The Alabama Initiative to address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High Risk and Underserved, Including Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations and Rural Communities, focuses on Strategy 2, Increase/Improve data collection and reporting for populations experiencing a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 and Strategy 3, Build, leverage, and expand support for COVID-19 that are at higher risk and underserved. In Strategy 2, the ADPH will address the quality of health equity data and improve the completeness of data regarding severity of COVID-19 illness in rural and minority populations. The gaps in health equity data will be addressed through upgrades to the surveillance systems, improved tools for data collection, simplifying ways for healthcare providers to enter data, and improving communication with targeted patients through culturally and linguistically appropriate messaging. By modernizing and improving health equity data collection and surveillance, ADPH will increase their capacity to target testing and contact tracing to populations at higher risk during the COVID pandemic as well as any future emergencies.In Strategy 3, ADPH established funding relationships with partners and community organizations working in both urban and rural, underserved, and high-risk communities to reduce COVID-19 related health disparities and develop activities/plans to prevent future community COVID-19 spread due to poor social determinants of health. As part of this strategy, activities to expand COVID-19 testing in homebound, incarcerated and disabled populations (not covered in previous ELC grants) will be addressed. In 2021, the Governor?s Task Force on Health Disparities identified root causes of Alabama?s poor health status during the COVID-19 pandemic. The activities represented in this proposal include Governor Health Disparity task force recommendations to address the root causes of health disparities including the impact of stress on
health, the need for communication that uses appropriate cultural and linguistic outreach without racial and cultural bias, the need to involve and hire underserved community members including youth, the need to sustain activities by updating health equity plans to address COVID and future emergencies, and the need to increase the use and availability of telehealth.
