Health Literacy and Training Resources

Purpose

The Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities (OMHHD) has created a resource list for anyone looking for more information on health access for all. The resources listed below are on various topics including communication fairness in presentations and communicable disease response, as well as policies and articles written by NCDHHS staff. This page will be updated regularly as we gather new information and resources.  

Communication Excellence and Cultural Responsiveness 

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) has developed the Communication Excellence and Cultural Responsiveness Program. This OMHHD initiative aims to enhance communication quality and effectiveness through culturally informed strategies and cross-sector collaboration, driven by community partnerships for planning and implementation.

OMHHD promotes outstanding service delivery among local health departments (LHDs), community health centers, healthcare professionals and grassroots organizations across North Carolina. The program equips organizations with the tools and knowledge necessary to respond to the evolving population and healthcare needs of North Carolinians, while addressing communication, cultural and language-related challenges that impact care quality and perpetuate health gaps.

The resources below offer guidance on making presentations and communications more accessible for individuals who are visually impaired, hard of hearing or living with other disabilities.

Community Engagement Best Practices

The resources listed below are examples of community engagement at work and of incorporating health equity into all procedures

Communicable Disease Response Resources

This section lists resources about communicable diseases that contain information regarding public health strategy, communications, and best practices.

Data Fairness

The resources below utilize principles and practices of data fairness to guide anyone who works with data in integrating a lens of justice, impartiality and broad representation into the framing of all data work.

Chronic Diseases Response Resources

The links below highlight programs and informational resources that equip North Carolinians to reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases.

  • The Cervical Cancer and Health Access Flyer (New 2024) Spanish: is a joint informational resource, created in partnership with the NC Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program (BCCCP) and the North Carolina Comprehensive Cancer Control Program (NC CCCP) to promote Health Equity in Cervical Cancer Screenings.
  • The October 2024 Co-Branded Breast Cancer Healthier Communities Fact Sheet, available in English and Spanish, is a joint resource by the Office of Health Equity, NC Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program (BCCCP), and NC Comprehensive Cancer Control Program (NC CCCP). It aims to reduce disparities and promote cancer equity in breast cancer screenings.

Environmental

The resources listed below provide information for North Carolinians about environmental issues that may affect them. These resources also list ways North Carolinians can get help on these issues, should they need them.

Procurement

The document below includes department training and resources, external procurement resources and information on a nonprofit that educates, connects, and advocates for nonprofits in North Carolina.

Policy

Links 1 and 2 below are various policies that NCDHHS has signed on to.  Links 3 and 4 are health equity reports completed by NCDHHS. 

The North Carolina Health Equity Impact Assessment (HEIA) provides a structured process to guide the development, implementation, and evaluation of policies and programs that impact population health, with a goal of reducing health disparities and inequities.

Articles Written by NC DHHS Staff and Team Leads in Equity Space

NCDHHS staff work on research in a variety of areas. The below articles are a sampling of some of the recent research done by NCDHHS staff. COVID-19 is a large focus of the articles, but health equity remained a focus in all of the articles.

  • In the Path of the Storm: NC’s Response to COVID-19’s Impact on Historically Marginalized Populations
    • Authors: Michelle Laws and Viviana Martinez-Bianchi
    • An Historically Marginalized Populations (HMP) Workgroup was created to develop and provide strategic guidance on the state’s response to COVID-19’s disparate impact on these communities. The article recognizes the work this workgroup did and what future work/challenges remain.
  • Community Testing in High-priority And Marginalized Populations (CHAMP)
    • Authors: Shannon Dowler, Sam Thompson, Brin Phillips and Michael Schwartz
    • This article describes how NCDHHS developed CHAMP as the department realized that COVID-19 cases were rising dramatically in spring 2020, particularly among HMPs. CHAMP ran over 16,000 tests in the summer of 2020, and data was collected on those who were tested.
  • Facilitating COVID-19 Testing in Historically Marginalized Populations by Leveraging Community Partnerships
    • Authors: Laurin Brown, Victoria Billings, William Pilkington and Deepak Kumar
    • This is a letter to the editor from several NCDHHS employees that was published in the NC Medical Journal. The letter describes how the North Carolina Central University’s Advanced Center for COVID-19 Related Disparities (ACCORD) conducted research to better understand the public health impact of COVID-19 on HMPs in North Carolina.
  • Innovations and Collaborations Born of Necessity During the COVID-19 Pandemic
    • Author: Susan Mims  
    • This article examines several examples of innovation and collaboration in North Carolina during the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of securing, promoting, and administering testing and vaccines; providing virtual health care; producing needed supplies; addressing basic human needs such as housing and food; and using data to inform planning and decision making, all with an eye toward closing disparity gaps and moving toward equity.
  • Health and Wellness for Our Latina Community: The Work of the Latinx Advocacy Team & Interdisciplinary Network for COVID-19 (LATIN-19)
    • Authors: Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, Gabriela M. Maradiaga Panayotti, Leonor Corsino, Irene C. Felsman, Rosa M. Gonzalez-Guarda, Gabriela A. Nagy and Alejandro Peña
    • This article examines the work that the LATIN-19 group did during COVID-19. The work included the development of Spanish educational materials, public safety announcements; training and testing sites; working with policymakers and vaccination events.
  • In Search of Equity
    • Author: Cornell P. Wright
    • This article describes the establishment of the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities in the NCDHHS. The article describes health equity efforts in North Carolina starting in the 1970s and up to current day efforts which include equity efforts around COVID-19.
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