Office of Minority Health

State Partnership Grant Program to Improve Minority Health

Grantee
Mississippi State Department of Health
Jackson, MS 39215-1700
Project: Achieving Health Equity through Access and the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care (CLAS)
Amount: $149,928
The Mississippi State Department of Health’s mission is to promote and protect the health of the citizens of Mississippi. Specific areas that the department is focused on include public services, disease control, health and safety, licensure, regulation, and data and statistics.

Project Abstract

The Achieving Health Equity through Access and the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care (CLAS) project addresses health care access issues through education and awareness of the Affordable Care Act, and promotion and implementation of the National CLAS Standards . Focusing on specific minority groups (African Americans, Latinos, Vietnamese and persons with disabilities), this project seeks to reduce health disparities and approach health equity for Mississippi’s vulnerable populations.

The overall project goals are to promote health equity in Mississippi by increasing health care access through education dissemination components of the Affordable Care Act and improving quality of care through National CLAS Standards education and assistance with implementation strategies.

To achieve these goals, the project will provide Affordable Care Act education outreach to minority and disadvantaged populations throughout Mississippi’s communities and will provide education on the National CLAS standards in the Department of Health’s nine public health districts and Mississippi’s 21 community health centers. Outreach will include a media campaign, train-the-trainer program and trained outreach personnel activities.

Intended outcomes include:

· Provide outreach and education about the Affordable Care Act to 25,000 uninsured citizens in Mississippi

· Provide education on the National CLAS Standards to 50 percent of 102 county health department clinics and 50 percent of the state’s 21 community health center systems

· Achieve adoption of the National CLAS Standards by 50 percent of local health departments

· Achieve adoption of the National CLAS Standards by 20 percent of community health centers

The evaluation will include a surveillance and monitoring system; tool development for data collection and monitoring; and measures to determine project process, output, outcome, impact and effectiveness.

Objectives

• Increased awareness, education and outreach to address racial/ethnic minority health and health disparities problems
• Improved access to, and appropriate utilization of, health and other community-based services and systems through user-centered design for racial/ethnic minorities (e.g., health IT, culturally/ linguistically appropriate services, service provider education/ training, workforce diversity)
• Strengthened leadership and coordination to leverage resources and enhance effectiveness and efficiency of individual and collective efforts (including, but not limited to, research and data)

Healthy People 2020 objectives toward which the project’s results contribute

· Reduce the proportion of persons who are unable to obtain or delay in obtaining necessary medical care, dental care or prescription medicines

· Reduce the proportion of persons who are unable to obtain or delay in obtaining necessary medical care

· Reduce the proportion of all hospital emergency department visits in which the wait time to see an emergency department clinical exceeds the recommended timeframe