wellness. Everyone has a different goal. For one person, the goal could be walking down their driveway to get the mail every day. For someone else, it might be reducing their level of chronic pain. Whatever the goal, participants work to achieve them in Juniper classes, with support from fellow participants within a community environment. As a result, lives are improving.”
Trellis is now under contract with four health plans to provide Juniper classes as a benefit to their members. The network connects 80 providers from across Minnesota who offer small-group classes in-person, online and via telephone in multiple languages. Since 2016, the network has served 30,000 people with 2,000+ classes. Trellis has licensed its Juniper MIS system to provide similar services in four states.
By engaging a health economist to examine the literature on preventative care in connection with the data Juniper collects in pre-and-post surveys with participants, Trellis determined that participants in Juniper classes report 20% fewer falls. Given the high cost of falls injuries, the estimated healthcare savings per participant in one Juniper class — A Matter of Balance — is $6,391.
Equity and inclusion
“Our goal is to make our Juniper programs available to all older Minnesotans,” says Dawn. “People want programs within their own communities, delivered by people who are familiar and trusted, and we want to make sure we’re providing what is needed. That is particularly true in Black and Brown communities that have faced disparities. To ensure our programs are available to all, Trellis has been focused on developing deeper relationships in BIPOC communities.
To better serve non-English speaking communities, Trellis needed a falls prevention program that wasn’t language heavy, so we brought Tai Ji Quan: Moving for Better Balance to Minnesota. “We asked Dr. Fuzhong Li, Ph.D., senior scientist at the Oregon Research Institute who created the program, to train members of our staff as master trainers so we could implement and grow the program here.” Trellis also provides several classes in Spanish to engage people in the Latino community.
In 2019, Trellis commissioned an assessment of its Older Americans Act funding practices from an equity perspective. As a result of the assessment, we simplified the grant application process, increased outreach to organizations that work with underserved communities and provided additional technical support. The changes made a difference. In a 2021 funding competition, Trellis received 49 applications, many from organizations that provide services to BIPOC communities, and was introduced to a broad range of new organizations with whom we are now working to build long-term relationships.
National recognition
The Administration for Community Living in partnership with the CDC recently recognized Trellis/Juniper as a Community Care Hub, a community-focused entity that organizes and supports a network of community-based organizations providing services to address health-related social needs. Trellis has also been invited to serve on the Partnership to Align Social Care: A National Learning and Action Network, which brings together diverse stakeholders to advance health equity.
Trellis is proud to be the go-to organization on aging in Minnesota
Trellis is poised to make an even greater impact on people’s health and well-being. As healthcare moves toward emerging methods of care, including healthcare delivered in the home and inclusion of social care, Trellis’ ability to engage a network to deliver services such as home-delivered meals, assisted transportation, help around the house and financial and legal assistance is crucial.
Trellis is thankful for healthcare partners, private philanthropy and public funders for their alignment with our vision. “We simply couldn’t do this work without you,” Dawn says with gratitude. “My mom said, ‘Today is important and what you do as a leader has an impact,’ and I know that when we lead together, our leadership is better.”
