Efforts Address Health Care Inequities, Offer No-Cost Care to Hispanics, Create Media Health Awareness Projects Targeting Immigrants
The following highlights initiatives and grants that seek to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities.
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Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science: NIH's National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities has given the school's Medical Sciences Institute $15 million to expand research and infrastructure projects that address health inequities. The funds also will help support the university's College of Science and Health and a planned four-year medical school and Center for Community Engagement (Nurse.com, 10/6).
- Denver, Colo.: Mexican and U.S. government health officials have teamed up to offer a week of mostly no-cost preventive care services primarily targeting Hispanic immigrants, the Denver Rocky Mountain News reports. Volunteers will screen immigrants and others for high blood pressure and other conditions, administer flu shots for $10 and conduct HIV tests. The American Diabetes Association will assist in the screenings. Workshops that promote healthy eating, address substance use and inform participants about health insurance opportunities also will be available. The program will take place in 40 U.S. states and seven nations besides the U.S. that have Mexican consulates (Denver Rocky Mountain News, 10/6).
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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: The New Routes to Community Health, a program by RWJF and the Benton Foundation, announced recently that it will award eight immigrant-led community organizations with three-year, $225,000 grants to help create local campaigns to raise health awareness among immigrants, MarketWatch reports. The organizations will use the grant money to produce original content in English and other languages. Projects resulting from the grants will be posted on the New Routes Web site and will be available for the public to use. The Web site also will serve as a resource for multimedia, research and news on immigrant community health issues (MarketWatch, 9/30).
- Palm Beach County, Fla.: The Palm Beach County Health Department and the Ujima Men's Collective, an organization for gay black men, this week held a three-day conference to raise HIV/AIDS awareness in the community, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. According to Tim O'Connor, a spokesperson for the health department, 26% of those living with HIV/AIDS are black men who have sex with men. The "Dare 2B.A.W.A.R.E." conference included workshops and seminars on advocacy, leadership, health and wellness, spirituality and relationships (Allen, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10/4).