Title
To honor our own Columbus Health Department for their national recognition and trailblazing leadership in addressing disparities in Health Status and Health Care for racial and ethnic minorities.
Body
WHEREAS, the United States has achieved significant increases in life expectancy and reductions in the incidence of injury, disability and disease; and
WHEREAS, the gap between the health status and death rates for racial and ethnic minority population groups and Caucasians has not decreased and in some cases has widened; and
WHEREAS, racial and ethnic minority populations face substantial cultural, social, and economic barriers to obtaining access to adequate and competent health care; and
WHEREAS, disparity in health status continues to exist between racial and ethnic minorities and non-minorities in Columbus; and
WHEREAS, the excess burden of morbidity and mortality for minorities results in significant losses to our families, community and economy; and
WHEREAS, the Columbus Health Department is committed to addressing and helping to eliminate health disparities in our community; and
WHEREAS, the Columbus Health Department established the Office of Minority Health in order to provide leadership in addressing the health needs of racial and ethnic minorities; and
WHEREAS, the staff of the Columbus Health Department has embraced the importance of addressing health disparities by following the national standards for Culturally and Linguistically appropriate Services in Health Care which were established to correct inequities in health care and to make services more responsive to the individual needs of patients; and
WHEREAS, the Columbus Health Department is committed to continuous quality improvement in delivery of service to its customers and has conducted an internal assessment of how health services are delivered to racial and ethnic minorities; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
That this Council does hereby congratulate the staff members of the Columbus Health Department for all of their work in protecting the health of our community and in particular for their leadership in setting standards to help to eliminate health disparities for racial and ethnic minorities.