142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

308134
Mississippi's Movement to Better Health: Participatory Problem Solving to Address Long-term Health Disparities

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014 : 10:30 AM - 10:50 AM

Barry Hamilton Smith, MD, PhD , The Rogosin Institute, New York, NY
Molly Phillips, MPH, MSW , Center for Population Studies, University of Mississippi, University, MS
John Green, PhD , Center for Population Studies, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS
Pamela Hoyt-Hudson, RN , Dreyfus Health Foundation of The Rosogin Institute, New York, NY
Josephine Rhymes , Tri-County Workforce Alliance
Aurelia Jones-Taylor, MBA , Aaron E. Henry Community Health Services Center, Inc.
Jessica Hunt , Aaron E. Henry Community Health Services Center, Inc.
Wanda Jones, PhD(c), MS, RN , Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce
Debbie Logan, RN, MHA , Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce
The Delta region of Mississippi, an area with high poverty and low educational attainment, faces some of the greatest health challenges in the nation, including high rates of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and asthma. Low population density coupled with a healthcare provider shortage, create substantial challenges in accessing healthcare.

To address these problems, the New Pathways to Health initiative was formed, and has evolved over 10 years. A collaborative partnership between a community health center, two workforce development organizations, a university research center, and a global health foundation, the New Pathways program provides hands-on training for youth from five Delta counties interested in pursuing careers in healthcare and improving the health of their communities. Through educational workshops, mentorship, job shadowing, and community projects, New Pathways aims to connect aspirations to opportunities.

Through Problem Solving for Better Health®, a participatory process that uses community strengths, resources, and motivations to create and implement projects to improve local health outcomes, 60 middle and high school students in the Delta worked together to develop a fitness summer camp with 160 participants, a youth-run school health council, a healthy cookbook, and organized a community picnic to promote healthy behaviors attended by over 400 local residents. Three of these programs are now rooted in the community with plans for expansion. The New Pathways program suggests that participatory problem solving and youth empowerment can address challenges in an area plagued by long-term health disparities.

Learning Areas:

Advocacy for health and health education
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Chronic disease management and prevention
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate the impact of participatory processes on addressing health disparities in the Mississippi Delta

Keyword(s): Youth, Community-Based Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have worked as a program manager, coordinator, or evaluator on programs involving youth empowerment and reduction of health disparities in both urban and rural communities throughout the past five years. Specific to this presentation, for the past three years, I have facilitated workshops, provided technical assistance, and led the evaluation of programming engaging youth in participatory processes to address health disparities impacting the Mississippi Delta region.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.