Thursday, April 10, 2025
4/10/2025
Salt Lake County Health Department Health Literacy Program - Health communication is vital to health equity and reduction of health disparity. When an individual is presented with health information that they do not understand, they are unable to process the information and make appropriate health decisions, which may compromise their health circumstance. The HLP project intends to produce inclusive culturally and linguistically appropriate plain language communications to improve health literacy, especially as it pertains to COVID-19 public health services and Healthy People 2030. HLP services and activities will realign Community Health Worker (CHW) and Clinical Community Health Worker (CCHW) programs and target the specific geography described in the Statement of Need in which the CDC Social Vulnerability Index is high and COVID-19 public health services show limited uptake. Existing community and clinical relationships are leveraged in a cooperative, collaborative effort, teaming CHWs with Community Based Organizations (CBOs), and their clinical counterparts, CCHWs and Clinical Health Educators (CHEs) with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and their clinicians. The teams work together to create culturally and linguistically appropriate plain language COVID-19 vaccine and disease messaging and educational resources for their specific racial and ethnic minority population within their geography. These targeted communications are shared through trusted networks, such as CBO newsletters and FQHC websites, and related social media platforms. In total, HLP will reach at least 70,197 individuals in program Year 1 and 73,706 individuals in program Year 2. Project Director Anni McKinnon is a Strategic Communications PhD candidate, planning her dissertation in Health Literacy Inequities. Ms. McKinnon led the design and development of the HLP project and will lead the team in its implementation. She will oversee all aspects of the HLP project team, supervise and mentor Program Manager Jennifer Puder, lead CHEs in providing clinical education, and ensure the independent validity of the project evaluation. The Public Health Informatics Bureau (PHIB) is Salt Lake County’s premier group of informaticians, dedicated to identifying, defining, and solving healthcare information problems, improving the delivery of healthcare services, and improving patient outcomes. PHIB has unique and unfettered access to Salt Lake County demography, data tools, and current social vulnerability indicators and rates. In the absence of a Minority Serving Institution within the state of Utah, PHIB will perform the program evaluation by establishing and implementing an ongoing quality improvement process and project evaluation, which will be used by HLP to refine the health literacy interventions that support improvements in the project plan.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).