Shaping an Urban Health Policy Agenda:
Addressing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
WHEN: June 22, 2004: 8:30 am - 3:00 pm
Meeting Summary
On June 22, over 50 people gathered for a one-day meeting to begin to develop an urban health policy agenda for the Twin Cities metro area. The June 22 event was co-sponsored by the St. Paul-Ramsey County Department of Public Health, the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support, the Hennepin County Human Services Department, and the Minnesota Department of Health's Office of Minority and Multicultural Health. Community members and organizations, including those who have received state Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative grants, participated in the event, along with members of the sponsoring public health departments. Sandra, Elizabeth, and Katherine Hirsh facilitated portions of the meeting.
After Rob Fulton, Director of the St. Paul-Ramsey County Department of Public Health, welcomed the attendees and invited all participants to introduce themselves, he introduced Gloria Lewis, Director of the Minnesota Department of Health's Office of Minority and Multicultural Health. She provided an overview of the day's purpose and agenda, and gave a brief definition for what is an urban health policy agenda, and explained why it was important for the public health departments to develop and implement this agenda in partnership with urban community members and organizations.
The large group was asked to participate in two rounds of small group discussion on topics nominated by meeting participants, using an "open space" facilitation format. During the first round of small group discussions, participants broke up into nine groups to talk about: the allocation and distribution of resources among community-based organizations, teen pregnancy among Africans and African-Americans, the accessibility of health care for refugee and immigrant elders, culturally-specific health issues and re-education of cultural ways, equal access to quality care including quality interpretation by trained professionals, the need for fitness centers for Somali women in a gender-specific setting, and the promotion of policies that maintain the health status of immigrants. At the end of this round, the small groups reported out on their conversations to the large group.
During the second round of small group discussions, the participants broke up into seven groups to talk about topics nominated by the meeting participants. The topics discussed by the groups were: decreasing the HIV/AIDS epidemic among African American and African born populations, including strategies for working with those in prison/jail; the complexity, cost, and organization of health care; cross-cultural mental health services; increasing service eligibility for elders aged 50 and over; how to diversify the workforce and dismantle institutional discrimination; increasing cultural competency; and healthy living and communicable disease. This round also ended with the small groups reporting out on their discussions to the whole group. Participants were served lunch at the start of this round, talked over their boxed lunches.
After lunch, there was a whole group discussion to pull out the key themes identified in the smaller groups. In total, the participants identified seven themes: increasing workforce diversity including leadership and management positions; improving culturally sensitive data collection; addressing issues around sexuality and adolescence (pregnancy, parenting, and support); the complexity of health care; capitalizing on cultural strengths in holistic health promotion practices; promoting funding of community-based organizations; and improving access to health care through interpreters.
The meeting closed with a discussion of next steps. Suggested next steps included planning a forum related to workforce issues and development of a legislative agenda.