Dearborn Director of Public Health Ali Abazeed (right) speaks during the Aug. 18 Committee of the Whole meeting while Councilmembers Erin Byrnes (left), Michael Sareini, Leslie Herrick, Ken Paris and Mustapha Hammoud, Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and Corporate Counsel Jeremy Romer listen.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – Mini-grants from the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services will help the Public Health Department educate minority and marginalized populations about affordable health care and precision medicine.
Two ACCESS awards, an $18,000 All of Us grant and a $15,000 Medicaid Outreach Partnership grant, will be used to make more people aware of affordable health care options, specific treatments for people in vulnerable populations, as well as publicizing select research studies.
The $15,000 grant will be used to educate the community about Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program through the Medicaid Outreach Partnership.
It will allow the DPH to post information on social media channels and to participate in outreach efforts at community events in new and innovative ways to reach marginalized residents and those with children in need of affordable health coverage.
The purpose of the $18,000 grant from the All of Us research program is to engage with a broad and diverse array of community-based organizations to reach minority and marginalized populations to teach them about the benefits of precision medicine and research studies.
Precision medicine describes health care that is tailored to individuals based on their specific characteristics, including their genetic makeup, disease biomarkers, treatment history and environmental factors. The goal is to place individuals into treatment subgroups based on how susceptible they may be to a specific disease or treatment therapy.
The All of Us program grant will run from August 2022 through July 2023, and will engage with the public during community events, as well as through social media.
It will also utilize material from the National Institute of Health Asset Portal, which contains fact sheets, brochures, posters, graphics and more.