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Morscruethal Behaviors or Just Lip Service?
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Akron's new minority health coordinator sees opportunity to boost access to aid, information
By Tracy Wheeler
Beacon Journal medical writer
Published on Sunday, Mar 09, 2008
Talk of social injustice usually focuses on jobs, income, education, housing or crime and punishment.
But to Sloan Sanford, there's one social injustice that is often overlooked — health.
''If you don't have your health, you have nothing,'' she said. ''I feel like health is the civil rights issue of our time.''
As coordinator of the Akron Health Department's new Office of Minority Health, Sanford is hoping to make an impact on the problem.
''In Akron, minorities are six times more likely to die of HIV/AIDS than a white person,'' she said. ''We need to figure out what is going on. Why is that happening?''
And it's not just HIV/AIDS.
Minorities in Akron are more than four times as likely to die by homicide/assault and more than twice as likely to die from diabetes or conditions brought on by high blood pressure.
The end result is that minorities, on average, have shorter life spans than whites.
In Summit County, blacks die younger than whites, regardless of the neighborhoods in
which they live or how much money they make. In the county's poorer neighborhoods, whites live almost three years longer than blacks. But in the county's wealthier neighborhoods, that gap grows to 9.3 years, with whites living to an average age of 76.4, compared to 67.1 for blacks.
''We need to look at finding solutions,'' Sanford said.
Tom Quade, the health department's deputy director for administration, said the Office of Minority Health will not be creating or running programs of its own. Instead, it will be a resource to help community agencies and grass-roots groups.
The office will help by teaching interested parties how to search for grant money, by providing demographic data about diseases and conditions and by forging connections between like-minded groups.
''Working together can create change,'' Sanford said.
Even though the office just opened in mid-January, Quade and Sanford already are preparing a grant proposal to the Ohio Commission on Minority Health to help fund the office's second year.
Before they can hand in the grant application, though, they need to find a donor (or donors) willing to offer $50,000 in matching money.
The office has outlined four goals: to monitor and report the health status of minority populations, to identify the health disparities that will be the primary focus of the office, to inform and empower people through educational and training programs, and to form community partnerships and activities.
An 11-member advisory council will offer direction to the office. The council includes representatives from hospitals, Akron Summit Community Action Agency, Summit County Community Partnership and advocacy groups.
Alicia Malone, executive director of Akron-based Bondage Breakers Inc., which serves ex-offenders, said it's important to understand that the local minority community includes not just blacks, but also Asians, Hispanics and American Indians.
''I do hope that as we all work together . . . we can address the human needs of the community,'' Malone said. ''The needs are often greater than any one institution can address at any one time.''
Tracy Wheeler can be reached at 330-996-3721 or tawheeler@thebeaconjournal.com.
Talk of social injustice usually focuses on jobs, income, education, housing or crime and punishment.
Get the full article here.
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