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May 2010
In this Issue:
NEW MEDIA:
- Prevention Institute has launched a new toolkit, Health Equity and Prevention Primer, which includes resources and several modules on key health equity and prevention topics including community factors that influence health equity and measuring and evaluating health equity.
- DiversityRx has released its seventh webinar as a part of their Your Voice campaign. New Joint Commission Standards to Improve Patient-Provider Communication discusses the new and revised hospital accreditation standards approved by the Joint Commission to improve patient-provider communication. The standards that are discussed include identifying and addressing patient communication needs; providing language services; addressing qualifications for language interpreters and translators; and collecting race, ethnicity, and language data.
- The Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum’s new webinar discusses how the newly enacted health reform law will benefit low-income, minority, and immigrant communities. The webinar provides an overview of how health reform positively affects Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities, highlighting the legislation's health disparities provisions.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- On April 16, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced $10 million in grant funding to health programs operated by the Indian Health Service (IHS), tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian groups. Forty-one health programs were given funding to improve outreach to American Indian and Alaska Native communities to increase the enrollment of eligible but uninsured children in Medicaid or CHIP. The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009 appropriated these grants specifically for increasing the enrollment and retention of American Indian and Alaska Native children in public health programs. For more details and a list of grantees, click here.
- The W.K. Kellogg Foundation recently unveiled the America Healing initiative —a $75 million effort to tackle structural racism and promote racial healing. The Kellogg Foundation received a great response to a request for proposals for the America Healing grants and as a result, awarded 119 grants. The grantees include community-based organizations that are working to address historic burdens, disparities, and barriers to opportunity among racial and ethnic groups. Their efforts will focus within local communities to increase opportunities for children in education, health, and economic areas.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:
- The Fund for Better Health administered by the American Medical Association Foundation is offering $5,000 seed grants for grassroots, public health projects that target healthy lifestyles. Funding opportunities can cover a wide range of public health issues including substance abuse; disability; STDs; teen pregnancy; and health care for women, youth, seniors, and the uninsured. There are 20 grants available, and applications are selected on a rolling basis. For more information, click here.
PUBLICATIONS:
- Families USA’s latest issue brief, Health Reform: Help for American Indians and Alaska Natives, discusses changes made by the new health reform law, including the overdue reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (IHCIA), and explains how these changes will benefit these two groups.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published, Health Characteristics of the American Indian or Alaska Native Adult Population: United States, 2004–2008, which compares national estimates for selected health status indicators, health behaviors, health care utilization, and health conditions for American Indian or Alaska Native adults with those for white, black, Asian, and Hispanic adults aged 18 years and older.
- Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report, Future Directions for the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports, which recommends priority areas, ways to make the inclusion criteria more transparent within the reports, and suggestions to increase understanding of the reports' content and to refocus the scope of the data collected. IOM has provided a summary of the report and a report brief.
- National Council of La Raza released Critical Things You Should Know About Health Care Reform, which provides information on the health reform law and answers frequently asked questions about elements of the health reform law that are significant for Latinos.
- Population Reference Bureau and National Council of La Raza published America’s Future: Latino Child Well-Being in Numbers and Trends, which provides an overview of current national- and state-level trends for Latino children under age 18 relative to non-Hispanic white and black children, documenting both regional variations and changing trends since 2000.
- Commonwealth Fund recently published Providing Underserved Patients with Medical Homes: Assessing the Readiness of Safety-Net Health Centers, which examines safety-net health centers to determine their potential to become medical homes. The study found that the safety-net health centers may face challenges when transforming into medical homes for the vulnerable and low-income populations they serve.
- National Health Law Program has updated an issue brief, Medicaid and SCHIP Reimbursement Models for Language Services (2009 Update), which describes which states pay for interpreters in Medicaid and CHIP and how they do it.
- American Translators Association, National Council on Interpreting in Health Care, and National Health Law Program published What's in a Word: A Guide to Understanding Interpreting and Translation in Health Care, which describes the differences between oral interpreting and written translation, including the skills needed to competently undertake each. The full guide, and a two-page overview are available online.
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Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the Department of Health and Human Services recently announced the opening of a health reform call center. The call center will serve as an opportunity for consumers to ask questions about the new health reform law. The call center is expected to be in operation within the next couple months, but the exact timeline is yet to be determined.
In the meantime, the Department of Health and Human Services has hosted several web chats in which Secretary Sebelius and experts have explained provisions of the health reform law. In addition, the White House has a website that lists commonly asked questions and answers about the health law.
As many students are graduating this month, we are beginning to see the benefits of the health reform law. In compliance with the new law, the Obama administration recently issued rules and regulations to allow young adults to stay on their parent’s health insurance policy until age 26. The regulations would allow children who do not live with their parents or who are not a dependent for tax purposes to receive coverage under a parent’s health coverage plan. Although the rules do not go into effect until September, many insurance companies are voluntarily beginning to offer insurance coverage to young adults. The White House has also disseminated a fact sheet to educate the public on health security for young adults.
