The Roadmap to Health Equity

The prevention of Type 2 Diabetes, tobacco cessation, heart health, women’s health, cancer prevention, physical activity, and disability inclusion are just a few of the areas in which NACDD works to alleviate disease burden and increase the quality of life for so many across our nation and beyond.

At NACDD, we promote health and eliminate disease through our work and partnerships with states, communities, other national organizations, and a multiplicity of federal agencies. Above all, NACDD seeks to help make the healthy choice the easy choice for everyone regardless of his or her race, age, gender, religious affiliation, education level, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status.

Underpinning this work is NACDD’s dedication to Health Equity. If NACCD’s work in public health over the past 25 years is a beautiful tapestry, then health equity is the thread that has stitched it all together. It is such an important aspect to the work we do at the Association. To demonstrate this point, the NACDD Board of Directors has incorporated health equity into each strategy in the 2015-2019 Strategic Plan, making it a priority and integrating it into every corner of our work. NACDD’s focus on health equity is deeply rooted in the belief that we will never achieve health for all if we don’t achieve equity for all.

Simply put, where there is not equity, health is a luxury not often realized. It truly is up to each of us as public health professionals to continue championing this belief in our work at local, state, and national levels. At NACDD, we understand that inequity is not just a social justice problem… it is a public health problem. And the solution to this problem will only be solved when we all come together as a united group, caring, concerned, and committed to seeing an end to the disparities that, all too often, separate us as individuals and weaken us as a nation.

The NACDD Health Equity Council is working hard to keep health equity at the forefront of our minds and our work. In February, at its first general member meeting of the year, the Health Equity Council Steering Committee introduced The 2015 NACDD Road Map to Health Equity. The road map outlined this year’s council activities, which include curriculum development on the topic of institutionalized racism, a health equity funding survey in partnership with HHS Office on Minority Health, and professional development for state staff working in health equity. In the very near future, our council will increase these activities to include disability inclusion, as well as, curriculum development and training on the BRFSS Social Context Module. Our goal is to uplift and promote successful health equity practices, engage state health departments working in this area, equip public health professionals with the tools needed to integrate health equity into their work, and ultimately eliminate health disparities through equality, equity, and inclusion in all ways, for all people, without limitation.

We would like to invite you to be a part of this movement. Join your voice with ours so that those without a voice can be heard. The Health Equity Council meets every second Thursday of the month at 2:00 pm EST. For more information on the Health Equity Council, or NACDD’s work in health equity, how you can get involved in our work, or to be included on the Health Equity Council listserv, please contact Tiffany Pertillar, NACDD’s Council Consultant for Health Equity (tpertillar@chronicdisease.org).