Health Equity

Health equity is concerned with creating equal opportunities for good or improved health and minimizing unfair health outcome trends.  In other words, promoting health equity is about ensuring that everyone has a fair and equal opportunity to attain his or her full health potential. 

Social Determinants of Health

Social determinants of health are the community conditions (including the social, political, economic, and environmental conditions) that affect health.  For example, a girl born today may expect to live for less than 45 years or more than 80 years, depending on the circumstances in which she grows, lives, works, and ages.  Acting to improve the social determinants of health can dramatically improve health outcomes.

Health inequities have been extensively documented in Connecticut and nationally.  For example, the Connecticut Department of Public Health prepared The 2009 Connecticut Health Disparities Report,  listing all causes of death of Connecticut residents by race or ethnicity from the period from 2000 to 2004.

Health inequity presents a complex challenge for public health systems, health care systems, and society in general. It also burdens communities, stifles growth, and threatens basic notions of social justice.

CADH’s Health Equity Alliance

The Health Equity Alliance (HEA) is an initiative of the Connecticut Association of Directors of Health (CADH) to enhance the capacity of local health departments, in partnership with community partners and leaders, to achieve health equity through a focus on the social determinants (including the social, political, economic, and environmental conditions) that affect health.  

The ultimate goal of the HEA initiative is to achieve long-term health improvements for residents who presently experience avoidable and disproportionate rates of disease and disability.

Office of Health Equity

The Connecticut Department of Public Health’s Office of Health Equity has added to the Health Equity Toolkit for Local Health Departments and Other Partners (https://portal.ct.gov/DPH/Workforce–Professional-Development/Office-of-Health-Equity/Health-Equity-Toolkit-LHD) step-by-step instructions for how to identify your language needs using U.S. Census data. The Powerpoint document is titled “Determining language needs using Census data.” Although this serves as some measure to identifying Limited English Proficient (LEP) population language needs in your area, the best practice for identifying LEP language needs is by collecting your clients’ preferred spoken language at point of contact; preferred spoken language is one of the minimum standards for sociodemographic data collection set forth by the Office of Management and Budget. You can find more information about OMB’s guidance for collecting sociodemographic data in the Connecticut Department of Public Health Policy and Procedures for Collecting Sociodemographic Data – User’s Guide.

In addition to the LEP language identification procedures, a Vendor Feedback form has also been added to the Toolkit for communicating both positive and negative experiences with any of the interpretation, translation or American Sign Language vendors with which the state has an active contract. Although funding is not provided, state contracts for these services are open to all political subdivisions of the state, including local health. Forms are to be emailed back to the Office of Health Equity and will be used to ensure that we are providing the best possible services to our public health partners and communities.

Should you have any questions about either of these documents, please contact the Office of Health Equity at 860.509.7140 or via email to dphhealthequity@ct.gov.