BCOAG Health Disparity Committee
BCOAG's Health Disparity Committee is responsible for executing the following changes and goals:
- Increase awareness about the importance of healthy eating and physical activity for the prevention of chronic disease.
- Educate about the warning signs, symptoms, and risks factors of chronic disease through early detection and screening.
- Provide resources and educational materials to empower the African-American community to take charge of their overall health and well-being.
- Develop culturally-appropriate informational tools using existing resources from various government and/or private entities. These tools will focus on diseases that disproportionately affect the African-American community. In addition, the tools will be disseminated via community events and other venues (i.e., churches, health fairs, county health departments, community centers, sororities/fraternities, and family reunions). The committee will also develop additional health-related informational tools as needed.
- Identify opportunities to partner with the BCOAG Community Outreach Committee to expand our efforts and increase awareness of health promotion behaviors.
- Create evaluation tools to measure the effectiveness of outreach activities
Announcement
HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
http://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/npa/templates/content.aspx?lvl=1&lvlid=33&ID=285
The HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities outlines goals and actions HHS will take to reduce health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities. With the HHS Disparities Action Plan, the Department commits to continuously assessing the impact of all policies and programs on racial and ethnic health disparities. It will promote integrated approaches, evidence-based programs and best practices to reduce these disparities. The HHS Action Plan builds on the strong foundation of the Affordable Care Act and is aligned with programs and initiatives such as Healthy People 2020, the First Lady's Let's Move initiative and the President's National HIV/AIDS Strategy.
Fact Sheets on Health Disparities Among African Americans
Many Americans are impacted by poor health outcomes, however, some groups, particularly African Americans / Blacks are disproportionately impacted by negative health consequences. Such disparities lead to greater morbidity and mortality rates for this population. To address health inequities in this population, the Black Commissioned Officers Advisory Group – Health Disparities Committee (BCOAG - HDC) is supporting the prevention efforts of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG), and other federal health agencies by distributing factsheets that address health issues which impact Black and African-American communities. Many of the factsheets contain basic information about health issues, the symptoms of the disease/illness, factors that may contribute to poorer health outcomes, and what individuals and communities can do improve their health and quality of life.
This document attempts to serve as a focal point and acts to bring together relevant information available on the internet addressing health disparities amongst Black / African-Americans. The factsheets on this website can be downloaded and distributed as handouts at health fairs or other venues by Public Health Officers and the public. The website also contains a list of resources on health issues that include reports addressing health disparities and websites with additional health data/information. We hope our effort will help facilitate efforts toward educating individuals and communities about health disparities and help them determine what they can do to improve their health and to enhance healthy lifestyle practices.
Please feel free to send comments (i.e., useful, not useful, how to make it better) concerning the content of the webpage to bcoag.org@gmail.com. Please include HDC Health Disparities Webpage in the subject of the email. We also encourage you to contact us if you would like us to consider additional content for the webpage.
Thank you.
BCOAG Health Disparities Committee
More Information and Contact
If you are interested in participating with the Health Disparity Committee or would like more information, please contact the BCOAG Health Disparity Committee Chair: LCDR Pilgrim Spikes or the Co-Chair: LCDR Peter Thomas.
