The Wellness Study was developed with patient disenfranchisement from the health system and unreasonable provider demands in mind before COVID-19 struck. The pandemic has accentuated the value of peer support to combat health inequities and injustices, caregiver burdens, and deficiencies of healthcare-for-profit. Potential benefits of peer support include increased connection with others, self-confidence, empathy, and personal agency. Additionally, engaging confidentially with others who have similar lived experiences encourages resilience through the emotional impacts of Long Covid and other chronic illnesses.

Suzanne Morrissey, PhD, received her BA in Anthropology from SUNY Oswego and her MA and PhD in Anthropology with a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies from Syracuse University. Dr. Morrissey is on faculty at Whitman College, where she teaches Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies (Gender Studies and Race & Ethnic Studies)and advises students who are interested in the health professions. Her long-term interests and work have been in maternal and child health, chronic illness, integrative medicine, public health program evaluation, and applied ethnography. Since 1998, she has evaluated public health projects in infant mortality, smoking cessation, and HIV/AIDS. In 2010, Dr. Morrissey was supported by a Fulbright Distinguished Scholars award to conduct research in Ontario, Canada, on the uses of complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine by patients with multi-symptom chronic illnesses such as fibromyalgia. Her current research is with the People’s Organization of Community Acupuncture (POCA) where she assesses patient and provider experiences, practices for a safe care environment, and community acupuncture as a social justice movement.

Sara Little (Intern) is an Anthropology-Environmental Studies major at Whitman College and has completed multiple courses in social science research methods, including foundational courses in physical and cultural anthropology, sociology, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology. She has been exposed to research design, data collection, and analysis through reviewing and synthesizing scholarly works as well as through her own applied projects. Sara has taken courses in critical theoretical studies and activism (gender studies, race and ethnic studies, and social justice), and will be able to apply frameworks around identity, stigma, embodiment, affect, power, and inequality to understand how health systems have the potential to both constrain and liberate bodies. As an Anthropology-Environmental Studies major, Sara focuses on connections: people and nature, institutions and individuals, and the body and mind. Sara is interested in how environmental injustices and degradation affect people’s health across different times and places. Interning at Kinnected offers a platform to explore these connections further and an opportunity to dive into the complexity of healthcare disparities in different communities.

Stephanie Hillman, MNPL, has expertise in marketing research, user experience, and healthcare. She has a BA from Concordia College and a Masters in Non-Profit Leadership from Seattle University. Stephanie created measurement systems at a pediatric hospital, a public hospital, and a high-tech company. She has training in human subjects’ protection, ethics, and conflict of interest. Her primary research projects improved marketing activities, patient and caregiver experiences, reduced inequities, and strengthened organizations. She and Rita Mangione-Smith, MD, MPH, built a program collecting quality of life and care experience data, which supported 20+ publications. Recent projects include a qualitative study with children’s hospitals; in-depth-interviews on a hospital’s community relationships; and an organizational assessment of health equity and diversity initiatives. She proliferates best practices, centers work around community, and advocates for families to share experiences that illustrate health inequities and identify opportunities. Storytelling engages the hearts of decision makers, accelerates change, and results in support for underserved communities. Stephanie brings lived experiences into projects and influences people to do better

We are poised to initiate the first in a series of outcomes studies to assess the effectiveness of our recommended activities in reaching certain wellness, self-advocacy, and fiscal aims. Study research design involves curated recruitment of participants through health platforms, patient support networks, healthcare providers and networks, and personal and professional referrals. Research will include use of a diary protocol for qualitative recording of participant experiences; quantitative analysis of the duration, quantity, and frequency of use of social or peer networking sites; study participant chart review; participant surveys; and brief healthcare provider survey on perceptions and impressions of patients' experiences in the study.