Health equity for Hoosiers: Bridging gaps, building futures
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Health should be an easy choice for all in Indiana. However, our stark reality of health disparities reveals not just challenges, but also a powerful call to action for equitable solutions that uplift every community.
According to the 2024 State Health Disparities Report—a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services publication that highlights disparities in healthcare access and outcomes based on demographic factors such as race, ethnicity, income, and geography—Indiana continues to see gaps in:
- Chronic Diseases: Black and Hispanic communities face higher rates of conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
- Maternal and Infant Health: Indiana has faced challenges with maternal mortality rates, particularly among Black women, who experience higher rates of complications and deaths related to pregnancy.
- Access to Care: Rural areas in Indiana often have limited access to healthcare services, including primary care, mental health services, dental and specialists, leading to delayed care and poorer health outcomes.
- Social Drivers of Health (SDOH): Income inequality and education levels significantly impact health outcomes, with lower-income earning individuals experiencing more health challenges and barriers to accessing care.
- Tobacco Use and Substance Abuse: Certain populations, especially in rural areas, have higher rates of tobacco use and substance abuse, contributing to overall health disparities.
Indiana stands at a crossroads where the pursuit of health equity can transform disparities into opportunities, paving the way for a healthier future for all Hoosiers. But where do we even begin to align actions to our collective acknowledgment of the equal value of every person — good data end to end.
The Power of Good Data
Data—both quantitative and qualitative—is essential to addressing health equity, as it provides the insights needed to identify disparities, track progress, and inform targeted interventions. By analyzing health outcomes and access patterns, we can develop effective strategies that ensure all communities receive the care they need.
When resources and staffing are limited, data can also help efforts be hyper focused on those in greatest need. But data cannot just be quantitative. It is essential to also pull in qualitative data collection and analysis. Qualitative data plays a crucial role in addressing health equity by providing rich, context-specific insights into the experiences, beliefs, and challenges faced by diverse communities. It helps to illuminate the underlying factors contributing to health disparities that are seen in quantitative data, such as social determinants, cultural norms, and systemic barriers. By capturing the voices of individuals and communities, qualitative data complements quantitative findings, guiding the development of tailored interventions and policies that effectively address inequities and promote inclusive health outcomes.
The data journey cannot stop here. There is also the need to pull in evaluation methods to garner data to understand community impact. Are we truly closing the gaps? Implementing with evaluation and impact data collection in mind, we need to ensure that the interventions are effective, relevant, and tailored to the needs of all Hoosiers. By understanding what works well in Indiana, we can create our own or adapt existing promising and evidenced-informed practices. These vetted frameworks, interventions and programs can enable stakeholders to make informed decisions, allocate resources wisely, and continuously improve efforts to achieve health equity for all communities.
With a firm foundation in data, we are then able to activate new or strengthen existing partnerships with community-based organizations and providers.
Nothing About Us Without Us
One of my favorite things about being in Indiana is having the opportunity to work alongside so many dynamic stakeholders, community-based organizations (CBOs) and diverse businesses. Seriously, our communities are filled with some of the most creative, compassionate, effective and innovative partners. Many of which find opportunities to align synergies for the greater good of our community. This is why I feel a core value to addressing health equity is expressed in the phrase “Nothing about us without us”—which originated in the disability rights movement. This saying emphasizes the importance of including communities in discussions and decisions that affect their lives.
Today, this call to action also applies to partnerships. Understand and work with the organizations already doing dynamic work in the communities you want to serve. One of my personal favorite ways to approach this is community partner mapping—a process where I work with thought leaders to bring good data and visualize relationships and resources to create a coordinated response to health equity challenges, empowering communities to drive positive change.
From there, we can have partnership conversations about actionable steps. Those steps, in an ideal world, are then spelled out in community partnership agreements. Why do we even need an agreement? Partnership agreements establish clear expectations, foster trust, and promote collaboration among stakeholders.
Meeting Individuals Where They Are
To address health equity, the provider, managed care entities and community partners should work together to offer collaborative care that is culturally and linguistically appropriate. This includes but is not limited to:
- Integrated Services: Integrating SDOH screening and resources in all healthcare models so Hoosiers can access comprehensive support—addressing both clinical and social needs simultaneously.
- Empowerment and Education: Educating communities about their rights and benefits which can empower individuals to advocate for themselves, navigate the complexities of healthcare and seek necessary support.
- Community Access: Increasing access to SDOH related resources like nutritious food and safe housing by supporting local CBOs and advocating for public policies that can lead to systemic changes.
- Provider Cultural Humility Training: Taking an educational approach that emphasizes self-reflection and personal growth in understanding and respecting diverse cultural perspectives. This can be done with cultural humility training, which often focuses on acquiring knowledge about different cultures.
- Data Monitoring: Collecting REL (Race, Ethnicity, and Language) and SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) data as a part of all healthcare enrollment and registration processes fosters better understanding and communication and builds trust with individuals.
Investing in people’s health journeys creates trust between providers and patients, as well as a smoother path toward better health. This is what is meant by “meeting members where they are”—learning about the barriers they face and supporting efforts to navigate those obstacles.