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Minority Women's Health


Pick Your Path to Health Campaign
It is very common for women nowadays to have multiple demands on their time. The Pick Your Path to Health Campaign, sponsored by the Office on Women’s Health, helps women take simple and time-sensitive steps to improve their health, and will encourage local communities to promote practical, culturally interesting, and relevant action steps to wellness. Previous health campaigns aimed at women have emphasized long-term goals, such as losing weight or quitting smoking. In a departure designed to work with today’s multi-tasking, multi-cultural society, this new approach will suggest specific, life-oriented action steps, such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator and eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, so woman can manage their time and their health, one step at a time, in a single action.

The Pick Your Path to Health campaign will encourage health awareness among all women, with special emphasis on African American, Asian American/Pacific Islander, Hispanic American, and American Indian and Alaska Native women, who as minorities, face disproportionate obstacles to health care. The campaign focuses on Healthy People 2010 objectives, the nation’s health agenda. Through public/private partnerships campaign materials are distributed to local neighborhood groups and local media, trusted by minority women, so that the information can be transformed into formats and messages most appropriate for those individual communities. Educational materials are available on-line for community groups wanting to be a part of this important campaign. Click here to access the Community Action Kit.

The OWH contact person is Sharon Ricks.

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Minority Women’s Health Panel of Experts

The Office on Women's Health (OWH) established the Minority Women's Health Panel of Experts in response to its 1997 conference, "Bridging the Gap: Enhancing Partnerships to Improve Minority Women's Health." The panel is composed of physicians, clinicians, community advocates, and academicians working in communities and health settings around the country that serve racially and ethnically diverse women. The five major ethnic groups (African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, and Hispanic) are represented among the panel members, who have expertise in a variety of disciplines, including young women's health, women and aging, health care delivery systems, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, violence against women, mental health, substance abuse, breast/cervical cancer, diabetes, heart disease, immigrant/refugee women's health, public health research, cultural competency in women's health, and health policy. The major focus of the panel is to ensure that the ethnic minority focus is incorporated throughout OWH programs, policies and initiatives by 1) providing input to and serving as a resource for the United States Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Office on Women's Health, in support of the OWH's goals to improve the health of women and in the development of minority women's health initiatives; 2) providing input to the Department/Secretarial initiatives; and 3) providing input on recommendations that address OWH or DHHS initiatives from the "Bridging the Gap: Enhancing Partnerships to Improve Minority Women's Health Conference," targeted to enhance the health of minority women in the United States.

The OWH contact person for the OWH Minority Women's Health Panel is Adrienne M. Smith

For a full listing of the OWH Minority Women’s Health Panel of Experts, click here.

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NWHIC's Minority Women's Health Section

Visit NWHIC's Minority Women's Health web site section. Here you can learn about the most common health risks and concerns of minority women and get great resources for more information on these health topics. You also can learn more about the many programs supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that are trying to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health.

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Breastfeeding
A subcommittee of the Federal Interagency Working Group on Women's Health and the Environment developed the HHS Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding, released in October, 2000 by the Surgeon General, representing the first comprehensive framework on breastfeeding for the Nation. The Blueprint focuses attention on the importance of breastfeeding and recommends action steps for the health care system, families, the community, researchers and the workplace to promote breastfeeding. The framework also identifies racial and ethnic disparities that exist in breastfeeding, and reveals extremely low rates that exist in African American women. The plan was developed by several organizations in the medical, business, women's health, advocacy, and academic communities and promotes a plan for breastfeeding based on education, training, awareness, support, and research. Specifically, the plan lays out a framework based on the recommendation that infants be exclusively breastfed for the first 4-6 months of a baby's life, preferably 6 months.

After announcing the HHS Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding, the Office on Women's Health (OWH) received a tremendous response from consumers, organizations, and public health professionals concerned about the disparities in breastfeeding rates among white and African American mothers. To address this issue, the Office on Women's Health has partnered with the African-American Breastfeeding Alliance, Inc. (AABA), a community-based non-profit organization whose purpose is to educate the African American community about the benefits of breastfeeding through education, counseling, training, and advocacy. This community partnership with AABA began in December of 2000 and the effort is in its strategic planning phase. For more information about the African American Breastfeeding partnership, e-mail aaba@att.net.

The OWH contact person for Breastfeeding is Dr. Suzanne Haynes.

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Lupus Awareness Project
Lupus disproportionately affects women but has long been under-recognized. There is a lack of public understanding of its seriousness or urgency. Lupus affects the lives of 1.4 million Americans often manifesting in women between the ages of 15-44. It is 2-3 times more prevalent in women of color. The HHS OWH recognizes the impact of this disease in the lives of American women and has partnered with the Lupus Foundation of America to promote awareness of lupus. Major OWH objectives include:

  1. stimulating the development of effective women's health policies and programs at the national, State, and local levels;
  2. strengthening and sustaining a broad range of research on the diseases and conditions that affect women;
  3. promoting comprehensive and culturally appropriate prevention, diagnostic, and treatment services for women across the life span;
  4. stimulating public and health care professional education, training, and information dissemination on women's health issues; and
  5. fostering the recruitment, retention, and promotion of women in scientific careers and in the health professions.

The OWH has convened two scientific seminars attended by HHS employees, friends, relatives, and collaborating partners.

The OWH contact person for the Lupus Initiative is  Frances Ashe-Goins

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Female Genital Cutting (FGC)
The U.S. Congress has directed DHHS to address the issue of female genital cutting (FGC) by:

  • compiling data on the number of females living in the U.S. affected by this practice
  • identifying communities in the U.S. that practice FGC and implementing outreach activities to educate individuals in those communities about the health effects of this practice, and
  • developing recommendations for the education of medical students about the complications arising from FGC.

As part of the response to this Congressional directive, DHHS established a work group, previously led by the Office of International and Refugee Health, to develop strategies and a plan of action. DHHS OWH developed a task force to develop recommendations on the physical and psychological complications from FGC.

This task force on FGC consulted with numerous health professional organizations about their needs for training regarding FGC. Based on these conversations, OWH awarded a contract to Research Action and Information for the Bodily Integrity of Women (RAINB ) to develop training materials. RAINB is a non-profit organization with extensive experience with FGC both in the U.S. and internationally. These materials have been widely disseminated to health professional schools and organizations including all schools of medicine, nursing and public health. An intensive mailing list included international organizations, regional women’s health coordinators, and congressional members.

The OWH also participated in the planning and coordination of the FGC Community Outreach Working Group, and was an active partner in the planning and coordination of the a Pilot Community Meeting on FGC held at Howard University for the Washington metropolitan community. As a result of the success and lessons learned from that meeting, several other community meetings were planned and coordinated across the country with the assistance of the regional women’s health coordinators.

The OWH has recently re-invigorated its’ efforts in this area, and now leads and coordinates the FGC Task Force. The Task Force is currently focused on updating department-wide activities, planning next-steps, promoting information sharing, and collaboration with groups that focus on FGC and its consequences to women.

The OWH contact person is Dr. Saralyn Mark.

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