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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Peter R. Lee, MPH¹, Brunilda Torres, MSW², Roxanne Reddington Wilde, PhD³, Gisele Thornhill, MD, MPH⁴, Sheryl D. Taylor, MPH⁵, Elmer Freeman, MSW⁴, Riché C. Zamor, MS, MPH, PhD⁶, and Peter Droese, MSLS, AHIP⁷. (1) Massachusetts Partnership for Healthy Communities/The Medical Foundation, 622 Washington Street 2nd Floor, Dorchester, MA 02124-3548, 617-451-0049, plee@tmfnet.org, (2) Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 250 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108, (3) Action for Boston Community Development, Inc., 178 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02111, (4) Critical MASS, Center for Community Health Education Research and Service, 716 Columbus Avenue, Suite 398, Boston, MA 02120, (5) Symphony Tailored Health Solutions And MDPH, 250 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108, (6) Catholic Charities, 185 Columbia Rd., Boston, MA 02121, (7) Health Policy Library, MassHealth (Office of Medicaid), 1 Ashburton Place, Room 1109, Boston, MA 02108

CriticalMASS is a statewide coalition focused on eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities; a public-private partnership of groups that extends beyond health care delivery systems to include grassroots action at the local, regional and state levels. CriticalMASS initiates collective action to make change in legislation and policy from community action for local community health improvement to corrective action in clinical practice. In its short life the reach and impact has been significant. Coalition actions are directed at creating systemic change at multiple levels: at the local level, CriticalMASS has developed, implemented and disseminated a toolkit (or community action guide) to help individuals and communities identify and address health disparities in their own community; at the regional levels CriticalMASS has a network which connects people and communities for strategizing, sharing and exchanging ideas and best practices; and at the state level CriticalMASS was behind the establishment of a Special Legislative (House and Senate) Commission on Health Disparities. CriticalMASS not only served on all committees of this Commission to help assure appropriate input into the recommendations but also mobilized the statewide network for advocacy and input to the Commission through elected representatives. Now that the commission has completed its immediate mandate and made it recommendations CriticalMASS is conducting research to draft potential legal/legislative/budget language on Commission recommendations, to institutionalize the improvements at all levels: local, regional and state and is continuing and strengthening the network momentum to keep the movement alive until health disparities based on race or ethnicity are eliminated.

Learning Objectives: