Friday, January 27, 2023
1/27/2023
The purpose of the Sacramento Native American Health Center's (SNAHC) Environmental Health Assessment initiative is to enhance SNAHC capacity to identify, characterize, and where appropriate, mitigate environmental health (EH) risks affecting our patients. SNAHC is an FQHC and acts as part of the safety net in Sacramento County. Our patients are disproportionately minority and low income individuals and are thus at elevated risk for long-term poor health outcomes due to EH hazards. We have one location in Midtown Sacramento and are in the process of opening a second campus in South Sacramento in late 2022. Both of these regions have highly elevated EH threats and associated poor health outcomes, such as asthma and low birth weight. This assessment initiative will allow SNAHC to better track and address these threats to our patients and to the communities and neighborhoods we serve. Through the EH Assessment initiative, SNAHC will reduce the impact of EH risks to our patients in two ways. First, we will provide recommendations on evidence-based best practices to our patients on ways that they can reduce their individual-level risk to themselves and their families. These may include enrolling them in tobacco cessation programs, advising on the use of a filter for drinking water in the home, or proper ergonomic techniques for the work environment. To address EH threats acting at the community level, SNAHC will form a workgroup with local partners wherein we will share our de-identified patient data to inform the community-level EH remediation and protection projects of our partners. We will also host Community Listening sessions to ensure that our patients' voices are being heard. Our partners, in turn, will share their data on the impacts of their programs and together we will produce an annual report on local EH needs and the activities being done to address these. This report will be shared with the community, our partners, and the CDC to increase the access to evidence on effectiveness of EH interventions in the EH field. In this way, SNAHC will address ad control EH threats to our patients at the individual level, empower the community we serve to share their experiences and concerns, and support our partners in making necessary changes at the community level.
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).
