 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Rosy Chang Weir, PhD, Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Centers, 439 23rd Street, Oakland, CA 94612, 510-272-9536, rcweir@aapcho.org and Heidi Park, PhD, MPH, Division of Health and Science Policy, New York Academy of Medicine, 1216 Fifth St., New York, NY 10029.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) often face substantial financial, cultural, and linguistic barriers which prevent them from getting appropriate health care. Enabling services, or supportive services such as interpretation and transportation aimed to increase access to health care, have become important for reducing health disparities and improving health. Despite their importance, these services are often underfunded and understudied. Since there is currently no systematic method for collecting and evaluating the effectiveness of enabling services, little is known about their utilization or the methods of delivery and their impact on health outcomes. The Enabling Services Project, involving collaboration between the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO), its member clinics, and the New York Academy of Medicine, aims to fill this information gap. The purpose of the project is to develop a model for improving data collection on enabling services and to describe the impact of the services on access to health care. A pilot study is currently being conducted at four AAPCHO community health centers serving primarily AAPIs in New York, Washington, and Hawaii. The project activities include development of an enabling services encounter form and a data collection protocol. The proposed presentation will provide an overview of the Enabling Services Project including a description of the project’s purpose and significance, the data collection methods, and preliminary analysis of the enabling services data. Overall, the project aims to provide a better understanding of the barriers to health care for AAPIs and useful information to guide effective resource allocation by community health centers serving these populations.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Access to Health Care, Barriers to Care
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.