Health

Minority and Multicultural Health

Statewide Outcome(s):

The Office of Minority and Multicultural Health supports the following statewide outcome(s).

Minnesotans are healthy

Strong and stable families and communities

Context:

The Office of Minority and Multicultural Health (OMMH) provides leadership within MDH to strengthen the health and wellness of Minnesota’s communities by engaging populations of color and American Indians in actions essential to eliminating health disparities.

While Minnesota continues to be among the healthiest states in the nation, it also continues to have some of the greatest disparities or differences in health outcomes between whites and populations of color and American Indians for a host of conditions, such as breast and cervical cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and infant mortality. These differences are having an increasingly significant impact on Minnesota as the state becomes more diverse. In 2010, nearly 15 percent of Minnesotans were populations of color and American Indians compared to less than 5 percent in 1990. The majority of this population growth has been from immigrant and refugee populations with limited English or literacy skills.

Minnesota has also seen an increase in the number of families lacking the economic resources that a family needs to stay healthy. The number of Minnesota children living in poverty increased by 53 percent between 2000 and 2009. The state’s children of color and American Indian children are more likely to live in poverty than whites, and they are much more likely to be uninsured. In 2011, Hispanic/Latino Minnesotans having the highest uninsured rate at 26 percent compared to blacks (17.9 percent), American Indian (14.3 percent), Asians (11.8 percent), compared to whites at (7.6 percent).

These trends indicate an increasing need for Minnesota to focus on creating opportunities for all Minnesotans to be healthy. The office strives to do this by working with its key partners, such as other divisions and bureaus within the department of health, other state agencies, including the Minnesota Department of Human Services, local public health agencies, community organizations, policy makers and researchers. Approximately two-thirds of the OMMH budget comes from the state general fund with the remainder coming from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) fund.

Strategies:

In its work toward eliminating health disparities, the Office of Minority and Multicultural Health focuses on the following activities:

·        Works to collect racial, ethnic, and language data necessary to inform state, local public health, policy makers, and communities about the health of populations of color and American Indians. It also develops appropriate indicators to measure progress;

·        Connects populations of color and American Indian community experts with MDH and local public health experts to identify and address actions essential to eliminating heath disparities;

·        Administers the Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative (EHDI) grant program, which was created by the 2001 Minnesota Legislature (MS 145.928) to close the gap in the health status of African-Americans/Africans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Latinos in Minnesota compared with whites in the following priority health areas: breast and cervical cancer screening, diabetes, heart disease and stroke, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections, immunizations for children and adults, infant mortality, teen pregnancy, and unintentional injury and violence; and

·        Holds biennial community meetings to disseminate data, obtain community recommendations on how to use data in future planning, and identify gaps in data and community input and outreach (particularly concerning limited English-proficiency populations).

Results:

There has been more attention to race, ethnicity, and language data collection within MDH and in the broader community. Reports from the MDH Center for Health Statistics on the health status of populations of color and American Indians support the ongoing need to continue to focus efforts in eliminating disparities in the eight priority health areas identified in the Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative. These include Hbreast and cervical cancer screening, diabetes, heart disease and stroke, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections, immunizations for children and adults, infant mortality, teen pregnancy, and unintentional injury and violence. Because of the work of OMMH and its partners, there is a more widespread interest and understanding of the need to focus on health disparities in vulnerable populations, especially in populations of color and with American Indians, in order to achieve health equity.

MDH has defined and standardized the race, ethnicity, and language data to be collected agency-wide and in partnering with our community partners statewide to adopt definitions, collection standards, and to improve sharing and disseminating of data. OMMH has identified EHDI priority health areas with ongoing or growing disparities in specific populations of color and American Indians in order to focus efforts on building capacity in communities to address these disparities in a culturally competent manner through EHDI grants.

OMMH has issued three requests for proposals since 2010 to increase the number of community minority-led, minority-focused nonprofits able to address our health disparities with support from EHDI funds. It has resulted in more than 40 new grantees during 2010-2012 with some ongoing support and partnerships with the original 52 grantees form the first EHDI grants in 2001.

Performance Measures Notes:

Infant mortality disparity difference above is the arithmetic difference between two infant mortality rates. For Measure 1 for 1995-1999, it is the African Americans/Africans infant mortality rate (13.2) - Whites rate (5.5). For 2004-2008, it is African Americans/Africans rate (10.8) – Latinos rate (4.4). For Measure 2, the disparity difference for 1995-1999 is the American Indians rate (13.5) – Latinos rate (5.5). For 2004-2008, it is the Americans Indians rate (10.3) – Latinos rate (4.4).

Data on infant mortality is for the periods 1995-1999 and 2004-2008.

Data on grantees receiving technical assistance is for FY 2011 and FY 2012

Data on grants awarded to minority organizations is for 2009 and 2011.