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In 1976 President Gerald Ford honored the contributions of black Americans by issuing a proclamation that officially marked February as African American History Month. This proclamation continued to be issued by every president that followed. For the 2019 celebration, SAMHSA recognizes three leaders who have had significant impact on the mental health of their communities and beyond and have been important contributors to SAMHSA’s efforts to advance behavioral health equity for African Americans. Each of these leaders has had a significant role in SAMHSA’s National Network to Eliminate

Thirty years ago—December 1, 1988—marked the first observance of World AIDS Day. HIV.gov has been bringing you World AIDS Day messages and digital communication resources for 12 of those years, since we launched as AIDS.gov on December 1, 2006. Today we continue that tradition by offering you some resources to help you plan your digital communication for World AIDS Day 2018.

This week ADM Brett Giroir, MD, Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services, announced the process the Department will use to develop the next editions of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) and the National Viral Hepatitis Action Plan (NVHAP), both of which expire in 2020.

Can a 90-minute program once a week and some tutoring sessions make a big difference in the success of early-adolescent reservation kids? A pilot program on the Menominee tribe’s reservation say the answer is yes. The program called the Menominee Youth Empowerment Program (MYEP) was based in 2012 at the College of Menominee Nation (CMN) in Keshena, Wisconsin. CMN is an accredited tribal college located in an economically depressed rural area just west of Green Bay. It enrolls a few hundred students in academic degree and technical programs.

A basic principle of effective communication is to know the audience.1 This principle is especially important for patient-provider interactions that involve risk and diagnostic information, preventive measures, and instructions on medication regimens. But a message said is not necessarily a message understood. A patient’s understanding requires an ability to deal with written and spoken word and a grasp of basic math skills and concepts.2 It requires a health literate patient.

The FY2019 grant forecast from the HHS Office of Minority Health anticipates up to 7 grant awards totaling $3 million for hepatitis B elimination partnerships.

The reason #WhyIFightFlu? It saves lives. Americans experienced one of the most severe flu seasons in four decades last year with flu activity remaining high well into March 2018. Millions of Americans became sick with the flu, an estimated 900,000 were hospitalized, and 80,000 died from flu and its complications.

Fifteen years ago, the nation observed the first annual National Latinx AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD). Since then, we’ve seen significant progress in the national and global response to HIV. This progress holds great promise for reducing new HIV infections and improving health outcomes for Latinos and all people living with HIV across the United States.

Despite numerous health advances in recent years, there is still an urgent need for increased minority representation in medical research. The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) All of Us Research Program has made a commitment to diversity, especially to those who have been excluded from medical research for years.

Funded by The WITH Foundation, Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities at University of Rochester partnered with University of Rochester Medical Center Interpreter Services, Ibero-American Action League, and Jeiri Flores and Jensen Caraballo, two Latinx self-advocates, to deliver a training to Spanish-speaking medical interpreters to improve the healthcare experience for Spanish-speaking people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and their families.

We call it the Angelina Jolie effect . Even in the Latina Spanish speaking community, they read or heard about the actress who was genetically tested for breast cancer and learned she was at high risk for the disease.

When it comes to healthcare, minority groups, including women and people of color, are often underserved. This is especially true of the global epidemic of heart failure (HF). There are startling disparities in the quality of care in HF and in outcomes of disease among racial and ethnic subgroups vs. the general population—and the problem is compounded by the reality that women and ethnic minorities have been grossly underrepresented in clinical trials.

The Assistant Secretary for Health ADM Brett P. Giroir sat down with Surgeon General RADM Jerome M. Adams to discuss sickle cell disease and HHS efforts to help patients and the quest to bring the disease to an end.

As the national discussion to promote emotional well-being and effectively treat mental illness accelerates, so does our understanding of the most effective ways to do so. At the same time, almost one in five Americans is experiencing a diagnosable mental illness according to the National Survey of Drug Use and Health 2016. And nearly one-quarter of these individuals has a serious mental illness that interferes with their everyday living.

June is Men’s Health Month. On average, men die five years younger than women, and die at higher rates from nine of the top 10 causes of death. Men are also less likely than women to be insured. All of this impacts their ability to be involved fathers, supportive partners, and engaged community members.