Health Equity Resources

• "A New Way to Talk About Social Determinants of Health” - A way to create more compelling, effective and persuasive messages that resonate across the political spectrum.
• “A Time of Opportunity: Local solutions to reduce inequities in health and safety”- Presented to the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Health Disparities in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May 2009. Help in making the paradigm shift from health disparities to health inequities and why it is necessary.
• Addressing the Social Determinants of Children's Health: A Cliff Analogy - Tree dimensions of health intervention to help people who are falling off of the cliff of good health: providing health services, addressing the social determinants of health, and addressing the social determinants of equity.
• Advancing Health Equity in Virginia Social Network
• Asset-Based Community Development Institute - ABCD and its affiliated faculty have created a library of community building workbooks, published scholarly articles, books, and chapters oriented to an array of audiences, and developed training curricula and other materials associated with the asset-based community development approach.
• Association of American Medical Colleges - The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is a not-for-profit association representing all 136 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 62 Department of Veteran Affairs medical centers; and 93 academic and scientific societies.
• Civil Rights Resolution Agreement - Following a complaint investigation or compliance review, OCR sometimes determines if it is necessary to negotiate resolution agreements requiring covered entities to revise their policies, practices and procedures to comply with Federal civil rights laws.  These agreements can be far-reaching, statewide agreements that call for a systemic change in the way a state does business, or they may cover a single healthcare provider or hospital.
• Global Learning Device on Social Determinants of Health and Public Policy Formulation - Course Guide
• Health Equity and Prevention Primer - With guidance from state and local health department staff and nationally-recognized health equity experts, The Health Equity and Prevention Primer (HEPP) was developed to serve as an online learning tool, consisting of an equity-focused curriculum and collection of resources to build the knowledge and capacity of practitioners to incorporate health equity into their work. The Primer is comprised of seven brief, interactive presentations along with selected publications, tools, and other resources focused on health equity.
• Health Literacy Consulting - Helps individuals and organizations communicate health information in ways patients, families, and employees can understand
• Healthy Development Measurement Tool: An evidence-based practice to consider public health objectives in land use planning (San Francisco Department of Health)
• Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project Monograph
• Tackling Health Inequities Through Public Health Practice: A Handbook for Action - Provides a knowledge base and innovative approaches for transforming everyday public health practice, departmental structure, and organizational culture in ways that may advance the attack on the root causes of inequities in the distribution of disease and illness
• The Community Tool Box: Promoting community health and development by connecting people, ideas and resources
• The Road to Health Toolkit in Spanish: Kit El camino hacia la buena salud 
• The Solid Facts - A report from the World Health Organization summarizing the major SDOHs and their impacts on health, 2003

Advocacy

• "A" Frame for Advocacy

Commission Reports on Health Equity

• 1974 LaLonde Report: "A New Perspective on the Health of Canadians" (Health Promotion Agency)
• Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health Report
• King County Equity and Social Justice Initiative
• The Marmot review final report, "Fair Society, Healthy Lives" - This report proposes new ways to improve everyone's health and reduce inequalities that it describes as 'unfair and unjust'. It concluded that, although health inequalities are normally associated with the poor, premature illness and death affects everyone below the wealthiest tier of English society. The health and wellbeing of today's children, and of those children when they become adults, depend on us having the courage and imagination to do things differently, to put sustainability and well-being before a narrow focus on economic growth and bring about a more equal and fair society." (Read chapter 1)
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America
• "Unnatural Causes" Policy Guide
• World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health

Cultural competency and Anti-Oppression Resources/Tool

• American Medical Association (AMA), Organizational assessment toolkit:  “Improving communication—improving care”:  the AMA Ethical Force program toolkit

  1. Intended to help health care organizations meet the needs of a diverse patient population.
  2. Assesses how effectively the organization communicates
  3. Can help organizations improve communication with all patient
  4. Questions focus on common communication problems, such as culture, language and health literacy gaps.
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association - The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for 145,000 members and affiliates who are audiologists, speech-language pathologists and speech, language, and hearing scientists.American Medical Association (AMA), Organizational assessment toolkit:  “Improving communication—improving care”:  the AMA Ethical Force program toolkit.
• Association of American Medical Colleges - The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is a not-for-profit association representing all 136 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 62 Department of Veteran Affairs medical centers; and 93 academic and scientific societies
  
