OUR RESEARCH
Bell, Judith, and Standish, Marion. “Communities and Health Policy: a Pathway for Change.” Health Affairs, vol. 24, no. 2, March 2005, pp. 339-342. EBSCOhost. Accessed 25 April 2020.
This source analyzes how our health status is determinant of preexisting factors that are entirely out of the healthcare system and how various communities tend to suffer because of these factors meaning access to health care is not equal. Because of this inequity, humankind faces the authors to address the disparity and analyze existing policies that impact different communities. In addition, the authors also suggest policy changes where individuals can have a better chance at equal health care access. Policymakers must pay attention to physical, social, and economic conditions in different environments and how they affect health status. By paying close attention to this, they can close potential gaps associated with health disparities, especially in low-income areas.
This source is relevant to my advocacy campaign because it analyzes the existing problems of health care access and criticizes existing US policies since it does not pay close attention to environmental issues. This article focuses on asthma and obesity, two very popular and common health issues. With those health concerns in mind, they also examine policy within communities and explain how they go together and how community members can influence policy. For example, the authors state “a window of opportunity for policy change opens when there is a favorable confluence of problems, possible solutions, political circumstances, and public/community engagement (Bell and Standish). This source is very informative since it advocates for changes in policy to promote improved well-being in all communities regardless of one’s class, race/ethnicity, genetics, age, and so on.
Bouie, Jamelle. “Why Coronavirus is Killing African Americans More Than Others.” New York Times. 14 April 2020. Accessed 19 April 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-racism-african-americans.html
In this article from the New York Times, it discusses the issues regarding the current day pandemic and how that has impacted African Americans negatively, and at a higher rate than others. The author puts this into perspective with a little data explaining how in Louisiana, African Americans make up 33% of the population and account for 70% of overall coronavirus deaths total, and this isn’t the only state who shows this trend. The author discusses the disparities they face with mention to the jobs they have. With employment, he mentions that they still suffer lower pay and are working in essential jobs so already, they are at higher risk of contracting the virus.
Despite this being a non-academic source, I found it to be quite useful to my project because first off, the author is an African American man who is speaking to his experiences and what he’s witnessed in our modern-day world. Because of that, I found his words to be especially profound and powerful and his credibility cannot be questioned given it was published from the New York Times. Also, because he mentions historical racism and describes how it been changed to look differently today, I found it especially powerful in my project. In addition to that, the way he describes how America’s economy works as well as the labor market, using capitalism as a way of understanding, makes sense as to why this virus is impacting the African American community so intensely. This author is speaking to his people from all the things he has learned about his community.
Campinha-Bacote, Joespha. “A Culturally Competent Model of Care for African Americans.” Culture and Diversity Issues, vol. 29, no. 1, Feb. 2009, pp. 49-54. EBSCOhost. Accessed 25 April 2020.
In this peer-reviewed journal, the author discusses the health care disparities that African Americans face through a historical context as well as studying it through a couple of different models in understanding the existing issue. They point out some factors that have resulted in the continuous pattern of inequities in health care like nurses' biases about African American citizens which is why the author states, we must be more culturally aware, knowledgeable, and competent. In summary, this article critically analyzes medical behavior and brings attention to how culture can be broken into framework models in order to close the gap they have faced historically.
This source helps to strengthen my advocacy campaign because it assesses and focuses on African American inequity within the health care system. While it doesn’t touch on access as much what is critical to understand is that because of the way African American’s have been assessed and treated medically, it has created a gap between their health and well-being. So, if medical professionals are not helping them due to biases, African Americans will not seek medical attention when they should. The model this article uses really broadens understanding of how the treatment works and the cultural differences that have cause distances between African Americans and health care. Due to some of the arguments, it helps support and understands as why African Americans are suffering at a higher rate in this current day COVID-19 pandemic.
Copeland, Valire Carr. “African Americans: Disparities in Health Care Access and Utilization.” Health & Social Work, vol. 30, no. 3, Aug. 2005, pp. 265-270. EBSCOhost. Accessed 25 April 2020.
In this journal, Copeland primarily focuses on the health disparities on the terms of access, utilization, quality of care, and the perceptions of health and illness; all relative to the African American population. This author reflects on these issues from a social work background which carries a different tone for this piece. The author explains that when an African American has acquired access to health care services, many will still experience poor care so as a result, having access to care as a function of insurance coverage will not solve the problem. The author also uses perceptions as a barrier to accessing health care too which is why they don’t turn to health care as a resource. The authors then conclude that providers must address the impact of racism, oppression, social injustice, and such and confront racism and work toward the elimination of racial health care disparities.
