July 19, 2022 – Orlando Health, United Way of Broward County and Moffitt Cancer Center recently completed pilot sessions for a voluntary Health Equity Train-the-Trainer program to improve health equity across the state. The pilot sessions began in April and concluded in May. The partners will launch the first sessions later this summer.
The three organizations are partnering with support from a combined $2.5 million health equity grant awarded by the Florida Blue Foundation, the philanthropic foundation of the state’s Blue Cross Blue Shield plan.
The program is designed to educate health care professionals on health equity issues and useful strategies that help ensure families and community members have both the access and opportunity to attain their full health potential and are not disadvantaged due to environmental, economic and/or social circumstances.
The voluntary training consists of live group and independent completion web-based modules to offer a deep dive into health equity.
The opening session, Launch Day, was a live group module and consists of various topics, including an overview of health equity and a review of inequity data for Florida. After Launch Day, participants completed independent web-based modules that cover health disparities, bias and stereotyping, communication strategies, cross-cultural communication, equity in communication and implementing change for health equity. The last session, Landing Day, was also a live group session where participants debriefed about individual learning experiences and discussed ways participants could apply what they learned into their roles at work and how to train others in their workplaces.
The program strategy is to recruit health care providers working in health care facilities and health-related organizations throughout the state who will then take the information back to share with others in their organizations and throughout their communities. Training participants will include anyone working in health care with direct interactions with patients or clients.
The three organizations announced the program in June 2021. With support from the Florida Blue Foundation, the program will train more than 3,000 health care professionals over a four-year period.