About Health Disparities

[Margo Harris]

I'm forwarding this message from another list, because the message was
interesting, and the web site -  http://healthdisparities.net/ was very
interesting to me.  If you haven't visited yet, give it a look.  As I work
on oral health issues, you become every more aware of disparities in health
care, especially with conditions that are not self-limiting, i.e. you don't
take care of them and they get worse.

Margo Harris
Seattle, WA
206/932-1273
Email: margo at pnwhealth.com
Internet: www.pnwhealth.com
PNW SOPHE Job Bank: www.pnwhealth.com/jobbank.htm
"I know God won't give me anything I can't handle.
I just wish (s)he didn't trust me so much."  Mother Theresa

> ... the Wisconsin Primary Care Association and our mission is to
> advance geographic, financial and cultural access to comprehensive,
> community-oriented primary health care services for all people in
Wisconsin.
> As an Association, we serve and help support Migrant, Community, and
> Homeless Health Centers within Wisconsin (also including Tribal Health
> Centers).  The Centers are primarily funded through the Bureau of Primary
> Health Care (BPHC), which is organizationally located in the U.S.
Department
> of Health and Human Services.  BPHC's mission is contained in the singular
> goal of assuring 100% access to care and zero health disparities for the
> people BPHC serves.   The BPHC is the leading organization which funds and
> monitors grants to the neediest communities.
> http://healthdisparities.net/partners.html
>
> There is a presidential initiative to double the number of these Health
> Centers across the nation in the next five years.  As we see such growth,
we
> also see the impact that health disparities have on the health of the
> nation.  As a result, the BPHC has established a goal to eventually allow
> all Health Centers to participate in a Health Disparities Collaborative.
> These Collaborative are divided among diseases.  Currently there are
> Collaborative for Asthma, Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, and
Depression.
> I encourage all interested individuals to visit the Health Disparities
> Collaborative web-site to get more specific information.
> http://healthdisparities.net/
>
> Among other great resources and information on the web-site, there is also
a
> focus within this Collaborative for quality improvement, which references
3
> different models including the Improvement Model, the Chronic Care Model,
> and the Learning Model.  The motto for the Collaborative is "Changing
> Practice, Changing Lives".  I think, as Health Educators, you might find
> this very interesting.  This is also one way to recognize the populations
> that these Health Centers serve that often times get overlooked, such as
the
> uninsured and underinsured.
>
> The ultimate goal here is to see more primary prevention among these
> populations!  If this 'Community Health Center world' is new to you, I
> encourage each you to seek out the Primary Care Association in your state
to
> learn more about the Community Health Centers that are closest to you.
> There are lots of great opportunities here and there is a lot of hard work
> going on to bridge the gap in health disparities.
>