Arkansas Minority Barber & Beauty Shop Health Initiative

The mission of the Arkansas Minority Barber & Beauty Shop Health Initiative is to increase public awareness about heart disease and stroke. The goal is to empower minorities to better understand hypertension (high blood pressure) prevention and management. The initiative focuses on coordinating and enhancing cardiovascular disease prevention activities in red counties and eventually, across the state of Arkansas. Red counties are defined as counties where the life expectancy at birth ranges from six to ten years less than the county with the highest life expectancy.

There are four (4) primary objectives of the Arkansas Minority Barber & Beauty Shop Health Initiative:

• Screen: Provide diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol screening.
• Educate: Teach communities about the importance of proper diet, physical exercise, and recognition of signs and symptoms of stroke and heart disease.   
• Refer: Refer high-risk individuals identified through screening to healthcare providers.
• Follow Up: Conduct follow-up calls to participants who were referred to healthcare providers and provide support through education and tips for behavioral changes. Also provide hypertension case management through the Community Team-Based Care for Hypertension Management program.

ADH Employee Screening

Arkansas Department of Health’s (ADH) Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities (OMHHD) is partnering with the Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Branch to offer employee health screenings to all Pulaski County ADH employees and spouses who are covered under ADH insurance plan. This event is designed to increase awareness and promote healthy behaviors among ADH employees.

The Arkansas Minority Barber and Beauty Shop Initiative model will be used to address heart disease and stroke.  During the event, free blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose, body mass index, and tobacco cessation information will be provided. General health literature and educational materials on chronic disease, tobacco prevention, physical activity and nutrition will also be provided. Advanced Practical Nurses (APNs) and physicians will be available to address findings and answer health related questions participants may have. Employees will also have the opportunity to complete the online health assessment with the assistance of a GuidanceResource representative.

VESTIDO ROJO

Vestido Rojo is an annual community event designed to increase awareness of heart disease and stroke among Latino women. During the event, a Latino Physician is invited as the main speaker to present on the topic of heart disease prevention. The ADH Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities and the American Heart Association initiated this event five years ago. In 2016 this event was attended by more than 300 Latino women from Central Arkansas, this makes it the biggest Latino women event in Central Arkansas. Madrinas are recruited and attend a series of trainings (3) in preparation for the event. Madrinas are Latino women leaders who are willing to recruit 10 or more women from the community for the event. During the Madrinas trainings, they learn among other things, how to take blood pressure, make CPR hands only, exercise, and healthy eating.  Madrinas will help to teach these topics to their invitees at the event. 

Your Health Is Your Beauty

Your Health is Your Beauty aims to promote the Healthy Active Arkansas Initiative (HAA) to prevent disease, promote health and protect our community. Beauty pageant and young leaders from college, high schools and the community are invited to the HAA Ambassador Training where they trained the 9 topics of the HAA initiative, advocacy, and use of media and social media in order to get the message to the community. Attendees develop an activity plan and report back on their reach. The Ambassador with more activities completed is recognized as the HAA Ambassador of the year.