After two six-year grants totaling over $3 million were awarded to the University of Texas at Austin by the City of Austin, UT Austin announced they will be collaborating on projects addressing health care inequalities and health disparities in underserved populations of the Austin community. The award was the first ever grant from the City of Austin, and the Mama Sana/Vibrant Woman (MSVW) group and the Alliance for African American Health in Central Texas (AAAHCT) will be teaming up with UT Austin to collaborate on the community projects.

Professor of the School of Nursing, Miyong Kim, has seen that although Austin itself has grown and prospered in recent years, its residents haven’t benefited equally. This is largely due to a lack of funding, but with the new grants from the City of Austin, the School of Nursing hopes to start overcoming those barriers and helping low-income families obtain the health care they need.

The collaboration is a major outgrowth effort from the UT Austin School of Nursing’s new Center for Transdisciplinary Collaborative Research in Self-Management Science (TCRSS). With TCRSS’s efforts to bring attention to the health care needs of low-income populations, and MSVW program’s Maternal Justice Model which uses a culturally specific midwifery model to address causes of racial health disparities for mothers and babies, UT Austin hopes that they’re previous efforts will now be achieved on a much larger scale.

African American populations have higher rates of mortality from cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. AAAHCT’s involvement in the collaborative project will be to provide a wellness program that addresses chronic disease, especially in African Americans, identifying health goals and providing group coaching to assist individuals in reaching their goals. Dr. Kim, also the associate vice president of UT Austin’s Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, says the School of Nursing will continue working with grass-roots community organizations in and around Austin to achieve the best results in reducing health disparity gaps for their local community.

See also
Nurse of the Week Richard Onyait: “I Have a Profession I’ve Always Loved” (Part One)
Share This