Advancing Health Literacy to Enhance Equitable Responses to COVID-19 in Jacksonville’s Health Zone 1

SITUATION: Health Zone 1, an area of Duval County home to over 100,000 residents, has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 due to the health disparities of its vulnerable and underserved populations.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVE: HPCNEF works with the City of Jacksonville and local partners with funding from HHS Office of Minority Health to focus efforts on improving health literacy and health equity in Health Zone 1. Program goals include: Utilizing evidence-based practices to promote health literacy, health equity, and cultural competency through community engagement and outreach; creating and presenting training sessions for those providing health services to better understand how to treat high-risk/low-trust populations; and delivering trustworthy, equity-enhancing health information across multiple media platforms to improve COVID-19-related health outcomes.

IMPACT: 

• Providing residents across media platforms with data, materials, and research from trusted sources so they can make informed decisions about their health
• Developing and conducting training sessions for healthcare providers in health literacy, linguistic competency, cultural humility, trauma-informed care, and principles of addressing high-risk/low-trust populations to improve patient-centered care and health outcomes