• Conducting a Cultural Competence Self-Assessment - A tool for an organizational audit of cultural competence in health care
  1. Helps validate organizational understanding of the ethnic and cultural composition of its patient and employee populations
  2. May hope to ensure access to appropriate treatment and effective communication
  3. May reveal opportunities for the organization to make itself more attractive to diverse populations
  4. Can demonstrate that the organization values diversity
• Consolidated Culturalogical Assessment Tool Kit (C-CAT)  The toolkit for organizational assessment in mental health includes training materials, promotional materials, a facilitator’s guide, user workbook, assessment tools and a database.  It can be used by a variety of shareholders.  The toolkit must be purchased at a cost of $750 or higher, depending on the number of licenses purchased.
• Cultural competency and Anti-Oppression Resources/Tool  - The ClasActVirginia.org tool is a web-based resource guide designed to help health care providers meet the needs of Virginia's changing demographics. Several search options are available to quickly refine your search among the numerous resources housed in the CLAS website. By entering a keyword, the year of publication, or the target population of interest into the search engine, you can easily find useful articles, websites, organizations and documents relevant to specific CLAS-related issues
• National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) provides national leadership and contributes to the body of knowledge on cultural and linguistic competency within systems and organizations. Major emphasis is placed on translating evidence into policy and practice for programs and personnel concerned with health and mental health care delivery, administration, education and advocacy. The NCCC is a component of the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development (GUCCHD) and is housed within the Department of Pediatrics of the Georgetown University Medical.
• National Center for Cultural Competence Cultural Competence Health Practitioner Assessment
  The Cultural Competence Health Practitioner Assessment (CCHPA) was developed at the request of the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (DHHS). The CCHPA captures a wide range of data in its six subscales including: /Values & Belief Systems, Cultural Aspects of Epidemiology, Clinical Decision-Making, Life Cycle Events, Cross-Cultural Communication and Empowerment/ Health Management/. Assessment of practitioners is only one aspect of examining cultural and linguistic competence within an organization, and should not be used in isolation.
• Office of Minority Health - created in 1986 and is one of the most significant outcomes of the 1985 Secretary's Task Force Report on Black and Minority Health. The Office is dedicated to improving the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate health disparities. OMH was reauthorized by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-148).
• Organizational Self-Assessment - A one-page questionnaire on staff competencies and organizational operations that purports to offer a racial equity score followed by a “next steps” analysis. It also suggests tools for improvement
• Self-Assessment for Cultural Competence
  1. Involves an interactive web-based tool designed to help evaluate cultural competence.
  2. Includes cultural competence checklists, a cultural competence awareness assessment and a questionnaire about “How Does Your Caseload Compare?”
  3. Addresses personal reflection, policies and procedures and service delivery
  4. Assesses demographic and caseload changes related to culturally/linguistically diverse (CLD) populations.
  5. Is intended to help organizations to increase and improve service delivery
• The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) - The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is a not-for-profit association representing all 136 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 62 Department of Veteran Affairs medical centers; and 93 academic and scientific societies.
• The Cross Cultural Health Care Program - Primarily a training and consulting organization supported by a wide array of multilingual publications available for purchase through our online store, CCHCP endeavors to enhance the abilities of health professionals to provide culturally competent and linguistically appropriate care.
• The Cultural Competence Self Assessment Protocol for Health Care Organizations and Systems 1. Intended for use by health care providers, including hospitals and clinics, to conduct organizational assessments of their cultural competence.
  2. Particularly useful for services involving racially and ethnically diverse populations.
  3. Questions are organized according to four cornerstones of cultural competence: a) health care organization's relationship with its community; b) the administration and management's relationship with staff; c) inter-staff relationships at all levels; d) the patient/enrollee-provider encounter.
• The HRET toolkit - A web-based tool that provides hospitals, health systems, clinics, and health plans information and resources for systematically collecting race, ethnicity, and primary language data from patients. Registration is free.  Development of the toolkit included input from a National Advisory Panel
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -   The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable.

Education

• Early Childhood Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign in collaboration with many colleagues representing diverse cultural and linguistic roots the CLAS Early Childhood Research Institute collects and describes early childhood/early intervention resources that have been developed across the U.S. for children with disabilities and their families and the service providers who work with them. The materials and resources available on this site reflect the intersection of culture and language, disabilities and child development. Through this site we intend to inform consumers (e.g., practitioners, families, and researchers) about materials and practices that are available and the contexts in which they might select a given material or practice. Parts of the site can also be read in Spanish. We hope you will find the collection and resources helpful and share it with friends and colleagues.
• Kellogg Health Scholars Program - This program develops new leadership in the effort to reduce and eliminate health disparities and to secure equal access to the conditions and services essential for achieving healthy communities.

Environment

• Built Environment, Development, & Community Planning

FEMA

• FEMA Launches Sheltering Guidance in Support of People with Disabilities

  FEMA has issued Functional Needs Support Services guidance to provide emergency shelter services in compliance with federal laws to provide equitable assistance to people with disabilities. FEMA is providing training on the new guidance for local emergency managers and non-profit shelter managers. The guidance is also available at: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/about/odic/fnss_guidance.pdf.  

Health Care

• Healthcare Equity Index Call to Action
• Those With Sickle Cell Disease Experience Pain More Often Than Researchers Originally Thought, Study Finds

Health Equity News

• Blacks May be Less Likely to Enroll in Clinical Trials Because They Mistrust Physicians, Study Finds
• Connections - First issue of the bi-monthly National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention
• Department of Health and Human Services : Solicitation of Nomination for Appointment to the Advisory Committee on Minority Health
• Doctors Miss Cultural Needs, Study Says, New York Times - June 10, 2008
• Life Expectancy Declines in Some U.S. Populations, Primarily Those in Deep South, Appalachia, Study Finds
• Poor? Pay Up (Why and in what ways the poor pay more)
• Racial Disparity in Poverty Rate for Elderly Wider Than Government Says
• Research Finds Wide Disparities in Health Care by Race and Region, New York Times - June 5, 2008
• UnitedHealthcare Backs Program to Reduce Racial Disparities, Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - March 15, 2007
• DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Solicitation of Nomination for Appointment to the Advisory Committee on Minority Health

Federal and State Government Resources

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Minority Health
• Children's Environmental Health Disparities - U.S. EPA publications
• Health United States: An annual report on trends in health statistics
• HHS Data Council
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HRSA)
• Minority Health
• Health Literacy
• Medicare Coverage of Diabetes Supplies and Services
• Staying Healthy: Medicare's Preventive Services
• Kaiser Family Foundation's State Health Facts Online
• National Center for Health Statistics' FASTATS
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Office of Minority Health
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report

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Interventions

• About the Finding Answers Intervention Research (FAIR) Database
• CDC's Healthy Communities Program - The centers for disease control and Prevention (CDC) and its partners are working together to create healthy thriving communities across the United States by reducing chronic diseases and attaining Health Equity through training, mentorship, dissemination of effective models, and investments in communities that jump-start local change. These population-based change strategies have been found to be an effective approach to improving the health of communities.
• Environmental Nutrition and Activity Community Tool (ENACT) - ENACT is a concrete menu of strategies designed to help you improve nutrition and activity environments on a local level. These strategies have been organized into seven environments that were carefully selected for their importance in individual and community health
• Promoting Health Equity, A Resource to Help Communities Address Social Determinants of Health - A workbook for community-based organizations, public health practitioners, and community health partners seeking to create health equity by addressing the social determinants of health
• Taking Action on the Social Determinants of Health at a Local Health Department
• THRIVE - THRIVE is a tool to help you understand and prioritize the factors within your own community that can help improve health and safety. The tool can help answer questions such as: How can I identify key factors in my community and rate their importance? How are these factors related to health outcomes? What can I do to address each factor? Where can I go for more information?
• Upstream Pathways for Health Inequities
• Upstream vs. Traditional Public Health

Minority Populations in Virginia

• U.S. Census Bureau's Facts about Virginia

There are five federally recognized minority populations in Virginia:

• African-American/Black
• Hispanic/Latino
• Asian-American
• Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
• American Indian and Alaskan Native

Racism

• Race Matters - Toolkit from the Annie E. Casey Foundation designed to help decision-makers, advocates, and elected officials get better results in their work by providing equitable opportunities for all.

Resources to Support Access to Healthy Foods

• “Community Food Security in United States Cities: A Survey of the Relevant Scientific Literature” - This resource examines food security literature from four core dimensions that include: consumption level pertains to the number of meals eaten per day, the amount being eaten, and the degree of regularity of meals; quality refers to both the nutritional aspects of food and personal, subjective preferences; sources indicates both the foundations from which foods are supplied and the personal and cultural acceptance of the sources; and cost dimension is central to fully considering components that compose food security/insecurity.
• Food Co-op Initiative - Food Co-op initiative is a non-profit foundation that was created to provide resources and support for communities that want to start new food co-ops. We can offer you support, referrals, and access to training material so that you will have the best chance for a creating a successful co-op or buying club.
• Garden Mosaics: Connection youth and elders to investigate the mosaic of plants, people, and cultures in gardens
• The Food Trust's Supermarket Campaign
• Healthy Corner Stores Network
• Healthy Eating and the Built Environment: Improving Access to Healthy Food Options
• Healthy Food, Healthy Communities: Improving Access and Opportunities Through Food Retailing
• National Farm to School Program
• USDA's Food Environment Atlas
• Supermarket Redlining and Urban Nutrition
• The Obesity Epidemic (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity) This video explains the many factors that have contributed to the obesity epidemic, and showcases several community initiatives taking place to prevent and reduce obesity. Obesity is a national epidemic and a major contributor to some of the leading causes of death in the U.S., including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer. We need to change our communities into places that strongly support healthy eating and active living.

Transportation

• The Benefits of Multimodal Transportation on Health and Social Equity is a listing of links to public health reports and tools that summarize the importance of transportation planning to health and social equity.  The resources summarize the cost of transportation-related health outcomes and describe a range of strategies to create transportation policies that promote health and social equity. View a presentation on the subject as presented by Dr. Michael Royster, Director of The Office of Minority Health and Health Equity. View Here

Webcasts

• Advancing Health Equity - “Webinar series focused on advancing health equity.  Topics include Planning and Public Health, Community-based participatory approaches to reduce infant mortality, A Road MAPP to  Health Equity, The ISMs and Health Equity, and Health Impact Assessment and Health Equity.
• Health Status Disparities in the United States (Conference Materials and Videos)
• Putting Women's Health Care Disparities on the Map: Examining Racial and Ethnic Disparities at the State Level
• Tutorial from the Kaiser Family Foundation on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care

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Additional Resources

• Calculate Your Disease Risk
• Center for Applied Research and Public Policy (Norfolk State University)
• Data Set Directory of Social Determinants of Health at the Local Level - This directory contains an extensive list of existing data sets that can be used to address the social determinants of health.
• Global Learning Device on Social Determinants of Health and Public Policy Formulation - The World Health Organization has launched a new online course on the social determinants of health. The course consists of an online tutorial with four learning units that make connections between health, and equity, social justice and human rights. It is intended to provide insight on the social determinants of health in order to encourage changes in policy that promote and protect the health of a population. The course is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese, and is targeted to WHO staff members and other health ministry officials but is free to access and fully available to the public.
• Healthfinder.gov - Your Guide to Reliable Health Information, sponsored by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
• Healthy People Library Project
• Healthy Minorities, Healthier America
• National Women's Health Resource Center
• OMHRC: New Knowledge Center Resources
• Presentations from the 2009 Virginia Health Equity Conference
• Prevalence of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Physical Activity by Race-Ethnicity in the United States
• Putting Women's Health Care Disparities on the Map: Examining Racial and Ethnic Disparities at the State Level provides a rare state-level look at disparities among women of different races and ethnicities on a broad range of indicators of health and well-being. State-specific fact sheets and interactive maps and data tables that draw on the report findings are presented here.
• Telamon Corporation
• Transcultural C.A.R.E. Associates
• Women of Color Health Data Book

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