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Our Focus
Pathways to health equity
We envision a Connecticut where everyone — regardless of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status — can be as healthy as possible. To make this a reality, we focus on four areas that are critical to ensuring that the next generation will not face the same persistent racial and ethnic health disparities as their parents.
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Coverage and Access
Good health requires having access to care. We work to ensure people have health insurance, know how to use it, and are connected to a usual source of quality care.
Why it matters:
Good health requires having both health care coverage and a primary care provider to turn to for regular care.
What’s the problem:
Too many people of color remain uninsured or lack a regular, trusted place they can go for care. Many people with coverage struggle to understand their coverage or how to navigate the complicated health care system.
What we’re doing:
- We fund policy analysis and advocacy efforts to ensure that people can get health insurance and use it to get care.
- We publish reports on the impact of Medicaid and how to improve it.
- We provide grants to improve care delivery at school-based health centers and community health centers, key access points for quality care.
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Improve Care Delivery
We seek better health for everyone and a health care system focused on improving outcomes and tracking and targeting racial and ethnic health disparities.
Why it matters:
High-quality health care means patients get what they need to be as healthy as possible.
For a patient with diabetes, high-quality care means regularly monitoring his condition, coordinating the care he receives from various health care providers, and working with him to ensure that he can keep his diabetes under control – whether that means buying healthier foods or taking the right medication at the right time.What’s the problem:
In the current health care system, care providers only get paid based on the number of services they deliver, not whether their care addressed patients’ needs or kept them out of the hospital. There’s no incentive to address underlying causes that contribute to disease or work with the patient’s other providers to better coordinate care.
What we’re doing:
- We fund work to ensure Connecticut has a statewide system for all providers to access all records related to their patients electronically, which can help improve care coordination and quality.
- Because identifying and addressing disparities in health care is critical, we support efforts to ensure that data on patients’ race, ethnicity and language are included in their medical records.
- We fund health care organizations to pilot new approaches to addressing health disparities and improving outcomes.
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Linking Care to Community
Much of what influences health happens outside the doctor's office. We support work that creates strong links between the clinical care system and the communities where people live.
Why it matters:
Much of what influences people’s health happens outside the doctor’s office.
It makes a difference whether a person has stable housing, a safe neighborhood to live in, access to healthy food, and transportation. That means to improve health, there must be strong and meaningful links between the clinical care system and the communities where people live.What’s the problem:
Data indicates there are big racial and ethnic gaps in access to these resources.
What we’re doing:
- We fund advocacy to promote the use of community health workers – trusted members of patients’ communities who help to identify and address health barriers – as integrated members of the health care system.
- Because research has shown that community health workers can improve health outcomes and save money in the health care system, we fund demonstration models to prove their efficacy in Connecticut.
- We support collaboratives of community-based organizations in Hartford and Waterbury to build their capacity to partner with the clinical care system.
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Advocacy and Leadership
We define advocacy as educating decision makers on the issues that affect the health of Connecticut residents, and ensuring that those most impacted by policy changes have a voice that is heard.
Why it matters:
There are many community leaders who play a major role in people’s health, from religious leaders who people turn to for support during a health crisis to trusted neighbors who help their friends and relatives navigate the complicated care system.
What’s the problem:
Those most affected by health disparities – people of color – are often not part of health policy decisions.
What we’re doing:
- We support advocacy efforts that advance health equity – both by ensuring that leaders understand the critical issues and elevating the voices of those most affected by inequities.
- We increase advocacy capacity and diverse leadership through a fellowship program that equips the next generation of leaders with knowledge of health policy, advocacy skills, and partnerships. This program has nearly 200 alumni who form a strong network committed to ending racial and ethnic health disparities.
To learn more about our leadership work and see a directory of alumni, click here.
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Why focus on people of color?
By many measures, Connecticut is one of the nation’s healthiest states. Yet a closer look at health data reveals major disparities in health by race and ethnicity.