UAMS Search COPH Homepage Message From the Dean Office of Student Services Departments and Faculty Degree Programs Information for Applicants Information for Students Information for Alumni Information for Faculty Biology Competency Exam Professional Development Office of Community Based Public Health   About Us   Newsletter   Contact Us   Our Community Partners Arkansas Center for Health Disparities (ARCHD) Arkansas Prevention Research Center (PRC) Delta Omega Society Reports, Toolkits and Downloadable Materials Philanthropy Monthly Calendar AV and Room Reservations Contact Us Clinton School of Public Service           Office of Community-Based Public Health Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities The Office of Community-Based Public Health has been involved in a number of activities focused on addressing racial and ethnic health disparities. The OCBPH has organized and partnered to obtain funding to bring trainers from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond to Arkansas to conduct Undoing Racism workshops, which have been made available to the entire campus, formal community partner organizations, and other institutions (including the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) and the Arkansas Division of Health). Out of these workshops has grown a critical mass of faculty, students, staff, and community partners with a common language for discussing concerns about the role racism plays in creating and maintaining racial and ethnic health disparities and in building a critical mass of people focused on change.  One of the offshoots of this work is the development of the campus-wide Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Taskforce which focuses on the role UAMS can play in addressing health disparities. UAMS Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Taskforce  This racially and ethnically diverse group of UAMS physicians, administrators, faculty, and staff organized in early 2005 to spearhead development of a fully coordinated, institution-wide strategy to reduce health and health care disparities, integrating the latest science and best practices.  In 2006, the UAMS chancellor recognized the taskforce as a campus-wide advisory body and appointed additional members to round out representation from all colleges. The task force focuses on ways to reduce racial and ethnic disparities through three areas relevant to the work of UAMS: 1) quality of care: 2) education; and 3) workforce diversity. The task force assisted with planning for the campus-wide retreat on health disparities conducted as part of the Engaged Institutions Initiative (described below). Members of the task force are currently analyzing data from a campus wide survey of students about their impressions of whether the climate at UAMS promotes diversity, cultural competency, and an understanding of health disparity Engaged Institutions Initiative.  In 2005, the OCBPH headed up an effort in which the COPH and each of the primary COPH community partners completed a self-assessment on community engagement and racial and ethnic health disparities. The self-assessment findings supported planning discussions for an application for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation-sponsored Engaged Institutions Initiative of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (http://www.ccph.info/). This initiative was developed by Kellogg because of their recognition that eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities will require collaborative solutions that bring communities and institutions together. The College was selected through a competitive grant review process as one of 12 schools and programs nationally to participate. Through this initiative, the COPH received consultation from national experts and sponsored two retreats. The first round of consultations took place on Sept. 21-22, 2006 with visits from public health experts Larry Green and Ella-Moton Greene who conducted forums, workshops, and a College-wide retreat focused on advancing understanding about and participation in community-based participatory research (CBPR) and community-based public health (CBPH). The second set of consultants, Tom LaVeist and Vickie Ybarra, visited UAMS in May 2007 as a part of this initiative. During their visit, the COPH held a retreat in partnership with the UAMS Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Task Force (REHDTF) to examine strategies for reducing racial and ethnic health disparities. Dr. LaVeist and Ms. Ybarra served as speakers for the retreat and expert consultants for the task force. In addition, Ms. Ybarra conducted a workshop with the COPH’s community partners and Dr. LaVeist held a town hall meeting at Philander Smith College. The retreat was attended by faculty, staff, and several campus deans, as well as the Chancellor and members of the senior administration. This retreat led to several positive developments, including support from two of the Deans (COPH and College of Health Related Professions) for a part-time research assistant to support the work of the REHDTF, including fielding a student survey on campus climate related to diversity (described below). (Click Here) for a copy of the Summary Report detailing retreat and pre-retreat activities and consultant presentations. Arkansas Health Disparities Service-Learning Collaborative.  The self-assessment and findings from the Engaged Institutions Initiative retreats sparked discussion of ways to more fully involve students with communities.  These evolved into planning discussions for the Arkansas Health Disparities Service Learning Initiative, funded from March 2007 through March 2010 by the Corporation for National Community Service through Campus Community Partnerships for Health, through which the COPH established specific service-learning (preceptorship) opportunities and a health disparities service learning course (see below). The overall goal of this initiative is to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities by engaging public health and other health professions students and faculty in tailored service learning partnerships with community-based organizations, state and local agencies, policymakers, and others. Health Disparities Service Learning Course Information Course number: PBHL 5843 Course name: Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities: Theory, Experience and Elimination  Course Instructors: Kate Stewart, Creshelle Nash and David Briscoe Course Description  This elective course explores racial and ethnic health disparities in the United States. Students     examine the literature on health and health care disparities and issues of measurement; the historical and social structural     determinants pertinent to the etiology of disparities; the role of genomics; and policy and programmatic strategies for reducing disparities. This course uses traditional approaches to learning (such as didactic lectures, assigned readings, analysis, and discussion) combined with personal and group experiential learning.  Students are required to participate in service learning activities which include preparation, reflection and practice components. Therefore students will spend time both in class with instructors and in the community with community based partners. Expanding Community-Linked Infrastructure to Support Disparities Research: Helping Researchers and Communities Work Together Multiple factors have been identified as negatively affecting minority participation in research, including lack of trust, power differences, limited access to healthcare and research opportunities, participant burden, and lack of perceived relevance. This body of research also identifies a critical need for community engagement in efforts to increase minority participation in research. Community engagement is facilitated by intentional structural support such as community advisory boards, financial and other resources, involvement of minority researchers, community health workers, and community-based participatory approaches. This project seeks to establish a community-based research infrastructure that responds to these needs by adapting a successful model of community engagement—the Community Connector Program (CCP).  This model is employed by the TriCounty Rural Health Network, a partner of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. The proposed project will adapt this approach to encompass a broader vision/goal—establishing a community-linked infrastructure that will increase minority participation and community engagement in research and improve healthcare quality to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities. Once established, the infrastructure will be sustainable through the Community Engagement Key Function of the NIH-funded UAMS Center for Clinical and Translational Research, which brings together stakeholders in lay, health practice, and academic communities. These communities will build the proposed infrastructure through six specific aims: Adapt the existing CCP approach to facilitate health science research; Adapt the existing CCP electronic database so Community Health Connectors can use it to identify lay community members, their health-related needs, and their service and research interests; Expand the existing CCP resource directory to include services and research opportunities that address community priorities; Establish contact with community residents and assist in connecting them to services and research opportunities relevant to their identified priorities; Provide practitioners and researchers with lay input regarding ways to improve healthcare quality and address community-identified barriers to service utilization, health improvement, and research participation in partnership with the Pine Bluff Area Health Education Center; and Evaluate the community-linked research infrastructure with a focus on chronic disease prevention and management. Accomplishing these aims will 1) further NIH’s mission by increasing community engagement in both medical and behavioral research, leading to practice applications that reduce disparities in health and healthcare and 2) establish a sustainable infrastructure that enables bidirectional flow of information among key stakeholder communities. If you are a researcher or community member who would like to participate in this project, learn more, or be kept abreast of our progress, please email jcparks@uams.edu or call 501-526-6632.