Oral

This special session on health disparities will focus on efforts to reduce health disparities by impacting local health policy. Many organizations have come to realize the importance of local strategies. The session will begin with national efforts and close with regional efforts to impact health policy and reduce health disparities. Although nationally health disparities have been a focus for many years, it’s the local, grassroots efforts that have the greatest impact on health in communities. Over the past few years, more creative and locally based initiatives are proving to be effective in reducing disparities. In addition to these initiatives working to actively reduce disparities, many are also focusing on health policy change as crucial to truly impact community health. The goal of many of the initiatives is to offer communities the tools and knowledge to impact health policy decisions. The session will open with national initiatives that hope to impact local health policy and close with regional initiatives, which have been successful to improve health and develop local policies to reduce disparities. The session will be followed by a poster session highlighting successful local initiatives.

Session Objectives: Gain an understanding of the relationship between local health policy development and reducing health disparities and; Identify innovative strategies to impact local health policy.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing