WED-003 - Expanding Health Equity Through the Total Health Initiative: Community-based Screenings in Barbershops and Beauty Salons

Brief Abstract Summary: Discover how the Total Health Initiative (THI) brings dermatologic and cardiovascular screenings into trusted cultural spaces such as barbershops and beauty salons to advance health equity. Participants will learn how community-based implementation strategies can overcome barriers to care, build trust, and address systemic neglect in Black and Brown communities. Through this practice-focused session, attendees will analyze approaches for arranging services, engaging partners, and incorporating qualitative feedback into ongoing evaluation. The presentation highlights how health promotion can be ethically grounded, culturally responsive, and practically effective, offering a replicable model for applied public health practice.

Detailed abstract description: Attendees will gain practical and ethical insights from the Total Health Initiative (THI), a community-based program that embeds dermatologic and cardiovascular screenings into culturally trusted spaces such as barbershops and beauty salons. This session offers a practice-based perspective on how public health professionals can dismantle barriers to care and advance health equity through implementation strategies grounded in justice, accessibility, and community partnership.

Participants will first learn why dermatology and cardiovascular care remain overlooked in Black and Brown communities, where disparities in prevention and early detection persist. By situating screenings outside traditional clinical walls, THI challenges conventional models of service delivery and demonstrates that equity requires presence in the everyday spaces where people live and connect.

The session will actively engage attendees in analyzing strategies to arrange services, recruit and sustain community partnerships, and adapt programming to local needs. Through real-world examples and qualitative feedback from community members, participants will recognize both the opportunities and ethical dilemmas that arise when professionals bring care directly into underrepresented settings. For example, feedback such as “No one ever asked us about our skin before” illustrates the unmet needs, trust-building opportunities, and responsibilities that come with community-based implementation.

Attendees will also explore how evaluation is integrated into THI’s design. The initiative uses participant comments and engagement levels to refine outreach methods and ensure interventions remain culturally appropriate. By aligning evaluation goals with the intervention itself, THI demonstrates how practice-based programs can generate evidence that informs ongoing improvement.

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

Describe how to arrange and deliver culturally grounded health promotion services in trusted community settings.

Analyze approaches for engaging partners and stakeholders to support implementation.

Recognize the ethical obligations tied to advancing health equity in marginalized communities.

This presentation will resonate with public health professionals, educators, and students who want to translate health equity from theory into action. Attendees will leave with a replicable framework for practice, strategies to apply in their own communities, and a renewed understanding of what it means to bring equity-driven interventions to life.