Baltimore Area’s Minority Health Director Plans Health Summit, Cultural Sensitivity Training

On Sept. 30, the Baltimore Sun profiled Felisa McCall, the Anne Arundel County, Md., minority health director. Last June, Anne Arundel County became the first and only county in the Baltimore metropolitan area to have an officer for minority health, the Sun reports. Though the county had maintained minority health programs for many years, "no one had ever been given the job of working with and educating minority populations," county officials said. With a portion of a $2.25 million grant from the Maryland Cigarette Restitution Fund, the county started the Minority Health Initiative in order to "step up" outreach and education efforts due to a "significan[t]" increase in minority populations, appointing McCall to head the initiative. In this new role, McCall currently is planning a minority health "summit" in Annapolis for November and developing a mentoring/scholarship program to "encourage minorities to pursue careers in medicine." She also plans to "build a network" of minority groups to distribute information about cancer and the risks of tobacco use, and to help residents quit smoking. In addition, McCall and her staff are developing "cultural sensitivity training" courses for health care professionals "so they will be better able to serve minority groups" (Anderson, Baltimore Sun, 9/30).