Transforming
African American and Latino Communities in Travis County
Latinos and African
Americans combined make up close to half of the Travis County population and
will exceed that soon. To combat health
disparities and chronic disease burdens disproportionately affecting
lower-income Latinos and African-Americans here, the Austin City Council has authorized
the award of a contract with the University
of Texas School of Public Health to work with community based nonprofit
health organizations. A total of $198,000 is anticipated through September 2013
when full approval is granted.
This contract is supported
by the Austin/Travis County Health and
Human Services Department with approximately 10% of the funds that were
competitively awarded at the national level for Community Transformation Grants (CTG) from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. This is the first step taken in
Austin toward implementation of a key element of the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care act: Reducing costs by implementing best practices for disease
prevention with an emphasis on the long-term elimination of health disparities.
These local CTG
projects are being sponsored in two Austin neighborhoods (zip codes 78721/23
& 78744) by the Alliance for African
American Health in Central Texas (AAAHCT) and the Latino HealthCare Forum (LHCF), community-based nonprofit
organizations formed in response to growing awareness of the health disparities
that impact them.
Community
organization in zip codes 78721/23 is led by Marva Overton, Executive Director
of the AAAHCT and branded by participants as:
East Side Health Network’s
“Living Healthy on the East Side”
Community
organization in zip code 78744 is led by Jill Ramirez, Director of LHCF’s new
PromoSalud state-certified school for Community Health Workers and branded:
Dove Springs Health
Network’s
“Manantial
de Salud Dove Springs” (Spanish)
http://manantialdesaluddovesprings.blogspot.com/
In both areas
leadership teams of four residents have recruited 15-20 community health
advocates, who in turn have recruited others to form networks with approximately
60 participants in each area. These groups will meet monthly for two months and
quarterly thereafter to implement outreach and community education activities
they have chosen, and to discuss ideas for new activities that might be adopted
in the future.
Over time these
projects will refine goals and the community participants will guide selection
of options for CTG activities that best serve these communities. But some goals
are obvious: The rates of diabetes mortality are three to four times higher
among Latinos and African-Americans than among non-Hispanic whites and this
corresponds to their higher levels of obesity. We have chosen to confront the
challenge of obesity in our first two months of work.
As they are the
single most obvious examples of an unhealthy food product, we have chosen sodas
and other sugar sweetened beverages as the first target for both networks. We
are organizing a “no soda during the school week” challenge that is presently
being introduced to East Side, Dove Springs and families throughout the Austin
area in the first two weeks of school in collaboration with Dr. Stephen Pont,
Austin Independent School District Medical Director.
For October we have agreed
to focus on physical activity and a pledge to one of four levels of healthy
activity. Walkability is a problem and we are doing assessments to recommend
improvements in both areas to City Planning. We are also working with Pre-Schools
to exchange innovative nutrition and activity policies currently practiced in these
communities.
University of Texas School of Public Health: alfred.l.mcalister@uth.tmc.edu