Addressing Health Disparities by Sexual Orientation in San Mateo County, CA

As part of the Mental Health Services Act of California, the San Mateo County Health System (SMCHS), California, started to look at creating infrastructure to strategically addressing ethnic and racial disparities. During this process, a few staff started to voice a growing concern over the invisibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and intersexed-identified staff and clients in the system. Thus started the start of the Pride Initiative (PI). PI is committed to foster a welcoming environment for the lgbtqqi community living and working in San Mateo County through an interdisciplinary and inclusive approach. The Pride Initiative has an active membership which meets monthly, and is made up of any County employees interested in participating, as well as contractors and youth. The group also has three specialized sub-committees, which include: Policy and Data, Events, and Clinical Services. PI intends to impact the health disparities faced by the lgbtqqi population by: sharing in decision-making process; prioritizing the needs of the committee and communicating with leadership; reporting trends in community attitudes and behaviors; highlighting local efforts; reviewing outreach materials; disseminating information about the PI to local communities; and providing feedback on materials, reports, curricula, policy, programs, partnerships, outreach, development and funding efforts for the Health System.

Efforts were made to recruit applicants who not only represented diverse ethnic backgrounds, but also diversity in the arenas of gender and other socio-economic factors. Special efforts were also made to encourage youth to participate as part of the San Mateo County Youth Commission.