ACHIEVABLE HEALTH

The Achievable Foundation aspires to change the face of healthcare for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We do this by providing high quality, integrated health care to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, their families, and other vulnerable populations at our health center. In addition, we are working to become a training facility for health care workers to learn how to offer culturally compassionate care to medically vulnerable individuals of all abilities.

Achievable's model features an innovative program to provide a full continuum of culturally appropriate health care to our patients. Our health center was the first Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in California with a special focus on patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). We are the only FQHC co-located with one of California's 21 regional centers (which offer case management to individuals with I/DD), allowing for close collaboration and integration with social supports for these individuals. Our health center goes beyond the basic requirements of a community health center to include enhanced care coordination to patients. This is critical for patients with medical complexities who require integration of a variety of services, specialty care and supports. We also provide extended visits up to 40 minutes for our patients with complex needs, specially trained staff and physicians and a facility built around patients of all abilities

Achievable's health center was built from the ground up to meet the needs of medically complex patients and those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. There are four significant characteristics of our health center that make us uniquely qualified to care for patients with I/DD and other vulnerable populations. First, our extended appointment times of up to 30 minutes to an hour give our practitioners the time they need to thoroughly examine and communicate with our patients. Second, our facility was built to be accessible to patients of all needs. This includes special diagnostic equipment for patients of different abilities, handicap accessible exam tables and more. Third, we are co-located with one of California's 21 regional centers, providing a level of comfort for patients with I/DD already receiving services from the regional center. Finally, our physicians and staff are specially trained to serve our population.

When our health center opened eight years ago, it was not clear whether a health center for individuals with I/DD would be sustainable, we have proven that it is not only sustainable, but a model that can be replicated. In that first year we saw just over 340 patients. In the last three years we've grown our patient load by 20% a year to approximately 2,100 this year (a growth of 570% ). Achievable has also become a training facility helping to fulfill our vision of impacting the entire health care system for individuals with I/DD. Today we have partnerships with The Chicago School of Professional Psychology to train psychologists to treat individuals with I/DD; we are starting a partnership with a local community college to train medical assistants, and we’re working on partnerships with local medical schools which we hope to launch this year. In the coming years we hope to open a second site and expand services at our primary location.