GOOD HEALTH WILL

John Commissaris is an Air Force veteran and a graduate student in the Colorado School of Public Health at Colorado State University.  He is interested in health equity, how the access and availability to healthcare can vary for individuals, how this impacts people’s lives physically and mentally, and how geographic information systems (GIS) can be used to research and analyze this issue.  John is working with the staff of GoodHealthwill to increase the essential services to the community that are provided by completing his practicum with the organization.  Together, they hope to establish a partnership with the CSU Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy Program, and provide a student intern who will provide consultation to clients on the fitting of equipment and supplies.  He is also conducting interviews with caregivers and clients to collect their experiences and stories, and these will help document what services GoodHealthwill provides, what some of the more critical services and equipment are, and what may be needed more.  A short video is also being generated, and it will provide an informative, visual depiction of what GoodHealthwill is, what they do, and stories from past-clients.  John will also conduct research that looks at the distance between clients and caregivers, the GoodHealthwill stores, public transportation stops, and various hospitals and healthcare locations in Northern Colorado.  The results will show to what degree certain clusters of individuals in the community have access to transportation to healthcare facilities, and as a result potentially impact their own personal health and the health of their families.  John was selected to be awarded the Rocky Mountain Public Health Training Center Stupid Stipend in July, 2016.  The award will be used to help with the GIS research, generating the informative video, and other tasks that will help improve the quality and services provided by GoodHealthwill.