In evaluation, this journal is an effective piece that supports my advocacy campaign. Interestingly, they analyze how this issue is being projected in the field of social work so it adds a different perspective than my other academic sources. In this source, I found it was effective how they had a focus on utilizing health care and how the quality of care correlates with perceptions of health and illnesses within this population.
Douthit, N., et al. "Exposing some important barriers to health care access in the rural USA." Public health, vol. 129, no. 6, May 2015, pp. 611-620. ELSEVIER. Accessed 19 April 2020.
This source considers location as being a large barrier to health care access and discusses how those are effecting different families including families of color. The main focus of this article was specifying as to how rural communities are at a larger disadvantage because medical facilities are not in close range to where these communities live. For example, the authors found that trauma centers particularly are rarely in a ten-mile radius of rural communities, only 24% are in comparison to urban areas which have a 71% likelihood of being in that ten-mile radius. Because of the absence inaccessible care, these rural communities have a more distanced idea of mental and physical health, they believe they can fix themselves and don’t seek health care as much as a population who is in more reasonable proximity to it.
This source is really helpful to my advocacy campaign because of the primary focus on location as a barrier to accessing health care. Many of my sources discuss how African American citizens come from low-income communities and in this specific source, it backs up those previous claims by exemplifying all the reasons it causes inequalities to health care access with acknowledgment of culture too, since many of those low-income populations are in rural communities. So as a result, this article takes one of my main arguments and supports it through prior data, personal quotations, and more statistics.
Flores, Glenn and Tomany-Korman, Sandra C. “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Medical and Dental Health, Access to Care, and Use of Services in US Children.” Pediatrics, vol. 121, no. 2, Jan. 2008, pp. 289-298. Google Scholar. Accessed 19 April 2020.
LaVeist, Thomas A., et. al. “The Economic Burden of Health Inequalities in the United States.” Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Sept 2009, pp. 1-11. Google Scholar. Accessed 19 April 2020.
In this source, the authors reflect on a number of studies aimed to focus and gather research on health inequalities in the US. The studies mentioned in this source was focused primarily on economic factors that have created health inequity for minoritized groups such as medical costs. After gathering and discussing the data supporting the health inequalities, the authors focus on a future we could work towards so health care is not an economic burden for anyone. For example, the authors believe that eliminating these inequalities for minors, alone would reduce indirect costs associated with illness and premature death by one trillion US dollars.
This source is beneficial to my overall research because it provides statistical research and data about the inequalities minoritized group face. In addition, the majority of the research findings specify that African Americans, the group my project focuses on, is the group that faces the greatest inequality in health care as well as access. This source also analyzes the common patterns of inequalities African American faces and discusses it finically and relates it to our economy rather than socially, which is what many of the other sources I used to do.
Williams, David R., and Jackson, Pamela B. “Social Sources of Racial Disparities in Health.” Health Affairs, vol. 24, no. 2, March 2005, pp. 325-334. EBSCOhost. Accessed 25 April 2020.
In this article, the authors bring attention to exactly what has created such big disparities in health care for African American citizens. By addressing these specific racial disparities, the authors focus on what efforts need to be made to enhance health resources that will reduce the common negative outcomes we see most commonly (i.e. psychosocial factors, complications, etc.). A study in 2000 found that deaths from the flu and pneumonia show there aren’t any relative racial differences but in 1950 black mortality was about 70%. As a result of all the constraints African Americans face in health care they analyze solutions that are essential to creating change. The author suggests: addressing segregation, narrow the income gap, improve medical care, adjust and rethink existing health policies. If these could be acknowledged and changed appropriately, maybe racial health disparities could be expunged.
This source is especially useful to my advocacy campaign because it explicitly states the most common constraints African American’s face and additionally uses those constraints as a method of coming up with potential policy changes that need to be considered. In addition, these authors utilized methods of analyzing the data to highlight health care insecurities. It was also prominent how the authors carried their argument from a historical context and comparing it to common day struggles.
Yancy, Clyde W. “COVID-19 and African Americans.” Jama Network, vol. 10, no. 1, April 2020, pp. 1-2. Google Scholar. Accessed 19 April 2020.
13th. Directed by Ava DuVernay. Kandoo Films, 2016. Netflix.