Community Efforts to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities: Challenges and Facilitators Identified by 16 Multistakeholder Alliances

Abstract

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) program aimed to improve health care quality and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in 16 diverse communities in the United States from 2006 to 2015; yet most communities failed to make substantive progress toward advancing health care equity by the program's end. This qualitative analysis of key stakeholder interviews aims to identify the major contributors to success versus failure in addressing local health disparities during AF4Q and identified five major themes. Three themes highlight challenges related to collecting local data on racial and ethnic health disparities and transitioning from data collection to action. Two themes capture the critical contribution of stakeholder engagement and access to technical expertise to successful efforts. The challenges and facilitators experienced by these 16 AF4Q communities may help inform the disparities reduction efforts of other communities and guide state or federal policies to reduce health disparities.

Advancing Racial/Ethnic and Cultural Sensitivity Among PMHNP Students Through Education, Practice, and Experience

“…A number of strategies have been used in an effort to increase racial/ethnic and cultural care to reduce these disparities. From 2006 to 2015, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation targeted 16 communities with the aim of reducing disparities, yet there was little or no progress in reducing unmet treatment needs in the majority of communities (Hamil et al, 2018). Community engagement efforts, where racial/ethnic minority community members join in service design of general medical care, are thought to have some effect (Iyer, Pancake, Dandino, & Wells, 2015).…”