The Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights issued a statement addressing Civil Rights in Response to the
H1N1 Influenza. http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/h1n1_response.php

California’s Emergency Preparedness Efforts for Culturally Diverse Communities: Status, Challenges and Directions for the Future
http://tinyurl.com/pdznan
prepared by the Center for Health Equality at the Drexel University School of Public Health, with joint support from The California Endowment and the HHS Office of Minority Health. [from Diversity Preparedness http://www.diversitypreparedness.org]

Women at Risk: Why Many Women Are Forgoing Needed Health Care
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Issue-Briefs/2009/May/Women-at-Risk.aspx
This study, by Commonwealth Fund researchers Sheila Rustgi, Michelle Doty, Ph.D., and Sara Collins, Ph.D., reveals that seven of 10 working-age women have no health insurance coverage or inadequate coverage, medical bill or debt problems, or problems getting needed health care because of cost.[posted on The Commonwealth Fund]

New Study Finds Fewer Families Can Afford Health Insurance
http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2009/faminspr.htm
The majority of uninsured American families who are not covered by group health insurance through an employer cannot afford to buy health insurance, according to a new study by HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). [AHRQ updates email]

Key Role of Sole Community Pharmacists in Their Local Healthcare Delivery Systems
http://www.shepscenter.unc.edu/research_programs/rural_program/pubs/finding_brief/FB88.pdf
A new publication is available from the North Carolina Rural Health Research & Policy Analysis Center that examines the role in their community of independent pharmacists whose store is located at least 10 miles from the next closest retail pharmacy.

2nd International Day for Sharing Life Stories
http://newroutes.org
May 16. This year’s theme is Journey for Justice - Migration and Refugees. Here at New Routes we believe in the power of first-voice stories to make connections among all of us who live in the United States–immigrants and non-immigrants, alike. View digital stories, listen to radionovelas, read about the lives of our New Routes leaders

The Center for Sustainable Health Outreach (CSHO) will hold its 10th annual Unity conference July 27-29, 2009 at the Hilton St. Louis Frontenac Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. Unity 2009 is a national conference designed for and about community health workers. The theme for this year’s conference is “Community Health Workers - Celebrating Our Past and Charting the Future.”  http://www.usm.edu/csho/unity.html

Obtaining Medicare coverage is associated with significant reductions in racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic health disparities in adults with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to a new Commonwealth Fund-supported study in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study, by J. Michael McWilliams, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at Harvard University, points to universal coverage as a possible means of reducing these types of health disparities in the general population. http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/In-the-Literature/2009/Apr/Differences-in-Control-of-Cardiovascular-Disease.aspx
[posted on The Commonwealth Fund e-Alert]

Theresa L. Osypuk, Northeastern University, Boston
Sandro Galea, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor
Nancy McArdle, Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston
Urban Affairs Review - February 4, 2009 as doi:10.1177/1078087408331119

Abstract free at: http://uar.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/1078087408331119v2

“……..Researchers measuring racial inequality of neighborhood environment across metropolitan areas have traditionally used segregation measures; yet such measures are limited for incorporating a third axis of information, including neighborhood opportunity. Using Census 2000 tract-level data for the largest U.S. metropolitan areas, the authors introduce the interquartile-range overlap statistic to summarize the substantial separation of entire distributions of neighborhood environments between racial groups.

They find that neighborhood poverty distributions for minorities overlap only 27%, compared to the distributions for Whites. Furthermore, the separation of racial groups into neighborhoods of differing poverty rates is strongly correlated with racial residential segregation. The overlap statistic provides a straightforward, policy-relevant metric for monitoring progress toward achieving more equal environments of neighborhood opportunity space….”
[posted on PAHO/WHO Equity]

Commission on Social Determinants of Health
Michael G. Marmot, FRCP; Ruth Bell, PhD
Journal of the American Medical Association JAMA. 2009;301(11):1169-1171. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/301/11/1169?etoc#

Here are 2 truisms. Rich countries have better health than poor countries, and medical care improves health. Consider, then, the case of the United States, which is among the richest countries in the world and spends more than any other country on medical care, US $6350 per person in 2005.1 Does the United States then have the best health? Not quite. Life expectancy from birth to age 65 years is one useful measure of premature mortality: the United States ranks 36th in the world for men and 42nd for women.2 If not by greater national income or more spending on medical care, how should the task of improving health in the United States be approached? Pay attention to the social determinants of health.

http://covertheuninsured.org/
The week is just about over, though events are still going on through the weekend and into early next week. You can still learn the facts about health insurance coverage in your state and learn more about who make up the uninsured, the cost and the consequences in terms of individuals, families, communities and society in general.

