We’ve written about the steps that can be taken by institutions to help end racism as a public health crisis. One prevalent issue that must be addressed in that process is the failure to examine racism in medical journals and publish health research that reports on its impacts. Health Affairs published a report in 2021...
PEP: Interrupting disparities in the behavioral health pipeline
For many, 2020 was a year of struggle and difficulties, especially dealing with a pandemic and community unrest. But for an 8-year-old child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, 2020 would also be the year they were handcuffed by police making them the youngest person to be handcuff by Ohio’s Cleveland Division of Police. Over the years, we,...
Anti-racist action: ending racism takes external effort and internal, reflective work
Over the course of our Racism as a Public Health Crisis series, we’ve examined suggestions offered by Dr. Camara Jones, past-President of the American Public Health Association, in a lecture on taking action beyond making declarations to address racism as a public health crisis. Her first two steps of action included 1) name racism and...
Moving Past Declarations: Confronting the Barriers
Dr. Camara Jones, past-President of the APHA, identified three steps to move beyond public health declarations into actions that actually address racism. The steps Dr. Jones suggests are to: 1. name racism, 2. identify the mechanisms by which racism operates, and 3. build strategy and take action. Part 1 of this series focuses on the first...
Gun violence is a public health problem, and so is white supremacy
Gun violence was deemed a public health issue in 2016 by the American Medical Association,[1] and is stated to be the leading cause of premature death, killing roughly 38,000 people a year.[2] Racism has been declared a public health crisis by over 209 jurisdictions since August, 2021 after the killing of George Floyd.[3] If gun...
Racism as a Public Health Crisis: maternal and infant health
By: Hope Lane-Gavin and Natasha Takyi- Micah Of all of our priority areas this year, the time we’ve invested in maternal and infant health has garnered a lot of attention and ultimately, results. We continue to promote dialogue on every platform and emphasize the importance of the issue to policymakers at all levels, especially where...
Aftershock afterthoughts: exploring advocacy and equity in the media
The Center for Community Solutions understands that to effectuate the change we want to see in our communities, we must ensure we as an institution and we as individual staff and board members are committed to race equity and institutional change. This change, however, does not occur overnight and requires refined language, tools, experiences, continuous...
Racism as a public health crisis and the economics of urban hospitals
On September 14th, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center announced they will cease to provide emergency and inpatient services, including emergency psychiatric services, in Cleveland. In addition to the impact this will have on the local service delivery landscape, there is also the economic consequences of the loss of 600 jobs in the city’s Center. Ironically,...