| IDENTIFYING NEEDS While Colorado is a relatively healthy state, racial and ethnic minorities experience higher rates of chronic diseases and receive less health care than the rest of the population. For example, people of Hispanic origin make up 18% of Colorado’s population and have the highest death rate of any group from diabetes. African-Americans comprise nearly 4% of Colorado’s population and consistently have the highest rate of death from several diseases including heart disease, breast cancer and colorectal cancer. According to the Institute of Medicine’s 2002 groundbreaking report, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, “although myriad sources contribute to these disparities, some evidence suggests that a trend in bias, prejudice and stereotyping on the part of health care providers may contribute to differences in care.” CRAFTING SOLUTIONS To help address these biases, The Colorado Trust developed the Equality in Health Initiative. The seven-year effort focuses on increasing the cultural competency of health care providers and systems that serve diverse populations. Fourteen nonprofit organizations and educational institutions across the state were selected as grantees, and are working to bring about improvements in one or more of the following areas: equality in treatment in medical services, equal environmental conditions, healthy behaviors (i.e., good nutrition and physical exercise), and equal access to care among racial and ethnic minorities. |
Telluride Foundation In rural Colorado, access to needed health care services is often inconsistent. “We have distinct heath care agencies – from local medical centers to private practitioners and school nurses – who provide different levels of access and care, with differing cost structures,” said Paul Major, President and CEO of the Telluride Foundation. “But a person may not know where to go or how to access the specific services they need due to limited English language proficiency, cultural barriers or limited financial resources. “The disparity is especially apparent for some segments of the Latino community whose members may not know how to navigate the health care system because of such things as language barriers or being uninsured. Too often, the result is that patients only seek health care when it’s urgent.” As a grantee of The Trust’s Equality in Health Initiative, the Telluride Foundation is helping to reach out to the Latino community in San Miguel, west Montrose and northeastern Dolores counties by partnering with three local health care clinics – the Telluride Medical Center, Uncompahgre Clinic in Norwood and the Basin Clinic in Naturita – to provide education about preventative health care and payment options, and to subsidize patient care. “To be culturally competent, these clinics are making lots of changes,” notes Paul. “They’ve begun by disseminating information about how and where to access health care services, as well as hiring bilingual staff, translating information and communicating diagnoses in the patient’s primary language.” |