New Data on Hispanic and Foreign-Born Populations in the U.S.
The Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, released updated statistical profiles of the Latino and foreign-born populations in the U.S. Derived from the 2007 American Community Survey, these profiles feature downloadable data on detailed characteristics of the Latino and foreign-born populations at the national level. The Center is simultaneously releasing demographic profiles of the Hispanic and non-Hispanic populations at the state level for 2007.
Statistical Portrait of Hispanics in the United States, 2007 http://pewhispanic.org/factsheets/factsheet.php?FactsheetID=46
Statistical Portrait of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States, 2007 http://pewhispanic.org/factsheets/factsheet.php?FactsheetID=45
State and County Databases http://pewhispanic.org/states/
[posted on info@pewhispanic.org]

Enabling Environmental Justice: Assessment of Participatory Tools
Background Report Prepared for: Environmental Department
United Nations Institute for Training and Research
Manjula Amerasinghe, Leanne Farrell, SheeShee Jin, Nah-yoon Shin, Kristen Stelljes
Department of Urban Studies and Planning - Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT  - 2008
Executive Summary [78p.] at: http://web.mit.edu/jcarmin/www/carmin/EnablingEJ.pdf
“…..A growing body of literature points to the importance of public participation in enabling procedural justice in public decision making. Procedural justice, in turn, is a prerequisite for distributive justice, which in environmental decision-making contexts, is the underlying tenet of environmental justice. Without the meaningful inclusion of those who will be impacted by the outcomes of environmental decision-making, fair distribution of environmental benefits and harms is unlikely to result. This report sets out to test the extent to which various participatory tools have the potential to enable procedural justice in the environmental arena. The report synthesizes the findings of 59 case studies applying seven different participatory tools to environmental decision-making contexts in developed and developing countries. [posted on PAHO/WHO Equity listserv]

Designing Health Care for Everyone
http://www.stanford.edu/group/scspi/media_magazines.html
The winter issue of Pathways asks how we can build a health care system not just for the privileged, but for everyone.  It also includes articles on trends in consumer indebtedness, how to revamp the Earned Income Tax Credit, and other cutting-edge research.

Shortchanging America’s Health Report
The Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)  released a new report entitled “Shortchanging America’s Health: A State-by-State Look at How Federal Public Health Dollars are Spent.”   For more information about the report and to view state statistics, go to: http://healthyamericans.org/reports/shortchanging08/

HHS Issues Special Report on Health Reform and Launches New healthreform.gov Web Site
“…American People Say Health Care System is Broken, Highlight Need for Action This Year on Health Reform..”
March 5, 2009 Press release: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2009pres/03/20090305a.html

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a report, Americans Speak on Health Reform: Report on Health Care Community Discussions. The report summarizes comments from Americans who hosted and participated in Health Care Community Discussions across the country and highlights the need for immediate action to reform health care.  The report is available on a new Web site dedicated to health reform: http://www.healthreform.gov The Web site will allow Americans to view the White House Health Forum, share their thoughts about health reform with the Obama Administration and sign a statement in support of President Obama’s commitment to enacting comprehensive health reform this year. [posted on PAHO/WHO Equity listserv]

A National Study of Chronic Disease Prevalence and Access to Care in Uninsured U.S. Adults
Available online at: http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/149/3/170
Although many Americans lack health insurance, some policymakers claim that persons without insurance are largely healthy. However, the rates of chronic illness among those without insurance have not been well documented [posted on PAHO/WHO Equity Listserv]

University of Missouri-Kansas City on Fri and Sat, May
29-30, 2009
http://inmed.us/exploring_medical_missions_conference.asp
Vast wealth and medical care benefit the world’s affluent, while some three billion persons lack basic nutrition, safe water and health care. As a result diseases of poverty continue to afflict the most vulnerable children, women and elderly. It should not be so! The 2009 Exploring Medical Missions Conference will equip medical professionals to prevent and treat the most prevalent diseases of poverty.  Participants will also have opportunity to network about service opportunities.