Promoting Latinx health equity through community-engaged policy and practice reforms in North Carolina.

Abstract

Introduction

The Latinx Advocacy Team & Interdisciplinary Network for COVID-19 (LATIN-19) is a unique multi-sector coalition formed early in the COVID-19 pandemic to address the multi-level health inequities faced by Latinx communities in North Carolina.

Methods

We utilized the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Research Framework to conduct a directed content analysis of 58 LATIN-19 meeting minutes from April 2020 through October 2021. Application of the NIMHD Research Framework facilitated a comprehensive assessment of complex and multidimensional barriers and interventions contributing to Latinx health while centering on community voices and perspectives.

Results

Community interventions focused on reducing language barriers and increasing community-level access to social supports while policy interventions focused on increasing services to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Discussion

Our study adds to the literature by identifying community-based strategies to ensure the power of communities is accounted for in policy reforms that affect Latinx health outcomes across the U.S. Multisector coalitions, such as LATIN-19, can enable the improved understanding of underlying barriers and embed community priorities into policy solutions to address health inequities.

Department

Description

Provenance

Subjects

Humans, North Carolina, Policy, Pandemics, Health Equity, COVID-19, Hispanic or Latino

Citation

Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.3389/fpubh.2023.1227853

Publication Info

Thoumi, Andrea, Gabriela Plasencia, Farrah Madanay, Ethan Shih-An Ho, Caroline Palmer, Kamaria Kaalund, Nikhil Chaudhry, Amy Labrador, et al. (2023). Promoting Latinx health equity through community-engaged policy and practice reforms in North Carolina. Frontiers in public health, 11. p. 1227853. 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1227853 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/29810.

This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.

Scholars@Duke

Thoumi

Andrea Thoumi

Student

Andrea Thoumi, MPP, MSc is a PhD student in the Department of Population Health Sciences (DPHS), Duke University School of Medicine and graduate student researcher with the Research to Eliminate Global Cancer Disparities lab. As a bilingual and bicultural researcher, Ms. Thoumi is passionate about improving Latine health equity in the US and globally. Her work aims to reduce health inequities by generating and translating community-engaged evidence to change policy and clinical practice while centering community perspectives in research and scholarship.

Ms. Thoumi is the recipient of the Honorable Mention, Alice S. Hersh Emerging Leader Award, AcademyHealth (2023); Early-Stage Distinguished Investigator Award, Health Disparities Interest Group, AcademyHealth (2021); and Duke Presidential Award (2021) for her work with LATIN-19. She is also a 2024 BRIDGE Scholar at Duke.

Ms. Thoumi brings 15 years of experience leading multi-national and multi-sector teams with prior experience with PwC, the Brookings Institution, and the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy. She also previously consulted for the Pan-American Health Organization/World Health Organization and the World Bank.

Ms. Thoumi holds a Master in Public Policy from Georgetown University, an MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and BA in Community Health and International Relations from Tufts University.  

Gonzalez-Guarda

Rosa Gonzalez-Guarda

Professor in the School of Nursing

Dr. Rosa Gonzalez-Guarda is a Professor at Duke University School of Nursing with interdisciplinary training in nursing, public health, and psychology. Her research addresses the intersection of violence, substance use, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and mental health through developing, testing, and scaling multi-level interventions to address common social and structural drivers of these conditions. She uses a syndemic orientation, mixed methods, and community engaged strategies to influence practice and policy changes to promote health equity and social justice for Latinos, other racial and ethnic minoritized groups, and communities affected by stress, adversity, and trauma. She is currently the principal investigator of an NIH funded study conducting a community randomized trial of a community health worker intervention addressing stress, resilience, and syndemic outcomes among Latino immigrant families.

Dr. Gonzalez-Guarda has had a longstanding commitment to diversifying the nursing workforce and improving the capacity of healthcare providers and scientists to address health equity. She was a member of the National Academies of Medicine committee that produced the landmark Future of Nursing Report (2010) and has led various local and national initiatives to promote health equity research careers for populations systemically excluded from health professions. She is currently co-leading a NINR funded T32 entitled “Nurse LEADS: Training in Nurse-LEd models of care ADdressing Systems of Care and Community Health," which includes a strong partnership with institutions that do not have access to training in nursing science. She also leads various local and national initiatives addressing violence, mental health, and health equity including serving on the Board of Directors for El Futuro (the Future), a local community-based mental health organization serving Latino and immigrant communities, and co-leading the Community Health Improvement Core for the National Institutes of Health Collaboratory of Pragmatic Clinical Trials. Dr. Gonzalez-Guarda is a fellow of the Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration Minority Fellowship Program, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholars program, and the American Academy of Nursing.

Martinez-Bianchi

Viviana Sandra Martinez-Bianchi

Associate Professor in Family Medicine and Community Health

Health Disparities, Access to Health Care, Women's Health, Latino Health Care, Chronic Disease Management, Socioeconomic Determinants of Health. Population Health.

Cholera

Rushina Cholera

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Rushina Cholera, MD, PhD is a pediatrician and epidemiologist in the Division of General Pediatrics with appointments at the Duke Margolis Center for Health Policy and the Duke Department of Population Health Sciences. Her research and health policy work focus on understanding unmet social needs and identifying optimal approaches for social and health care sector integration to promote health and health equity for children and families. Dr. Cholera aims to design and implement cross-sector, community-engaged, and scalable interventions to improve child health disparities across the clinical practice and health policy levels. She draws on interdisciplinary mixed-methods research approaches leveraging her expertise in epidemiology, community-based participatory research, and implementation science.

Dr. Cholera completed both her MD and PhD in Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She completed her pediatrics residency at UNC Chapel Hill and was then a National Clinician Scholar at Duke University. She is currently the Director of Research and Evaluation for the NC Integrated Care for Kids model, a CMS-funded pilot demonstration project to develop and implement a locally integrated health care service delivery and payment model for Medicaid/CHIP insured children in NC. She also directs the health behaviors and needs research pillar within the Duke Children’s Health & Discovery Initiative.


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