African American Health Institute of San Bernardino County (California)
The African American Health Institute of San Bernardino County (AAHI-SBC) seeks to address the poor health outcomes in the African American community. The Institute is made up of a diverse community of stakeholders, including local residents, health care providers, health professionals, community-based organizations, physicians, educators, and researchers who work together to improve the overall well-being of people of African ancestry and other underserved and underrepresented populations. The Institute works to increase primary prevention and treatment measures that affect quality of life. They also strive to create a greater awareness of health disparities and decrease premature deaths and disabilities in the community through community interventions, education, research, and advocacy.
The Institute works to develop leadership within the community through capacity building. Capacity building is used to encourage, promote, and develop community leaders who are able to help enhance community health and promote healthy environments. Capacity building also allows the Institute to develop and sustain a network of community health providers, medical providers, and other health professionals. Through this network, the Institute is able to identify and develop financial resources for community health and health care and health-related projects and activities. The African American Health Institute of San Bernardino County also provides training and mentoring on how to work collaboratively with multiple community stakeholders to improve community capacity and to provide adequate, responsive, and community-based health and health care.
Through community education programs on preventable health conditions (HIV/AIDS, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc.), chronic disease management, lifestyle changes, reducing premature births and infant mortality, and self-esteem, the Institute is also able to help the community make positive health choices. They work with physicians to provide medical education programs and engage physicians in dialogue about improving African American health. In addition, the Institute conducts educational outreach programs with those who work within the community, churches, schools, civic and professional organizations, community-based health organizations, and policymakers to heighten awareness of and facilitate community problem-solving in health and health-related matters for the African American population. The Institute also provides workshops, lectures, and training and skills development sessions with one-on-one and group approaches.
Lastly, the Institute conducts policy advocacy and research to involve community stakeholders and health professionals in health policy discussions and decision making. Trainings are offered on how to design community assessment tools, collect and analyze community data, as well as how to write scientific papers, make community presentations to the general population and professionals, and facilitate other activities that involve improving the health of people of African ancestry. The Institute uses an evidence-based approach to develop health education programs for the community. For a copy of their latest policy brief, click here.
For more information on the African American Health Institute of San Bernardino Country, please contact Diane Woods at CorporateOffice@AAHI-SBC.org
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- Beyond Reform: Health Concerns and Disparities among America’s Fastest Growing Populations
16th Annual Summer Public Health Research Institute and Videoconference on Minority Health
June 8, 2010 ,
Tate-Turner-Kuralt Auditorium at The University of North Carolina School of Social Work
Sponsor: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Program for Ethnicity, Culture, and Health Outcomes (ECHO), Minority Health Project
For more information and to register click here.
- Global Health Conference
June 14 – 18, 2010
Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert St., NW, Washington, DC 20008
Sponsor: Global Health Council
For more information and to register click here.
- The 8th Annual Disparities in Health in America: Celebrating Social Entrepreneurs Working Toward Social Justice Workshop
June 21 – 26, 2010
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Hickey Auditorium,11th Floor, R. Lee Clark Clinic, 1515 Holcombe Blvd, Houston, TX 77030
Sponsor: University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and Center For Research on Minority Health, Department of Health Disparities Research
For more information and to register click here.
- AcademyHealth's Annual Research Meeting (ARM)
June 27 – 29, 2010
Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center, 900 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02115
Sponsor: AcademyHealth
For more information and to register click here.
- 5th Annual National Urban Indian Health Conference: Celebrating the Past, and Preparing for the Future
July 21 – July 22, 2010
Seattle University, 901 12th Ave. Seattle, WA 98122
Sponsor: Seattle Indian Health Board
For more information and to register click here.
- 2010 National Behavioral Health Conference
July 27 – 29, 2010
Hyatt Regency Sacramento, 1209 L St., Sacramento, CA 95814
Sponsor: Indian Health Service - Division of Behavioral Health
For more information and to register click here.
- Association of American Indian Physicians 39th Annual Meeting & National Health Conference
August 5 – 9, 2010
Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa, 1300 Tuyuna Trail, Santa Ana Pueblo, NM 87004
Sponsor: Association of American Indian Physicians
For more information and to register click here.
- Black In Government 32nd National Training Conference (BIG)
August 16 – 20, 2010
Marriott Downtown Hotel, 200 West 12th St. Kansas City, MO 64105
Sponsor: National Organization of Blacks in Government
For more information and to register click here.
- The Power of Partnerships: 2010 Community Action Partnership Annual Convention
August 31 – September 3, 2010
Boston Marriott Copley Place, 110 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02116
Sponsor: Community Action Partnership
For more information and to register click here.
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We’d like to hear from you!
If you would like to see your organization or event highlighted in a future edition of our newsletter, please send us a brief description of your organization and its activities, as well as your contact information. We also welcome guest authors for the Activities in the Field section of the newsletter. This section provides members of the minority health field with the opportunity to share their experiences and insights with other advocates. Please send all correspondence to: minorityhealth@familiesusa.org.
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