The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) will administer the proposed ?State of Michigan COVID & Health Priorities Partnerships? on behalf of residents throughout the state. The Office of Equity and Minority Health (OEMH) within MDHHS will manage program activities. OEMH will collaborate with internal areas and multiple external partners to conduct the work, including the Michigan Center for Rural Health, Community Health Innovation Regions, the Michigan Association for Local Public Health, Michigan Public Health Institute, Neighborhood COVID-19 Testing Sites, Regional Health Equity Advisory Councils, and a Tribal Advisory Committee. Strategies and activities:Strategy #1 (Resources & Services) ? Conduct a rapid needs and resources assessment for behavioral health impacts of COVID in urban areas and provide culturally appropriate and accessible services to minority populations.Strategy #2 (Data & Reporting) ? Expand onboarding of community-based organizations to the Health Information Exchange (HIE) Interoperable use cases improve care coordination; build capacity to assess rural health outcome and disparity data and conduct a statewide rural healthcare workforce needs/capacity assessment; improve COVID-19 testing and care surveillance for individuals with intellectual, developmental and/or other disabilities; conduct supplemental analyses of the COVID-19 Recovery Survey; and partner with the Michigan Local Health Department Academy of Science to standardize data collection.Strategy #3 (Infrastructure Support) ? Establish six Regional Health Equity Advisory Councils to develop, adopt, and implement region specific priorities, metrics, and strategies aimed at improving COVID-19 and other health outcomes for Michigan?s five racial ethnic minority populations; Community Health Innovation Regions (CHIRs) will identify and address community COVID-19 and social determinants of health needs through a closed-loop screenin
g and referral system; develop a Community Health Worker Program within rural local public health departments; implement Family Support Programs in rural communities to improve health outcomes of children (i.e. vaccination rates); build a public health nursing infrastructure to engage with rural school districts; conduct a comprehensive informatics infrastructure review in collecting COVID related data; and design and implement valid and culturally-appropriate data collection procedures to evaluate and report on program performance.Strategy #4 (Partner Mobilization) ? Strengthen cross-sectoral partnerships to align public health, healthcare, and non-health (e.g., housing, transportation, social service) interventions that decrease risk for COVID-19; build neighborhood testing sites? capacity to administer COVID-19 testing and secure Community Health Worker services; and initiate culturally sensitive engagement with Tribal nations, including the formation of a Tribal Advisory Committee.The expansion of capacity and services to prevent and control COVID-19 among high-risk and underserved populations is necessary to advance health equity throughout the State of Michigan. With support of grant funding from the CDC, MDHHS and its partners will implement these activities to address the COVID-19-related disparities that exist within racial and ethnic minority populations and rural communities.
