Health Disparities among racial and ethnic groups persist despite our Nation’s efforts to address them. The Healthy People 2010 goals reflect the culmination of our government’s commitment toward eliminating these health disparities. Over the last decade this problem has received significant attention from academicians, policy makers, legislators, service providers and community advocates. Interdisciplinary approaches toward addressing the issue of health disparities have been implemented in order to develop innovative strategies. Forging these partnerships has led to successful health policy development and program implementation. What are the elements of successful partnerships? How do we ensure community investment in setting health policy agendas? How do we get community representation at the health policy decision-making table? Finally, how do we garner the support of legislators and policy makers for community-driven health policy initiatives? This session will consider these questions and the broader issues they raise including the need for eliminating barriers so that collaborative solutions can be employed. It will discuss efforts to develop such partnerships nationally as well as how to develop an agenda for forging interdisciplinary initiatives aimed at improving public health. In particular, the session will highlight the work of a statewide health policy forum bringing together public and private health policy leaders as well as community representatives to discuss collaborative strategies for eliminating health disparities. More specifically, this session will underscore how these collaborative strategies can lead toward more effective and practical health policy agendas.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Community Planning, Policy/Policy Development
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.