North Sound Accountable Community of Health
Evidence based practices and models strive toward better health outcomes and efficiencies, but they don’t always allow for the differences among individuals, cultures and beliefs. We came across a great article on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website highlighting an example of how to move from cultural competency to cultural humility and its potential for impact. Check out the article here.
See our October 2018 newsletter at .
We’ve been distracted more than a few times by deliverables and documents, but we finally have a summary that shows what we’ve been up to the last year and a half. You can find it online at this link and we hope to have some print copies by the time of our Board meeting in October.
Many thanks to the team at Shew Design for helping us get this together.
Liz
The North Sound ACH team will be traveling to Chicago in April to attend Equity Summit 2018. More information can be found on the event here.
Equality vs. Equity
As we prepare for the 2018 Equity Summit, we continue to explore the concepts of equality and equity. Equality is the equal distribution of resources, while equity focuses on providing for those based on need, in order to gain equality. Achieving health equity requires collaboration and collective action.
In our work, equity and equal opportunity are inextricably linked. We want all communities to be healthy and connected, but different communities have different structures which interact in different ways, to produce different outcomes. Structures can be cultural, physical or social. The placement of these structures in our lives can take us where we want to go, or they can prohibit us from getting where we’d like to be. Achieving equity requires creating targeted interventions to adjust or create structures that work for everyone. In our work, we pull from Targeted Universalism and Dr. John Powell’s theory that through these targeted interventions, we can affirmatively build structures to produce the better outcomes for everyone.
Would you like to know more about equity? The following resources can help give a better understanding of the root causes of health inequity.
Roots of Health Inequity: A web-based online learning collaborative
This course provides an online learning environment from which to explore the root causes of inequity in the distribution of disease, illness, and death.
This graphic novel contextualizes health equity issues using both historical and personal perspectives.
A seven-part documentary series exploring racial and socioeconomic inequalities in health.
The UC Berkeley HAAS Institute and Dr. John Powell’s theory of Targeted Universalism.
Please feel free to connect with our team at the North Sound ACH if you are interested in screening any part of Unnatural Causes or having a community discussion on equity. We are able to help facilitate or support a community conversation. Email voices@northsoundach.org or send us a message on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/northsoundach.
As we close out the final days of 2017, and march into the new year, we are grateful for the breadth and depth of knowledge, innovation and passion that exists within the North Sound partners and communities. Together, you all have laid the groundwork for change, and our team sees so much opportunity in front of us. To address an issue as challenging – and devastating – as opioids will take us all, with the usual and unexpected partners working together.
In 2018, we will be working with you to –
That is the promise of the ACH – to be a regional table that coordinates work across partner organizations, optimizes funding to partners who do the work of transforming Medicaid; solicit and incorporate insights and perspectives from community members to guide the work, and find the ‘next’ opportunity to work together for positive change. Thank you for being on this journey with us, and we wish you all a healthy and happy new year!
Liz
The Health Care Authority (HCA) announced today that the North Sound Accountable Community of Health has achieved ACH designation! ACHs are an essential component of the our state’s Healthier Washington initiative, which aims to transform health care in the state and bring better health, better care and lower costs for Washington residents.
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