Lake Okeechobee Rural Health Network
- Program Representative Interviewed: Andrea Stephenson-Royster, Chief Executive Officer
- Location: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
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Program Overview: Lake Okeechobee Rural Health
Network, Inc. (LORHN) is one of nine Rural Health Networks in Florida working to improve access and
delivery of affordable healthcare for all rural residents. LORHN serves rural areas of Okeechobee, Martin,
Glades, Hendry, and Palm Beach counties by providing careful planning efforts and care coordination
services.
With the support of community health workers, LORHN provides the following services:
- Health insurance enrollment
- Prescription assistance
- Care coordination and linkage to community resources
- Professional development and training
- Health literacy education workshops
- Diabetes and chronic disease self-management workshops
LORHN hosts a health literacy workshop known as Your Health Matters. The goal of the workshop is to empower people to make their own health decisions by equipping them with tools to communicate about and understand basic health information and services. The workshop provides community-based health literacy education to populations with varying literacy and language proficiencies, including survivors of interpersonal violence and human trafficking. It uses a curriculum supported by the Florida Literacy Coalition and Florida Department of Education.
The Your Health Matters workshop consists of three to four interactive lessons for groups of individuals. Health literacy topics addressed in the workshop include:
- Navigating the healthcare system
- Understanding and using health insurance
- Talking with healthcare providers
- Accessing local resources
- Understanding and safeguarding medications
- Healthy eating and exercise
During the COVID-19 pandemic, these workshops have been held virtually.