Efforts Seek To Educate Minorities On Healthy Living, Breast Cancer, Brain Injury Services, Asthma

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 29 Sep 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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The following summarizes efforts that seek to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities.

• Aetna: Aetna and Magic Johnson Enterprises have launched a new multimedia advertising campaign designed to educate minority communities on health literacy, the importance of wellness and healthy living, and address issues of racial and ethnic health care inequalities. Earvin "Magic" Johnson will be featured in advertisements promoting healthy habits and discussing barriers to good health. The advertisements also will direct people to visit communityvitality.com, an interactive Web site that provides more information on healthy lifestyle suggestions. The ads will run through October in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C. (Aetna release, 9/18).
  
  
• Denver: Representatives from the Colorado Traumatic Brain Injury Program, along with state health care providers and physicians, held an informational forum on Wednesday that sought to educate Hispanics about funding available to help family members with traumatic brain injuries, the Denver Rocky Mountain News reports. According to organizers, underserved minority communities are less likely to be aware of services available for people who have suffered brain injuries because of car accidents, assaults and falls. The brain injury program will provide up to $2,000 for one year of services to such residents (Denver Rocky Mountain News, 9/24).
  
  
• Morris County, N.J: The Newark Star-Ledger this week profiled the Respira program, which provides asthma outreach and educational services to Hispanics. Respira, meaning breathe in Spanish, was founded by Evelyn Montalvo Stanton two years ago and has received a $600,000 grant from the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey and Sanofi-Aventis. The program originally served Essex and Union counties but now will expand to Morris County, Stanton said. She said that the program has led to "a marked decline" in emergency department hospitalizations for participants, adding that her goal is to set up a best-practice model for outreach efforts across the state (O'Connor, Newark Star-Ledger, 9/21).
  
  
• Omaha, Neb.: HHS has awarded Creighton University a three-year, $1.05 million grant to increase health programs for minorities and underrepresented groups, AP/KCAU-TV reports. The grant will help fund a program called Creighton's Pipeline to Success, a pre-professional program that prepares sixth- through 12th-grade students for careers in medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy and other health professions (AP/KCAU-TV, 9/21).
  
  
• Princeton Township, N.J.: The Princeton HealthCare System's Community & Education Outreach Program in partnership with the Princeton Regional Health Department sponsored a lecture on Wednesday to provide high blood pressure and disease management education for the black community, the Lawrence Ledger reports. The lecture, titled "Managing Blood Pressure & Blood Sugar: An Imperative for the African-American Community," was one of two culturally tailored lectures the organizations sponsored. A previous discussion conducted in Mandarin educated Chinese-Americans on osteoporosis (Lancefield, Lawrence Ledger, 9/19).
  

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