Office of Minority Health

Grant Program: State Partnership Grant Program to Improve Minority Health

Grantee

Indiana State Department of Health
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3061
Project: IN EMPOWERED
Amount: $150,000

The mission of the Indiana State Department of Health Office of Minority Health is to improve the health of all racial and ethnic populations in Indiana. It supports the development of health policies and programs that help to reduce minority health disparities.

Project Abstract

The Indiana State Department of Health’s (ISDH) vision is to ensure that all residents have a healthier and safer quality of life. The State Partnership Grant Program, Enhancing Minority Partnership Opportunities; Working to Eliminate Disparities (EMPOWERED), will address issues of adult obesity, infant mortality, workforce diversity, and racial and ethnic data collection, and will ensure opportunities for cultural competence training and the statewide promotion of the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care (The National CLAS Standards).

Strategies include:

· An existing health profession enrichment program for adolescents

· A peer education program to increase knowledge of the importance of healthy preconception and interconception behaviors targeting African American adolescents and women

· An online knowledge-based intervention activity targeting African Americans and focusing on improving personal health behavior to promote healthier lifestyles

· Cultural competence training for health care professionals, health professions students and health care workers

The expected long-term impact is:

• Increased diversity in Indiana’s health care workforce

· Decreased rate of infant mortality among African American adolescents and women in Indiana

· Decreased rates of obesity among African American adults

· Increased access to quality health care among racial and ethnic minorities

· Increased efforts to promote standardization of race, ethnicity and language of origin

To measure whether the activities were successful, personal dietary and physical activity habits pre- and post-intervention will be collected to measure behavior changes in obese adults. Increased knowledge will be assessed by pre- and post-surveys for each education session that will address cultural competence, obesity and infant mortality. A tracking sheet of all activities and documents will be used to monitor activities.

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

· Decrease disparities and measuring access for diverse populations, including racial and ethnic minorities and older adults

· Reduce the rate of fetal and infant deaths

· Reduce the proportion of adults who are obese

· Increase the proportion of persons who report that their health care providers have satisfactory communication skills

· Increase the proportion of population-based Healthy People 2020 objectives for which national data are available for all major population groups