|
December 2016
 |
|
It’s been 35 years since the first recognition of what would become the global
HIV/AIDS epidemic.
In the decades since, much progress has been made, but as a
global community, we still have work to do to achieve our collective goal of a world free
of HIV.
This World AIDS Day, the HHS Office of Minority Health joins the nation in recognizing our federal, state and local partners for their leadership in addressing the epidemic; renewing our commitment to reduce HIV/AIDS disparities and tackling
|
the social determinants that drive them; and continuing to make an impact in the fight against HIV for all communities.
Here are a few ways you can get involved and make an impact:
The Health Insurance
Marketplace is open for business, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) is continuing a robust outreach strategy with partners across
the nation to let Americans know that affordable coverage is available in 2017.
The first two weeks of the fourth Open Enrollment confirmed that Marketplace
coverage continues to be a product Americans want and need: Over 1 million people made plan selections on HealthCare.gov in just the first
12 days; this included 250,000 new consumers and over 750,000 renewing
consumers.
Here’s what everyone needs to know about Open Enrollment:
-
Affordable
coverage is still available on HealthCare.gov. Most consumers will be able
to find a good deal for less than $75 per month thanks to financial assistance.
- About 85 percent of both current Marketplace consumers and
Marketplace-eligible uninsured Americans qualify for tax credits that help make
coverage affordable.
- Improvements to HealthCare.gov
and CuidadodeSalud.gov will make it
even easier for consumers to find the plan that best meets their needs, making
it more likely that they will stay covered all year.
-
Sign up by the December 15 deadline to
for coverage starting January 1, 2017.
-
Help
is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week online at HealthCare.gov and CuidadodeSalud.gov and via phone at: 1-800-318-2596 (TTY:
1-855-889-4325).
-
Free
and confidential in-person help is available. Visit https://localhelp.healthcare.gov.
-
Need
help enrolling in a language besides English? Free
help is available in more than 200 languages online
and by calling 1-800-318-2596 (TTY: 1-855-889-4325).
The HHS
Office of Minority Health has released the Compendium of Publicly Available
Datasets And Other Data-Related Resources, a free resource that
compiles in one place 132 public datasets and resources pertinent to research
in the areas of health disparities and social determinants of health. The Compendium serves as a convenient
“one-stop shop” for researchers and policymakers doing work in or at the
intersections of health, health care, health disparities and social
determinants of health.
The goal of
the Compendium is to advance research, public
policy and the public’s knowledge of issues related to health equity. The Compendium provides users with instant
access to 132 datasets and resources that have been pre-selected and vetted by
experts in the 10 federal agencies in which the datasets are maintained for
their utility in researching health disparities and the social determinants of
health. The Compendium includes datasets and data-related
resources from the following federal agencies within the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services: Administration for Community Living (ACL), Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Health
Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Indian Health Service (IHS),
National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration (SAMHSA). It also includes information on datasets from
the U.S. Census Bureau at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The Compendium of Publicly Available Datasets
and Other Data-Related Resources was created by the Federal Interagency
Health Equity Team of the National
Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities (NPA)
and is available on the
NPA website.
111 Million. That’s the number of work days the CDC
estimates are lost each year to the flu – an illness that can be prevented with
a simple vaccination. Through this year and into 2017, the HHS Walgreens Flu Vaccination Partnership will continue providing free flu shots
to eligible uninsured individuals. Through the initiative,
which is in its seventh year, Walgreens has provided more than $50 million
worth of vouchers to communities across the country.
Individuals who are eligible can call 866-994-6757 to find the nearest location where flu shot vouchers may be
available.
Learn more about National Influenza Vaccination Week.
The National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate
Services in Health and Health Care (The National CLAS Standards) aim to improve
health care quality and advance health equity by establishing a framework for
organizations to serve our nation's increasingly diverse communities.
Together with the National
Association of School Nurses, the HHS Office of Minority Health
is introducing a webinar on the National
CLAS Standards for school nurses. It presents school nurses with
strategies for providing CLAS and communicating effectively with students and
their families. An accompanying discussion guide offers activities and
resources for a small group training based on the webinar. Find the webinar and discussion guide for school nurses.
According to
the CDC, while children's lead
levels have steadily declined in recent decades, some populations of children,
including those who live in older housing and in low-income and minority
communities, are still at significant risk of lead poisoning. Reducing
lead exposure in children, particularly those who are disparately exposed, is a
priority of the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety
Risks to Children.
Last month, the
Task Force issued a report on federal efforts currently planned or underway to
understand, prevent and reduce various sources of lead exposure among children.
The report, Key Federal Programs to
Reduce Childhood Lead Exposures and Eliminate Associated Health Impacts, provides a starting point for the
development of a comprehensive federal lead strategy that will identify steps
needed to further reduce lead exposures to children in the U.S. It also
provides a basis for increased coordination and collaboration among multiple
federal agencies to further protect the nation’s children.
Download the report and learn more about
the President’s Task Force on Environmental
Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children.
One year
ago, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched its first
ever Equity Plan for Improving Quality in Medicare at a conference
commemorating the 50th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid and
the 30th anniversary of the Report of the Secretary’s Task Force on Black and Minority Health
(The
Heckler Report). The CMS Equity Plan for Improving Quality in
Medicare is an action-oriented plan
that focuses on six priority areas and aims to reduce health disparities among
vulnerable populations including, racial and ethnic minorities, sexual and
gender minorities, and people with disabilities.
Learn more about the CMS Equity Plan, and tools available to
support practitioners in addressing health equity, on the CMS Blog.
The U.S. health
system is on a current track to experience workforce shortages in a number of
key behavioral health professions (including mental health and substance abuse social workers and
school counselors) by 2025, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
A recent report by HRSA and SAMHSA
showed the supply
and demand of nine separate behavioral health practitioner disciplines and projected
shortages over the next decade. Learn more about the brief,
along with other workforce information, on HRSA’s National Center for Health Workforce Analysis
website.
Last month, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy published a landmark report on a health crisis affecting every community in our country. Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health is a comprehensive review of the science of substance use, misuse and disorders.
Nearly 21 million people in America have a substance use disorder involving alcohol or drugs, an astonishing figure that is comparable to the number of people in our country with diabetes and higher than the total number of Americans suffering from all cancers combined. But in spite of the massive scope of this problem, only 1 in 10 people with a substance use disorder receives treatment.
For more on the report and the Surgeon General’s recommendations for addressing this public health crisis, visit: https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/.
The Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)’s Center of Excellence (CoE) for
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) is pleased to
announce a unique opportunity for states and tribes that are motivated and
committed to advancing their IECMHC systems, including planning,
implementation, evaluation and sustainability efforts.
States and tribes that
are interested in developing new or embarking on existing strategic goals,
strengthening partnerships and beginning or furthering service delivery around
infant and childhood mental health consultation are invited to respond via the
online link for intensive one-on-one technical assistance (TA) provided through
the CoE. States and tribes
that are at all levels of implementation are invited to apply, from those
that do not yet have an IECMHC system but are committed to building one,
to those that have an existing system and are committed to expanding and
improving it.
For more information:
*Please note that there
will be an informational webinar offered on December 7 from 3-4:15 PM EST. For more information, please email the CoE at IECMHC@edc.org.
|
