Recorded presentation

Aziza Wright, MEd¹, Loretta Jones, MA¹, Kenneth Wells, MD², and Keith Norris, MD³. (1) Healthy African American Families, 3856 Martin Luther King Blvd Suite 201, Los Angeles, CA 90008, 323-292-2002, WrightAziza@aol.com, (2) Health Division, RAND, 1700 Main St, Santa Monica, CA 90407, (3) Research and Development, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, 1772 E. 118th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90059

In the ongoing work on eliminating health disparities, a Healthy People 2010 goal, the Healthy African American Families (HAAF) project in Los Angeles is a leader in bringing together community-based stakeholders, academia, and govenment systems to jointly and equally address health issues. A current focus is on depression, a leading cause of morbidity and disability. Only one in four Americans with depression receive appropriate treatment; this rate is even lower among African Americans. This presentation will present the Witness for Wellness Working Groups - a local, community-based, integrated strategy for addressing depression in communities of color. The three working groups are: Talking Wellness; Building Wellness; and Supporting Wellness. The goal of Talking Wellness is to develop community dialogues and strategies for increasing community strength. The goal of Building Wellness is to develop edducational and resource strategies to improve the ability of depressed community members to identify and obtain effective and quality treatments. The goal of Supporting Wellness is to impact policy and protocols on a governmental and institutional level to better address depression in communities of color. Membership in these groups consists of 60 individuals, self-selected from over 500 community members who attended a local information-sharing and planning conference on depression cosponsored by HAAF, Charles R. Drew University, UCLA, and the RAND Corporation. The structure, vision, products, successes and lessons learned in this synergistic work of community and academia will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss the mechanism for developing a body of committed individuals to advance to work of addressing depression and other health disparities in urban communities of color.
• Discuss the vision, ideas, and products of this combined partnership.
• Discuss the successes and lessons learned in the synergistic work of community and academia.

Keywords: Depression, Community Assets

Related Web page: HAAF2.net

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation