The Digital Divide and Access to Health Information Online (posted 5/9)

The Affordable Care Act calls for a greater reliance on the internet as a means of communicating health and coverage information, yet variations in the current usage of the internet by some populations have important implications for implementation. Based on the results of The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University Race and Recession Survey, six in 10 adults overall say they have ever used the Internet to access health information, and access differs by race and income. Forty-three percent of Hispanics report having ever used the Internet to access health information, while 56 percent of blacks and 65 percent of whites report doing so. The differences are even more striking among those with lower incomes. Just three in ten Hispanics with incomes under $40,000 say they have ever used the Internet to access health information, compared with 44 percent of blacks and half of whites with similar incomes.

To download the data visit the Kaiser Family Foundation website.

National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day 5/3

National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day on May 3, 2011 is a day to join the Substance Abuse Mental Health Serivces Administration (SAMHSA), communities, organizations and agencies, and individuals nationwide in raising awareness that positive mental health is essential to a child's healthy development from birth. This year, the national theme will focus on building resilience in young children dealing with trauma.

Young children exposed to five or more significant adversities in the first 3 years of childhood face a 76 percent likelihood of having one or more delays in their cognitive, language, or emotional development.

With help from families, providers, and the community, young children can demonstrate resilience when dealing with trauma. Learn more about the impact of trauma on childhood development and pass the information on to observe National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day.

 

What you can do:

• Download the short report!
• Update your status on Facebook and Twitter using the #1in5 hash tag
• Attend an event in your state or local community: http://www.samhsa.gov/children/communityevents_2011.asp
• Watch the national event live: http://www.newmediamill.com/webcasts/samhsa/registermay032011/
  

Study Suggests Flaw In Methods Used To Measure Racial Health Disparities (posted 4/27)

Just weeks after HHS released the first national strategy to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities, a new study titled "Does Multiracial Matter? A Study of Racial Disparities in Self-Rated Health" published in the journal Demography suggests there is a flaw in the method used to measure racial health differences: it does not adequately account for people of mixed race. The Affordable Care Act imposed new reporting requirements to track health disparities. But one of the major national health surveys currently conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics asks multiracial individuals to select which race "best describes" their background, and public health analysts often lump them in with single-race groups based on this "best race" designation (Feder, 4/22). 

To access the article visit the Politico Pro website (a subscription is required). The full text of the study can be downloaded on the SpringerLink website.

Learn About HHS’s Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (posted 4/27)

On April 8, 2011 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) unveiled the HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. This roadmap for reducing health and health care disparities is a comprehensive effort to address differences in health for racial, ethnic, and other underserved communities. The HHS Disparities Action Plan demonstrates the Department's commitment to continuously assess the impact of all policies and programs on racial and ethnic health disparities. It will promote integrated approaches, evidence-based programs and best practices to reduce these disparities. To learn more about the Action Plan visit the National Partnership for Action website.

On April 25, 2011 the Kaiser Family Foundation held a webcast about the strategy and its timeline for implementation as well as its implications for providers. The panelists also discussed how the new strategy relates to other recently released HHS strategies including the National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care, the National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy, the Healthy People 2020 initiative and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States. Panelists also considered what the strategy’s role as it relates to health reform implementation. Watch the recording of the webcast on the Kaiser Family Foundation website.

PBS’s Independent Lens Premiers Documentary on Two Spirits 6/14

Two Spirits interweaves the tragic story of a mother’s loss of her son with a revealing look at the largely unknown history of a time when the world wasn’t simply divided into male and female and many Native American cultures held places of honor for people of integrated genders. Powerful and moving, Lydia Nibley’s Two Spirits explores the life and death of Fred Martinez and the ancient Native American two-spirit tradition. Two Spirits will premiere on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by America Ferrera, on Tuesday, June 14, 2011 (check local listings.)
 
Fred Martinez told his mother he felt as if he was both a boy and a girl, and she explained that this is a special gift, according to traditional Navajo culture. But the place where two discriminations meet is a dangerous place to live, and Fred became one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was brutally murdered at sixteen. Between tradition and controversy, and freedom and fear, lies the truth—the bravest choice you can make is to be yourself.
 
Two Spirits explores issues of national concern including the bullying and violence commonly faced by LGBT people, and the epidemic of LGBT teen suicide, and reveals the range of gender expression that has long been seen as a healthy part of many of the indigenous cultures of North America, and of Navajo culture in particular.
 
The Navajo believe that to maintain harmony, there must be a balanced interrelationship between the feminine and the masculine within the individual, in families, in the culture, and in the natural world. For the first time on film, Two Spirits tells stories from the Navajo tradition of four genders. The first gender is the feminine woman. The second is the masculine man. The third is the male-bodied person who has a feminine essence—nadleehi. The fourth is the female-bodied person who has a masculine essence—dilbaa.
 
In Navajo, nadleehi means “one who is transformed," and as the film traces the ramifications of Fred’s murder, it also shows the transformation being undertaken by Native activists who are working to restore the rich heritage of two-spirit people and to claim their place within their tribal communities.
 
“The film team is working with over sixty organizations nationwide to have six million people see the film and to help expand the national conversation about gender,” says the director of Two Spirits, Lydia Nibley.
 
Lois Vossen the producer and founder of Independent Lens explains, “Two Spirits is an important film that tells a modern story with deep historical roots and does so in a way that is surprising and striking. It’s a film that shows humankind at both our best and worst. It’s gut-wrenching at times, but also hopeful and very engaging.”
 
To learn more about the film, and the issues involved, visit the companion website for Two Spirits at www.pbs.org/independentlens/two-spirits. Get detailed information on the film, watch preview clips, read an interview with the filmmaker, and explore the subject in depth with links and resources. The site also features a Talkback section where viewers can share their ideas and opinions.

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