UNITE Initiative Responds to Dr. Amelie Ramirez’s Comment on Racial Equity, Diversity


ndorse Dr. Amelie Ramirez’s Comment on Racial Equity and Diversity in Research!

The National Institutes of Health's UNITE initiative has responded to over 1,100 comments, including one from Dr. Amelie Ramirez of Salud America! and UT Health San Antonio, calling for racial equity and diversity in research. UNITE sought comments in spring 2021. Ramirez submitted a comment—endorsed by 541 Salud America! members—that we believe that increasing diversity among research leaders and clinical trial participants will help achieve true health equity, especially for Latinos and others disproportionately impacted by health issues. Based on these comments, the UNITE initiative formulated four priority areas in health disparities and minority health research, the internal NIH workforce, and the external research workforce. "Here at NIH, we saw with fresh eyes the ...

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U.S. Latino Economic Output Equates to World’s Fifth-Largest GDP


Latino businessman

The total economic output, or gross domestic product (GDP), for Latinos in the United States totaled to $2.8 trillion in 2020, up from $1.7 trillion in 2010. If the population of Latinos in the United States were its own country, it would be the fifth-largest GDP in the world. That is larger than the GDPs of France, India, and the United Kingdom, according to the Latino Donor Collaborative’s 2022 Latino GDP report. The Latino GDP report serves as a “factual view of the large and rapidly growing economic contribution of Latinos living in the United States.” Let’s dive deeper into the factors that contribute to the U.S. Latino GDP! Growth of the Latino GDP Today, Latinos account for 18.9% of the total U.S. population. As the Latino population has continued to grow ...

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5 Essential Frameworks for Preventing Violent Child Death


violent child death is a problem in America

The U.S. has a violent child death problem. Developing strategies to prevent violent child death from firearms and traffic crashes is a demanding task that requires consideration of numerous upstream, interrelated, and tangential issues. To help safety advocates develop strategies to prevent violent child death, we compiled five frameworks to help: Understand and explain how proposed strategies will prevent violent child death Layer multiple strategies to cover shortcomings in strategies Prioritize upstream primary prevention strategies to improve outcomes for entire populations Consider the level of intrusiveness of strategies Apply racial equity tools to ensure equitable adoption/implementation of strategies The five frameworks include: Logic Model/Theory ...

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How to Unlock the Strengths of Latino Families


3 generation of Latino families.

Latinos face a number of health disparities and inequities in many aspects including housing, transportation, and overall health. While it’s important to focus on the many barriers that Latinos face, it’s also beneficial to highlight the assets of this diverse population. Latinos have many individual and family strengths they can draw on to be resilience in the face of hardship and guard against the negative effects of adversity on their well-being, according to a new analysis from the National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families. Let’s explore strengths of Latino children, parents, and families! What Are Latino Children’s Strengths? The new analysis, which reviewed 35 studies from 2000 to 2022, identified strong social skills as one of the key ...

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7 Steps to Eliminating Racial Disparities in Healthcare


Doctor and patient.

Latinos and other people of color face heavy burdens of cancer, diabetes, and more. These disparities are driven by systemic racism and discrimination that make it harder for people of color than their White peers to get equitable healthcare, education, and more. That is why Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio is a part of the Collaborative for Anti-Racism and Equity (CARE), a group that provides tools and resources to help people make connections and inform solutions to advance health and racial equity. As part of this group, we are excited to share a new case study from the Greensboro Health Disparities Collaborative (GHDC). The GHDC – a group of community leaders, advocates, public health researchers, and healthcare professionals – resolved racial disparities in ...

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11 Holiday Actions for Health Equity



Volunteering for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s helps other people. It gives the volunteer a nice emotional boost, too. So why not volunteer your "voice" or "actions"? We at Salud America! invite you to take or start these 11 actions to promote health equity for Latino and all families this holiday season! 1. Start a School Food Pantry! About 1 in 6 children are food insecure. They don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Your school can help these kids! Try the Salud America! “School Food Pantry Action Pack.” This is a free guide to help school personnel talk to decision-makers, work through logistics, and start a School Food Pantry to help hungry students and reduce local food insecurity. A School Food Pantry accepts, stores, and redistributes ...

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Poll: A Better Life Is Harder to Achieve for Young People, Vulnerable Groups


better life is harder

COVID-19. Monkeypox. Inflation. The housing crisis. Student debt. Climate change. There’s a lot going on. It’s understandable why young people are stressed “basically at all times.” Unfortunately, many believe the future may not be much better for young people. More than half of Americans agree that young people today are unlikely to have a better standard of living than their parents, according to a new poll from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A better standard of living includes having the financial means to comfortably raise a family and own a home, but these goals have gotten harder to achieve with the rising cost of living and housing. Add the student loan debt crisis, ...

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The State of Latina Workers


Latinas in workspace.

Latina workers are playing a growing role in the U.S. economy, but continue to face barriers to economic security, according to a report from the Joint Economic Committee (JEC). “Hispanic women represent a critical and growing segment of the U.S. labor market and economy. The increasing labor market participation of Latinas is helping support the ongoing economic recovery and the resilience of the American workforce,” according to the study. Let’s explore the increasing labor market participation of Latinas and what it means for the future. How Many Latinas Are in the Labor Market? Latinos overall represent 18.9% of the U.S. population. Latinas account for 16% of the female labor force, the second-largest racial/ethnic group of women workers, according to the U.S. ...

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Oprah Chooses Dr. Amelie Ramirez as a ‘Cycle Breaker’ for Latino Health



TV personality Oprah Winfrey has selected Dr. Amelie Ramirez of UT Health San Antonio as a "Cycle Breaker" for her groundbreaking work to build health equity in the Latino community. Cycle Breakers is a video series from the Smithsonian Channel that spotlights leaders who are solving health disparities in marginalized communities. Each Cycle Breaker is chosen by Oprah to augment her documentary, The Color of Care, which chronicles how people of color suffer from systemically substandard US healthcare and how COVID-19 exposed the tragic consequences of this inequity. Ramirez's episode, released Oct. 3, 2022, features her life's work to break the cycles of inequities that worsen health for Latinos. "Cycles are tough to break. Amelie Ramirez is the driving force behind an ...

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