Preventive Care - Key Activity 18

KEY ACTIVITY #18:

Strengthen a Culture of Equity

 

This activity builds off of your practice's approach to address inequities (see Key Activity 4: Use a Systematic Approach to Address Inequities within the Population of Focus) to provide strategies and in-depth resources that can help practices create or strengthen a culture of equity in your practice. The PHMI Equity Framework and Approach emphases that achieving long-term and sustainable improvements to health and racial equity for patients and the broader ecosystem requires a transformational shift at the organizational level. The following strategies can help practices strengthen a culture of equity:

  • Demonstrate senior leadership ownership for and commitment to improving health equity.
  • Understand and address internalized, personally mediated and institutionalized racism.
    • This should include ongoing learning and development activities on the full range of health equity topics (e.g., anti-bias, structural racism, race-based algorithms).
  • Build organizational capacity to support efforts to improve health equity.
  • Establish practices and policies to promote workforce diversity and provide culturally and linguistically appropriate care.
  • Support policy efforts to eliminate inequities driven by social drivers of health.

Roadmap to Advance Health Equity

Resource from the Advancing Health Equity (AHE) initiative out of the collaboration of the University of Chicago, the Center for Health Care Strategies, and the Institute for Medicaid Innovation. Backed by extensive research and years of firsthand practical experience, the road map is designed to aid organizations in the development of initiatives that are tailored to their specific populations and address inequities based on their available resources. AHE writes that a culture of equity, “goes beyond staff simply recognizing health inequities among the communities they serve exist; they also must view those inequities as unacceptable and in need of remedy. Creating and sustaining a culture of equity takes time, teamwork and continual attention.”

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Health Equity and Behavioral Health Integration

AHRQ’s Academy for Integrating Behavioral Health & Primary Care offers dozens of practical strategies and resources for ensuring integrated practices are advancing health equity, including:

  1. Update organizational mission and goals to include health equity.
  2. Create a workplace culture of belonging, dignity and justice.
  3. Implement policies and training to eliminate bias, discrimination and racism.
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