WHO: The Connecticut Association of Directors of Health, Inc. (CADH) is a not-for-profit organization committed to building our public health infrastructure to provide local communities with the public health services they need. Its mission is to provide a basis for local directors of health to work together to strengthen and assure the efficient and effective delivery of public health services at the local level throughout the state. CADH’s membership consists of health directors who represent Connecticut’s
169 towns, including both health departments and districts.
WHAT: CADH is currently developing the Health Equity Index (HEI), a statewide initiative that will help local health departments promote health equity. The HEI profiles and measures the social, economic and environmental conditions that support or harm state residents’ physical well-being. This approach goes beyond examining health care system deficiencies to investigating the underlying conditions that impact health. CADH recently received a $3 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to support development of the HEI. The foundation supports children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society.
WHY: The project was developed in response to local public health directors expressing the need to address racial, economic and gender health disparities in communities across the state.The Index will reframe the way communities and policymakers think and broaden our view of health by measuring how factors such as a person’s job, working conditions, education, housing, social inclusion and political power affect his orher health as much as genetic makeup.
The Index also provides an opportunity to focus policymakers’ efforts and
investments in prevention – creating conditions for people to be healthy rather than treating them after they have already become sick. In addition, the Index will help political leaders identify where resources are most needed.
Through the use of the HEI, CADH hopes to create:
a local public health workforce that embraces the role of social conditions
in improving health
diverse community groups that collaborate to address the root causes of
health inequities
contemplation among political leaders and community members regarding the effects of local policies on the health of their communities
WHEN: The W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant will be disbursed to CADH over three years, from 2008 to 2011.
The first year will fund the further design and development of the HEI for
use at the community level.
In mid 2009, another $1 million will support three local health departments that will serve as demonstration sites for piloting the HEI initiative. These sites will be selected through a request for proposal process.
The final $1 million will fund an evaluation of the HEI approach and
outcomes from 2010 to 2011 to determine how it can mobilize action to
address health inequities at the local policy level.
Contact:
Sharon Mierzwa
Connecticut Association of Directors of Health, Inc.
(860) 727-9874, ext. 105
smierzwa@cadh.org
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