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Description of organization:
The Office for the Elimination of Health Disparities (OEHD) was established in 2004 to bring greater focus to statewide health disparities across many service systems. OEHD’s primary objective is to optimize the health and wellness of Texas residents by developing and strengthening systems and services to monitor, analyze, and assess the health needs of underserved populations throughout the state. With the passage of House Bill 1396, during the 80th Legislative Regular Session, the Texas Legislature transferred OEHD from the Texas Department of State Health Services to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC). The relocation to HHSC afforded OEHD the opportunity to apply an integrated approach and partner with other health and human services agencies. This consists of partnering with HHSC agencies, including the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

Description of project:
The goal of the Texas State Partnership to Address and Eliminate Health Disparities (TPAHD) is to reduce health disparities among special or underserved populations across Texas. In Texas, reducing and eliminating health disparities requires the efforts of a multidisciplinary team of researchers, community and organizational stakeholders to investigate and provide a better understanding of the role of behavioral, biological and socioeconomic variables. To achieve this goal, OEHD created and supports a state collaborative of stakeholders addressing health disparities. In addition, OEHD also supports HHSC programs by providing a link between state and local levels to address health disparities, strengthening the infrastructure to address health disparities and emphasizing health promotion and disease prevention. The major TPAHD activities focus on the following three core areas:

• Conducting a needs assessment to determine barriers to public health and health care and potential solutions,
• Enhancing and supporting the community-based collaborative to recommend, test, inform and reform proposed strategies and
• Creating and supporting a process for diffusion of ongoing technical assistance regarding health disparities information, research and strategies.

To ensure these outcomes and provide guidance, the project contracts with an external evaluator to provide an assessment of the process, determine the effectiveness of proposed interventions/policies and estimate the impact on health disparities in Texas.