How Does the Health Equity Alliance Impact Policy and Practice?
The ultimate goal of the Health Equity Alliance (HEA) initiative is to achieve long-term health improvements for residents who presently experience a disproportionate burden of disease and disability by examining, and when appropriate, changing current policies and practices. The HEA approach provides local health departments with the tools to generate actionable policy and practice recommendations, solutions, and strategies to promote health equity among all Connecticut residents. Specifically:
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The Health Equity Index (Index) generates community-specific data that illustrates which community conditions give rise to which kinds of health inequities.
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HEA’s workforce development component trains the public health workforce to reframe public health practice to address the social determinants of health.
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HEA’s community engagement component enables direct and grassroots advocacy to implement potential recommendations, solutions, and strategies that promote health equity.
With the support of the Connecticut Health Foundation, CADH will use its findings from the Index to examine policies linked to disparate health outcomes and the viability of righting policy. Directed policy analysis and recommendations will be drafted and shared with communities and policy makers to advocate for improving community conditions to meaningfully address health disparities.
