Metro Public Health Department To effectively address existing health inequities, Metro Public Health Department (MPHD)

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Metro Public Health Department To Effectively Address Existing Health Inequities Metro Public Health Department Mphd 1 (117.61 KiB) Viewed 57 times

What was the issue? What was the strategy? What did they
do? What did they accomplish/ what was outcome?
Metro Public Health Department To effectively address existing health inequities, Metro Public Health Department (MPHD) leadership started changing the way they worked. The following highlights some of the actions they took to build their capacity to advance health equity: • MPHD built health equity into its Departmental Strategic Plan in order to institutionalize such work throughout the organization. Additionally, in 2012, MPHD's Director of Health issued a directive to all staff to incorporate equity as a decision filter in all policy, programmatic, and practice activities. • MPHD established organizational structures, such as a department-wide Equity Work Group to support the department in attaining its goals and to ensure continued competency and capacity building. • MPHD instituted various professional development and learning experiences to support and advance individual competencies and organizational capacity to promote health equity. These experiences included assessing individual biases; understanding the impact of individual biases on practice; and understanding how societal and structural biases, racism, and diversity impact health status. • MPHD worked to build a team of diverse staff who were reflective of and understood the community by incorporating a health equity perspective in its hiring practices. Recruitment and interviewing processes were modified to hire staff who demonstrated an understanding of health equity and how it translated to practice. • MPHD continues to foster long-standing relationships with organizations that serve and work with communities affected by health inequities. These partnerships are mutually beneficial and have helped MPHD more effectively understand and connect to populations of greatest need. Through these actions and other efforts, MPHD continues to incorporate a health equity focus in everything they do.