Health Confianza and Metro Health honored with NACCHO’s Promising Practice Award

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The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) selected UT Health San Antonio's Health Confianza and the City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District (Metro Health) for its Promising Practice Award for their work to improve health literacy in underserved areas in San Antonio.

The award was presented July 25 at a ceremony during the annual NACCHO360 Conference held in Detroit.

"Each year, we are thrilled to recognize the incredible work of local health departments through our Model and Promising Practice Awards," said Lori Tremmel Freeman, NACCHO CEO. "This year's awardees have demonstrated exceptional service in developing programs to address substance use, health inequities, infant and child health, health literacy, immunization, foodborne illnesses, hepatitis and other pressing health challenges in their regions. This recognition is sure to inspire continued excellence and progress in public health practices across the country."

Health Confianza began as a partnership between The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), Metro Health and The University of Texas at San Antonio with funding from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Minority Health. In 2024, Health Confianza transitioned to UT Health San Antonio and is housed at The Charles E. Cheever, Jr. Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics.

Jason Rosenfeld, DrPH, MPH

"We are honored to be recognized for Health Confianza's innovative approaches to public health and health equity," said Jason Rosenfeld, DrPH, MPH, associate professor at UT Health San Antonio and co-director of Health Confianza. "To sustainably address health inequities, we must address health literacy at the community, workforce and organizational levels - it shouldn't be the sole responsibility of already marginalized communities to change. It's incumbent upon all of us to design more responsive systems to deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate services and information."

About 90% of Americans struggle with health literacy challenges, resulting in worse health outcomes, less use of preventive health services, more emergency room visits, fewer cancer screenings and fewer immunizations, and leading to billions of dollars in avoidable health care expenses.

"This U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health grant allowed Metro Health, UT Health San Antonio and partners to launch a health literacy initiative in our community's under-resourced neighborhoods," said Claude A. Jacob, DrPH, MPH, Metro Health director and past president of NACCHO. "These milestones showcase the new ways Metro Health and overall partners have grown and positioned themselves to impact our community's well-being. I would like to congratulate Drs. Jason Rosenfeld and Melanie Stone (of Health Confianza) for the collaboration, and I am very proud of this national recognition."

Melanie Stone, DrPH, MEd

"People with low health literacy may not be able to follow instructions on a prescription label, navigate the jargon on health insurance paperwork or know how to make diet changes to prevent diabetes - one of our community's biggest health challenges," said Stone, DrPH, MEd, assistant professor of Family and Community medicine at UT Health San Antonio and co-director of Health Confianza. "We know health literacy can improve people's confidence in their ability to make good health decisions for themselves and their families. We hope this award raises awareness of the importance of health literacy and encourages greater community involvement in our efforts."

Since its inception three years ago, Health Confianza has been featured by global, national, regional and local entities - including the National Academies of Science, Engineering Medicine and now, NACCHO. As a Promising Practice winner, Health Confianza's strategic model will be featured in NACCHO's Model Practices Database for other local health departments to review and replicate.

Additional Information:

Established in 2021 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Confianza is a collaborative program that utilizes health literacy principles and strategies to enhance health equity for those individuals living in ZIP codes with the most significant health disparities. The goal is to equip people with skills and access to scientific/accurate health information to make informed health decisions for themselves and their families.

Health Confianza offers an innovative Health Literacy Pledge Program for organizations, a peer-based Community Health Club Program for community members, workforce training, mobile clinics, and accurate and accessible bilingual health communications. All programs are provided at no cost to participants.

In 2022, the City of San Antonio Metro Health's COVID-19 Community Response and Equity Coalition (CREC) was recognized by NACCHO with an Innovative Practice Gold Award acknowledging the efforts of community partners that included Health Confianza.

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