Process for better health under way in Memphis
TWO WEEKS AGO, Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell unveiled a new coalition called Healthy Shelby. Most of you likely missed the announcement or wrote it off as another puff of hot air. I don’t blame you. We remain at the top of every bad health list . Still, I am optimistic that over the next 10 years, we will change that ranking. When I was growing up in the ’60s and ’70s, Chattanooga was a dirty city. It is now an attractive, green destination. Cleveland was the mistake on the lake. The river that empties into Lake Erie actually caught on fire more than once as a result of pollution. Today, the riverfront is beautiful.
These changes happened because public and private sectors decided to work together for the good of their cities. Healthy Shelby has the potential to do the same thing for us.
Healthy Shelby unites major businesses, charitable organizations, faith community leaders, universities, government and health care organizations. Memphis Tomorrow — which consists of the CEOS of our largest employers — is leading the process of significantly improving the health of our city.
This is not about finding a silver bullet to magically solve all of our problems. This new initiative will take hard work. Our problems run deep, have multiple causes and are too complex for quick fixes. But we do not need to look to Washington or Nashville for effective programs. We have them right here in Memphis. The challenge is to take programs that we know are effective on a small scale and expand them.
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement is a Boston-based think tank. It is working with us to help us determine how to measure success. We’re in the process of designing a plan that will help us move toward that success. Over time, the process will improve the health of Memphis. Ten years from now, when we compare our successes to other cities, we’ll be at the top of a different list .
Healthy Shelby will consist of a number of different projects. Not all of them will be interesting to read about or see on TV, but they will change the lives of real people.
Every project has failures. We know that. So we’ll start small, learn from our mistakes and constantly improve and expand. Watching the process will be like watching paint dry. The media will ask, “When are we going to see results?” Remember, this will take time and patience.
So why am I optimistic? For the first time since I have been in Memphis, everybody is rowing in the same direction. We have created infrastructures that will not fall apart after the initial hype. We are figuring out ways to measure our successes and failures so we know where we are. The process is transparent. We know it will take time, and we are committed for the long haul.
To the cynics, I say, “You are right. This has no chance to succeed.” But neither did efforts to woo an NBA team, get in the Big East athletic conference or redevelop The Pyramid. Yet those things happened. Just wait. You’ll see. We cannot afford to fail. Dr. Scott Morris is the founder and executive director of the Church Health Center, whose ministries provide health care for the working uninsured and promote healthy bodies and spirits for all . Morris is also the author of “Health Care You Can Live With” (Barbour, 2011).