Rhode Island’s Health Equity Zones: Addressing Local Problems with Local Solutions

Authors

Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD, MPH, Rhode Island Department of Health
Ana P. Novais, MA, Rhode Island Department of Health
Carol Hall-Walker, MPA, Rhode Island Department of Health
Angela B. Ankoma, MPH, MSW, Rhode Island Department of HealthFollow
John P. Fulton, PhD, Rhode Island Department of Health

Keywords

Health Equit; ; Social Determinants of Health; Placed-Based Initiatives; Collective Impact

Disciplines

Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education | Community College Leadership | Higher Education | Immune System Diseases | Medicine and Health Sciences | Public Health | Translational Medical Research | Virus Diseases

Abstract

The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) describes the strategies and infrastructure it has developed to fund its placed-based initiatives to address the social determinants of health to eliminate health disparities. Using a data driven and community-led approach, RIDOH funded 10 local collaboratives, each with its own, geographically-defined “Health Equity Zone,” or “HEZ,” and, to support the collaboratives, created a new “Health Equity Institute,” a “HEZ Team” of 9 seasoned project managers, and direct lines of communications between these assets and the Office of the Director of Health.

Recommended Citation

Alexander-Scott, MD, MPH, Nicole; Novais, MA, Ana P.; Hall-Walker, MPA, Carol; Ankoma, MPH, MSW, Angela B.; and Fulton, PhD, John P. (2016) "Rhode Island’s Health Equity Zones: Addressing Local Problems with Local Solutions," Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice: Vol. 9: Iss. 6, Article 5.
Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/jhdrp/vol9/iss6/5