For many years, the various well being outcomes of various racial and ethnic populations in Santa Clara County flew underneath most individuals’s radar. The absence of helpful and particular information conspired to hide this reality.
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, nonetheless, these race and ethnic well being disparities grew to become tragically obvious. In comparison with the white neighborhood, folks of shade proved much less shielded from transmission, had much less instant entry to vaccination websites and skilled boundaries to primary care. In 2020, age-adjusted COVID dying charges had been 2-3 occasions larger for Blacks and Latinos than for whites.
What all this revealed may not be ignored.
In response, six community-based organizations — Working Partnerships USA, The Well being Belief, Santa Clara Household Well being Plan (SCFHP), Group Well being Partnership, Behavioral Well being Contractors Affiliation and Black Management Kitchen Cupboard — together with the county’s public well being division, mobilized collectively. We shaped the Well being Fairness Agenda (HEA), a countywide effort to tell the general public about well being disparities, develop suggestions and strategizes to eradicate them, and set up key metrics to trace our progress.
For instance, diabetes is a power sickness that may harm the guts and kidneys, require frequent hospitalizations and result in dying. Latino and Pacific Islander residents with diabetes are much less prone to have their blood sugar at wholesome ranges, resulting in poorer well being outcomes and costly hospitalization. That’s why the HEA has prioritized improvement of a complete plan for diabetes, together with a multiyear technique for prediabetes screening, care administration and growth of present diabetes administration applications and companies.
A lot of our fellow neighborhood members have hassle getting therapy for psychological well being or alcohol and different drug-related issues. In reality, solely 44% of Santa Clara County residents with such wants report with the ability to entry behavioral well being companies after they want them. There merely will not be sufficient behavioral well being suppliers to help the extent of want. So the HEA has initiated the launch of latest behavioral well being coaching applications at local people schools.
Even when companies can be found, many really feel they obtain unfair therapy based mostly on their race or ethnicity. The share of Latino residents who report by no means having skilled unfair therapy when in search of well being care lags 13 to 18 proportion factors behind all different teams, besides American Indians and Alaska Natives. Individuals who expertise discrimination or culturally unresponsive medical care are much less prone to end a course of therapy, return for a follow-up go to and enhance their well being. This is the reason the HEA proposes to ascertain a neighborhood employee coordinating council, tasked with rising using neighborhood well being staff to enhance the cultural competence of service supply.
We stand at a vital juncture within the historical past of our well being system. This neighborhood rightly prides itself on its historic applications to attain common protection. We now should ship on the promise of what such applications are supposed to attain — the power of any resident of our neighborhood to reside a wholesome life, no matter their race or ethnicity.
To take action would require acknowledging the race-based disparities demonstrated by present information. It should require considering creatively about the way to cut back them. It should require collaborative planning amongst a variety of well being care suppliers and community-based organizations. And it’ll require strategic investments of private and non-private assets.
Chances are high, you’ve both a stake on this work, a task to play, or each. We encourage you to ask your well being care suppliers and authorities leaders how they’re serving to eradicate well being disparities in our neighborhood.
Christine Tomcala is CEO of Santa Clara Household Well being Plan. Yvonne Maxwell is a member of the Black Management Kitchen Cupboard of Silicon Valley. Dolores Alvarado is CEO of Group Well being Partnership.
