County working to enhance health literacy, response to Covid

The Doña Ana Board of County Commissioners accepted a $2,460,636 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health (OMH) in August to support the Advancing Health Literacy to Enhance Equitable Community Responses to COVID-19, the county said in a news release.

“This grant will enable us to learn how to best serve people in the northern region of the county by understanding how they want to receive information and services,” said county Health and Human Services Department (HHS) Director Jamie Michael said. “Though this funding is only available to support projects in this area, what we learn about health literacy will help us better serve all communities.”

For the next two years, HHS will work closely with local community members and organizations to develop a health literacy plan to increase the availability, acceptability and use of Covid-19 public health information and services by racial and ethnic minority populations, the county said.

Projects implemented with the grant will enable the county to build on existing assets and address needs to improve health outcomes and reduce the impact of Covid in rural areas, the release said The program will rely on community health workers, or promotoras, who are proven change agents in communities.  

OMH is dedicated to improving the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate health disparities, the release said.

“I extend our thanks to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for this grant that will continue our efforts on education around Covid-19,” County Commission Chair Manuel Sanchez said. “As we are starting to see another rise in positive cases, we need to ensure that our residents understand key facts around the disease, how to prevent or mitigate the spread, and are aware of available vaccines.”

For more information, visit www.donaanacounty.org.