Anti-Racism in Healthcare
June 8, 2020
Racism is and has been a public health crisis since the birth of this country. Let us be clear: WCMS condemns structural and individual racism. We recognize this public denunciation is too little, too late and we are committed to the long journey ahead demanding concrete change in collective action with community members and partners.
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January 20, 2021
Today is National Day of Racial Healing (NDORH), a day set apart for institutions and individuals to reflect on and take ownership of how they have participated in systemic racism, and to make a commitment to improve.
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December 30, 2020
To understand and address vaccine hesitancy and the roots of medical mistrust among Black Americans, look to the U.S. Public Health Service Study at Tuskegee—but not as an isolated event. Rather, it's one component of structural racism that requires structural solutions to overcome as the nation seeks to maximize COVID-19 vaccination to speed the pandemic's end.
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September 4, 2020
AARP Mountain Region NC aims to "walk the talk" on issues of racial justice; we will start through deep and active listening. Our CEO, Jo Ann Jenkins said it clearly in her statement on racial injustice and disparities “The incidents of racial violence and COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on people of color are not random, but instead are the result of inequality due to a lack of social, economic, and political opportunities. Discrimination of any kind corrodes our communities and our society from the inside out.”
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July 29, 2020
View Dr. Sharon Kelly West's video addressing "Access and Availability of health care for African Americans of Buncombe County starting in 1890"
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July 24, 2020
Black Doctors Discuss Need for Representation to Protect Their Rights & the Health of Their Patients
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gocQWDajLlA&feature=youtu.be
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July 14, 2020
About the Health Professions Data System
The North Carolina Health Professions Data System (HPDS) collects and disseminates descriptive data on selected licensed health professionals in North Carolina. With annual files dating back to 1979, the HPDS is the oldest continuous state health workforce data system in the country.
The HPDS is maintained by the Program on Health Workforce Research and Policy at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in collaboration with the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers Program (AHEC), and the state’s independent health professional licensing boards. Ongoing financial support is provided by the NC AHEC Program Office and the Office of the Provost at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Although the NC HPDS maintains the data system, the data remain the property of their respective licensing board.
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July 8, 2020
Dear Buncombe County Board of Commissioners:
I am writing to ask you to name racism as a public health crisis in Buncombe County. On June 26, 2020, the Buncombe County Health and Human Services Board passed a proclamation that asserts this and describes action steps the board will take to advance racial equity and justice in our county.
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June 29, 2020
FROM AJPH:
The matter of race is a common thread throughout the historical tapestry of American society. Discourse on race tends to focus on the lived experience of Black people, because of the “peculiar institution” of slavery in America. Medical historian Todd Savitt documents examples of racism in medicine to illustrate his observation that “some white Southerners claimed and many others believed that blacks were medically different from whites and so in need of special treatment.”1(p53) The special treatment, in this context, provided the facade of medical authority supporting the prevailing wisdom that people of African descent derived from a species other than human and as such could be justifiably used as “chattel,” as slaves. Now, 400 years after the first slaves were brought to America, the vestiges of the belief that Black people are “less than” human remain solidly entrenched in today’s society.
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June 29, 2020
FROM HARVARD HEALTH PUBLISHING:
A patient of mine recently shared a story with me about her visit to an area emergency room a few years ago.* She had a painful medical condition. The emergency room staff not only did not treat her pain, but she recounted: “They treated me like I was trying to play them, like I was just trying to get pain meds out of them. They didn’t try to make any diagnosis or help me at all. They couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.”
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June 29, 2020
FROM AMA:
Segregation and racism within the medical profession have, and continue to, profoundly impact the African American community. Yet, the complex history of race in the medical profession is rarely acknowledged and often misunderstood. The AMA Institute for Ethics invited a panel of experts to review and analyze the historical roots of the black-white divide in American medicine. The following is a summary of the panel's findings, along with other resources.
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June 8, 2020
Racism is and has been a public health crisis since the birth of this country. Let us be clear: WCMS condemns structural and individual racism. We recognize this public denunciation is too little, too late and we are committed to the long journey ahead demanding concrete change in collective action with community members and partners.
Read more