Over the past three years, racism has been declared a public health crisis in numerous communities across the United States. Milwaukee County was the first to declare it in 2019, with other governmental entities following suit, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Cuyahoga County. Often, governmental entities focus on addressing the social determinants of health...
Unwinding the Public Health Emergency: Ohio Medicaid
On March 10, 2020, Ohio recorded its first case of Covid-19. In the two years after that case, the state Medicaid program played a critical role in ensuring access, providing coverage, and enabling budget stability as the state grappled with the complexities of the pandemic and its effects. And while the clinical science has not changed, the pandemic’s political science...
Getting older and getting connected
What do your seventeen-year-old niece and seventy-four-year-old uncle have in common? An obsession with TikTok? Maybe, especially if they live in Lorain County. A recent community needs assessment of older adults in Lorain County paired with census data has revealed some surprising and exciting data related to older adults and internet usage. And while Uncle Joe may not be making...
Unwinding Emergency Pandemic Supports
Over the last two years the federal government enacted a number of waiver options, flexibilities and enhanced benefits across public programs to promote health insurance coverage and economic stability during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many safety-net programs, reinforced by targeted assistance and suspended payments have held families together, helped keep them safe and supported their most basic needs. Many safety-net programs,...
Black Grief During the Pandemic and the Importance of Healing
When I think about the COVID-19 pandemic, I recognize the great deal of hurt and pain of people not just in the United States, but around the world. The pandemic has impacted families, friends, and colleagues from all walks of life. As of the release of this article, over 935,000 Americans have lost their lives due to the COVID-19 virus....
Official Poverty Calculations fail to capture families’ true economic situations
Racism as a Public Health Crisis: Declarations are only the first step
The year 2020 brought with it two epidemics that have caused the premature and disproportionate deaths of Black and Brown Americans: the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and a slew of publicized police killings and racially motivated murders—Elijah McClain, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Rayshard Brooks, Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd. Public outrage mounted as these and other lives were stolen...
Cuyahoga County HHSA committee awards more than $137 million in contracts at February meeting
The Cuyahoga County Council Health, Human Services and Aging (HHSA) Committee met for the first time since December and discussed a number of contracts pertaining to health and human services issues including infant and maternal health, senior services, and foster care. First Year Cleveland land multi-year agreement to address infant mortality The first contract was a three-year contract for $1.5...
WIC promotes racial equity, reduces infant mortality, and increases use of preventive health care
By: Hope A. Lane-Gavin, Fellow, Health Equity, The Center for Community Solutions Katherine Ungar, Policy Associate, Children’s Defense Fund – Ohio With increased national attention and resources directed to the maternal and infant health crisis in our country, that is, women in the United States remaining the most likely to die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth in the...
Traveling to Africa: Reclaiming our identity and expanding Black pride
What are the first images or words that come to your mind when someone says the word Africa? You may think of what you see in the media, like poverty, huts, jungles and animals. Some people would think that Africans live in trees, a stereotype that I have heard from Americans, which Africans joked that they do and that their...