23H - Building a Community Engagement Model to Improve Health Equity

Monday, March 20

3:15–4:15 p.m.

Health inequities have existed for decades, but recent years have highlighted and exacerbated them. In many ways, the U.S. healthcare system has failed racial and ethnic minorities and populations with low socioeconomic status. Disparities in the quality of care received, medical racism and a history of unethical research practices has led to significant distrust of the healthcare system and healthcare providers within minority communities.

This session will discuss approaches to reduce health disparities within target patient/member populations through the collaboration with various community partners; introduce the three-step community engagement model for collaborating with organizations across many sectors to drive change and empower better health in underserved populations; and demonstrate how building meaningful partnerships with trusted community leaders and organizations can improve the health of the community.

Learning Objectives

• Describe the three-step community engagement model that healthcare leaders can utilize to collaborate and align with various partners to improve health equity in the community.
• Demonstrate the importance of bringing together and aligning with various community organizations to take on challenging health disparity issues.