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Inside this issue:

      On August 10^th, the Multicultural Health Network of Utah (MHN) held their 4^th Annual Health Disparities Conference at the Downtown Salt Lake City Radisson Hotel with a successful turnout of over 250 professionals and community members. The theme of the conference, “Making the Connection: Bringing Health Disparities to the Health Reform Table”, was inspired by recent discussions about National and local health reform proposals which could go into affect with in the next year and would have a profound effect on Utah’s racial and ethnic minority communities.

 

     Eliminating health disparities and improve health outcomes for Utah’s ethnic minority communities through public/private sector partnerships is the mission of the Multicultural Health Network. MHN has 3 work group committees  focused on eliminating health disparities through targeted focus areas, which includes a Policy/Coverage/Access Committee, a Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Committee, and a Data/Research Committee, as well as a Steering/Leadership Committee. The goal of this conference was to raise awareness of health disparities in Utah and provide opportunities to improve health outcomes among Utah’s racial and ethnic minority populations.

 

     The conference kicked off with the presentation of an award from the Medicare Prevention Bus Tour (a OMS sponsored initiative focused on motivating seniors and others with Medicare to make the most of Medicare’s preventative services) to MHN for their continuing efforts to eliminate health disparities in Utah. Highlighting  conference speakers included Dr George W. Delavan, Director of the Division of Community and Family Health Services; Utah Senator Bob Bennett, on his Healthy Americans Act and Health Disparities; Rea Pañares, Director of Minority Health Initiatives at Families USA; and speaking on behalf of Governor Jon Huntsman, Palmer DePaulis, Executive Director for the Department of Community and Culture.

     Attendees participated in Q & A and an interactive discussion with 3 different panelists. The first was a report from the MHN committee chairs and vice chairs on the preliminary findings of their respective environmental scans as well as their next steps for the upcoming year. The second included a Local and National MHN and Office of Minority Health panel discussion which took us outside of MHN and discussed minority health issues on a state and national level. Our concluding panelists included a representative from our  Refugee, Black/African American, Pacific Islander, American Indian, and Asian communities, who discussed health disparities issues specific to their communities and addressed the question ‘What would you bring to the health reform table?’.                        

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September 2007   Issue # 15

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