For Local Health Departments

About Local Health DepartmentsGeneral Information about Utah’s Local Health DepartmentsProgram Resources The CONNECTION NewsletterMinority Health in Rural CommunitiesWorking with Minority Populations at the Local LevelContact CMHRequest Technical AssistanceMulticultural Health ListservShare Your Ideas

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General Information about Utah’s Local Health Departments
There are 12 Local Health Departments (LHDs) in Utah. Each of these agencies provide a variety of direct public health services. The primary purpose of Utah's Health Departments is to protect and promote the health, safety and well being of all citizens in the state. Local health departments are city-county, county, or multi-county organizations operated by local governments. LHDs develop partnerships with private, volunteer, and government health organizations in providing public health services directly to local citizens.

One of the main goals of the Center for Multicultural Health is to collaborate with LHDs helping them to reduce health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities in Utah. In order to do that, LHDs has designated a “multicultural health contact” to work as a liaison between his/her LHD and the CMH.

• Directory
  http://health.utah.gov/lhd/lhd-directory.pdf
• Racial/Ethnic Distribution
  http://health.utah.gov/cmh/lhd/LHDRacial-EthnicDistribution.pdf
• Interactive state map with links to all the LHDs’ websites http://www.health.state.ut.us/lhd/html/state_of_utah_map.html
• Local Health Associations http://www.health.state.ut.us/lhd/html/local_health_associations.html

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The CONNECTION Newsletter The Center for Multicultural Health publishes this newsletter to inform our community partners about efforts to reduce health disparities. To be notified when a newsletter is completed, join our listserv. To join, contact cmh@utah.gov. www.health.utah.gov/cmh/news.html#newsletters

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Minority Health in Rural Communities
Minority health is a problem in rural communities. It is a stereotype to associate rural poverty with whites and urban poverty with minorities. Although most of the ethnic population in Utah lives in urban areas, we cannot forget the challenges that some of our local health departments face in serving these populations. The poverty gap between minorities and non-minorities is often greater in rural communities than in urban communities because economic resources can be more tightly constrained and limited. Also, many rural communities have limited access to health care because rural communities are often understaffed by healthcare professionals.

• Minority health in rural areas
  http://ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/overview/minority.htm
• Geographic Eligibility for Rural Health Grant programs
  http://ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/funding/eligibilitytestv2.asp
• National Organization of States Offices of Rural Health http://www.nrharural.org/groups/nosorh/default.htm
• Rural Health Association of Utah
  http://www.rhau.org/Index.htm
• Office of Primary Care and Rural Health in Utah
  http://health.utah.gov/primarycare/
• National Rural Health Association
  http://www.nrharural.org/about/index.html

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Working with Minority Populations at the Local Level
Here you will find different tools than can help you to tailor your programs to specific minority populations.

• Contextual Health Profile for Rural Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations
  This computer/internet-based tool guides the health planner toward culturally competent health programming. The profile is a comprehensive description of the health status of a specific community and includes community health status information that is typically included in a community health needs assessment. In addition, it captures cultural and environmental information about a specific community to help the health planner reach a more informed decision or set of decisions regarding appropriate health interventions. http://www.nrharural.org/groups/Model625/index.htm
• Community Health Status Indicators
  This website was developed by HRSA to provide health assessment information at the local level.
  http://www.hrsa.gov/
• National Association of County and City Health Officials
  This site provides information on programs/projects in local health departments and links to other sites; it also offers a tool for use in community-wide strategic planning and a guide to community health assessment.
  www.naccho.org
• Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
  This site provides information on measurable performance standards and assessment instruments that can be used to influence public health policy in various priority areas.
  www.astho.org
• Bureau of Primary Health Care
  This site features data sources; successful community partnership models; and a listing of BPHC programs, initiatives, and offices.
  http://bphc.hrsa.gov/

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Request Technical Assistance
The Center can assist Utah Department of Health programs, local health department programs, and community-based organizations with cultural competence trainings, seeking ethnic community members for coalitions and advisory boards, and linguistic services. For more details and to make a request, see www.health.utah.gov/cmh/TA/form3.html

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Multicultural Health Listserv
Join our listserv to receive emails about ethnic health news and events.To join our listserv, contact cmh@utah.gov.

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Share your ideas!

We rely on our community and government partners to share grant opportunities, events, resources and news that we can advertise through our website, newsletter and listserv. We also love to hear your ideas to reduce health disparities in Utah.