685: Washington State University Disability Data, FSM Improving Healthcare Access

JANSON SILVERS: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Thursday, June 13 2024. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

LIZ WOOD: 

I'm looking at how COVID-19 and the policies that we made in response to it have effective access to care for people with disabilities, as well as how it's affected their health directly.

SILVERS: 

Dr. Liz Wood, a scholarly assistant professor at Washington State University, which is one of the grant recipients from ASTHO and the Association of University Centers on disability for their work on disability data analysis. Wood's work focuses on asking larger questions about the way our system is set up for people living with disabilities.

WOOD: 

I understand for instance, why somebody who has a chronic health condition is going to be sicker on average. That's kind of tautological, but I don't understand why they have a hard time getting dental care. I don't understand why it's harder for them to get a flu shot. All those things are structural and have nothing to do really with the underlying condition.

SILVERS: 

The work that received grant funding focused on those questions being asked in regard to COVID-19, trying to determine why already marginalized groups were hit even harder.

WOOD: 

So for instance, one thing that I have found is that Hispanic people with disabilities are about twice as likely to say that they had been hospitalized for COVID as people who were not Hispanic, or people who were very low income, were much more likely to have been hospitalized for COVID than people who are high income and this is within the group of people with disabilities.

SILVERS: 

To make any difference in this area would says we have to use this data to dive deeper into the nuances of those living with disabilities.

WOOD: 

Not only is this important because representation matters, and we need to acknowledge the diversity of the disability community. But it's important because these are the folks who are getting hit the hardest by things that we do not want people getting hit by.

SILVERS: 

You can find more information about the grant and the awardees by using the link in the show notes.

The Federated States of Micronesia or FSM have been working hard to improve access to health care for their remote island communities. ASTHO's Julia Von Alexander explains.

JULIA VON ALEXANDER: 

FSM set off to rehabilitate two dispensaries that are located in remote islands, one in Satowan and one in Woleai. And they have rehabilitated one of them in our partway through the other, and the dispensaries are essentially like urgent care clinics and provide services that people otherwise wouldn't be able to get without a two to three day ride in a ship.

SILVERS: 

FSM received funding from the CDC for the project to renovate the dispensaries, which are essentially urgent care facilities. Alexander says these two renovations are just the beginning.

VON ALEXANDER: 

There are a lot of remote islands and so there's definitely need and the plan to do that using funds from the public health infrastructure grant. They're also planning to try to implement telehealth options in those dispensaries.

SILVERS: 

More information on the project is in the show notes.

Also today, we're reflecting on National Minority Health Month, which is celebrated every April. Veronica Halloway, the executive director for the National Association of State Offices of Minority Health, says that for too long, public health has focused on sick care instead of wellness care, but she has seen some changes start to happen.

VERONICA HALLOWAY: 

We have recently started to see the shift in how our federal and state funders are beginning to allow communities to use their grants to address root causes. Many have also adopted an equitable funding process for awarding grants. We've also seen the benefits of coalition building and partnerships with communities to design programs tailored to their community's specific needs.

SILVERS: 

Finally, today, Trust for America's Health has announced that ASTHO has earned an age-friendly public health systems recognition through recognition highlights the efforts of public health organizations to improve the health of older people. ASTHO is the first national-level organization to receive this award. A news release from Trust for America's Health is in the show notes.

That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Jansn Silvers you're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.