Video Transcript: Meet Charlotte

We’ll now meet Charlotte.

Charlotte is a 59-year-old woman recently diagnosed with pre-diabetes. This means she’s also at higher risk for cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease.

She knows diet and exercise affect her risk for diabetes. But she tells her provider she has trouble finding affordable and healthy food in her neighborhood and has nowhere to exercise safely.

Charlotte says she works long hours at a job in a different neighborhood where she doesn’t feel welcome. This is a stressful situation for her. It also prevents her from making connections in her own community.

She tells her provider she has trouble affording co-pays on medications because of poor insurance coverage.

Considering Charlotte’s experiences, her provider has concerns involving a few social determinants of health.

Because Charlotte says she lives in an area with limited access to affordable and healthy food and few places to exercise safely, her provider notes concerns involving Neighborhood and Built Environment.

Because Charlotte’s employment is in a neighborhood where she feels unwelcome and because she feels out of touch with her own community, her provider documents the potential impacts of social determinants of health related to Social and Community Context.

Finally, because Charlotte has poor insurance coverage and worries about her medication co-pays, the provider indicates concern related to Health Care Access and Quality.

Charlotte needs access to quality food, health care, and safe recreational opportunities. This help can come from a hospital or health system with access to an endocrinologist, a nutritionist or dietician, and a health coach. She could also get help from organizations that provide access to quality food, like community-based farmers markets or food banks. Her local public health agency or parks department can create safe recreational opportunities.