Project Overview:

At the request of the Ethnic Advisor for the United Kingdom (UK) Department of Health, the United States (US) agreed to collaborate with the UK on issues of vital concern to both countries as it relates to the health of minorities in order to: 1) ensure that our experiences on minority health issues be shared and 2) develop joint programs and plans for effecting significant improvement in the health of racial/ethnic minority populations in both countries. The Office of Minority Health was designated as the lead Office for the US for this collaboration.

The following three(3) phase effort was established and implemented to provide structure and guidance for the collaboration: Phase I - Office-to-office communication, between the Office of Minority Health and its counterpart in the British Department of Health, facilitated reaching mutual understanding of the minority health issues in both countries. Phase II - Signing Joint Statement of Intent to collaborate on minority ethnic health issues aimed towards improving the health of racial/ethnic minorities in both countries was achieved through mutual visits, discussions, exchanges of relevant documents, and the ceremonial signing by the US DHHS Deputy Secretary and the UK Secretary of State for Health which prefaced the first international conference entitled Health Gain for Black and Minority Ethnic Communities and held in London, September 16-17, 1997. This Agreement provides a framework in which a broad range of racial and ethnic minority health issues can be addressed especially in the areas of sharing experiences and information on good practice, research, access to and quality of health services, health status, inequalities in health, partnerships and coalition building. Phase III - Implementation of Agreement: With the signed joint statement and recommendations from the international conference providing a blueprint, a US/UK Collaborative Workgroup Meeting for the established workgroups on Consumer-Grass Roots Voice/Voluntary Sectors and Culturally Sensitive Access to Health Services was held in Washington, D.C., September 23-25, 1998. These workgroups and the Steering Committee established a framework for the US/UK collaborative process and identified joint projects for collaboration.

Currently, the UK is planning to convene a UK/US Symposium 2000 on May 10-12 in London. The focus of the conference will be on activities underway in the UK relating to their programs on addressing minority and ethnic health needs. The US members have been invited to give the keynote address, as speakers for the workshops and to provide updates on the progress of the steering committee and core workgroups. A meeting for the steering committee and workgroup co-chairs will also take place.

The following completed US action steps provide the collaborative initiative with a major conduit for information exchange and dissemination:

• International Conference Participants' Mailing List
• US/UK List Serv
• US/UK Webpage