As an African American, Mr. Belzak’s culture impacts his health because he believs that his illness is due to the disharmony of nature. Also the culture has no separation between physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, so after Mr. Belzak’s wife passed away, his emotional needs suffered which contributed to his physical needs suffering and his health declining. Also in most African American households, the woman is the head, so with his wife no longer available to help, Mr. Belzak does not have her to schedule his appointments and ensure that he is taking care of himself. African Americans have a fear of health care exams because of the likelihood of finding some life-threatening disease. Mr. Belzak has this fear and does not go to the doctor on a regular basis, which has caused his already ailing health to decline further.…
Invisible Yet Strong “Black America’s Invisible Crisis” is an Essence article written by Lois Beckett that talks about a woman named Aireana and her family who were diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In 2013, after riding along with her family in their car, someone on the outside started shooting at them. Aireana and her husband got shot, but her two kids were unharmed in the back seat. As Aireana was bleeding from the neck and mouth, she didn’t want her kids to think that she was going to die. She crawled out the car as she hear her kids screaming from the back seat yelling out, “My mom’s dying!”…
African Americans may hold the belief that diseases can be cured when a person of faith gifted with special healing powers touches the afflicted person. This touch is usually accompanied by prayer. Sometimes, it is believed that “…the laying on of hands is thought to free the person from all suffering and pain, and people who still experience pain are considered to have little faith” (Purnell, 2003, p. 50). It is important that the health care provider be aware of these spiritual practices, their potential effect on the health care plan, to provide culturally competent…
After watching both the TED talk “The Danger of the Single Story” and the film “God Grew Tired of Us” I definitely noticed the large nature of prejudice and stereotyping of African Americans in our society. Society has made massive improvements since the times of slavery and the stereotypes that have reinforced it. However, there still seems that several individuals go uninformed about the lingering stereotypes, negative positions, and subjugation to Africans and African Americans. It’s also crucial to investigate how these stereotypes are established and dismissed in order to get rid of the problem once and for all. Several people acquire expectations founded on their opinions and are persuaded to disregard or reject information that is unreliable…
Popular phrases such as, “the Blacker the Berry, the Sweeter the juice,” and “If it’s White, it’s gotta be right,” have held opposing views in the African American community on the concept of skin complexion. This idea of a “Color Complex” has psychologically altered the way many African Americans perceive beauty, success, and their personal identity. Although some would disagree, there seems to be a strong connection between skin color and social status in the African American community. It may appear that African Americans are dispelling this theory of “light-skinned and dark skinned” to become a more cohesive group, but the politics of skin color and features still remain. Skin color variations among African Americans play a major role in how they perceive beauty standards, social status and themselves.…
According to (Kilbourne, Switzer & Fine, (2006), Health disparities are significant differences that are needed and viewed clinically and statistically in health care and health outcomes. These differences between groups of people can affect how often an illness(disease) have group affects, the number of people who have gotten sick and how many times do this particular disease or problem ends up with death occurring. There are a number of populations that can be…
Over the past decade a rapidly expanding body of literature has demonstrated the existence of healthcare disparities. While consensus has not emerged regarding the causes of disparities, they are generally thought to be related to provider, patient, and healthcare system factors. On the one hand, the current US healthcare system is oriented toward individualized acute care. Yet healthcare disparities by definition are a population level phenomenon. Individuals do not have disparities, groups and populations do.…
The best way for the medical profession to overcome disparities in healthcare is to enhance treatment outcomes by improving equality of care. As a child, I relied on government funded healthcare programs for medical treatment. Currently, I am insured through my employer’s health insurance policy and am able to enjoy the luxuries of having private insurance. Experiencing treatment from both channels I realized a gap in the quality of care. The medical profession can fill this gap by focusing on teaching compassion and equality in the classroom. Muhammad Ali once said, “It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief and once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.” If medical programs continue to emphasize the…
Health disparities from no access to healthcare lopsidedly influence a developing fragment of a population. Clear differences exist in rates of medical coverage scope. The outcomes of being uninsured are vital and contain utilization of lesser preventive administrations, poorer well-being result, an expansion of death and incapacity rates, bring down yearly wages due to illness and disease, and the exceedingly created phase of sicknesses. Therefore, the uninsured gathering shelter being slightly poor, youthful, and from racial and additionally ethnic minority. Disparities in health and health care does not only affect the groups facing disparities, but also limit overall improvements in quality of care and health for the broader population…
The medical profession can respond to healthcare disparities in several ways. In my opinion, their strongest methods in doing so are through education, volunteering, fundraisers, and community cohesion efforts. One has to remember that healthcare disparities are the end result, not the problem itself, and in order to prevent this outcome, the real issues must first be addressed.…
There are approximately 200 accredited birth centers across the United States that provide a beginning infrastructure for making childbearing centers the frontline of maternity care (Mason, Leavitt, & Chafee, 2012). These centers have been shown to be cost effective and unique in the way that, without disparity, they are able to offer safe, high quality, family centered care to individuals. Recently, while the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG) have shown support to these accredited birthing centers, they still show resistance to programs, such as these, that veer away from organized medicine. These facilities are being threatened by lack of funding and lack of providers available to fill the roles that many individuals require. This paper will explore an interview with maternal health expert and health model pioneer Ruth Watson Lubic, EdD, CNM, which outline the disparities faced by these institutions. Feasible strategies to expand the role and opportunity for nurses to address the primary care supply and demand gap will also be reviewed. Finally, the role that nurses take in advocacy for much needed health care policy and reform to address these disparities will also be discussed, in order to promote becoming more visible and influential within this infrastructure.…
Disparities in healthcare refers to differences between ethnic groups in health insurance coverage, access to care, and the quality of care. Although the term disparities is often used to describe racial or ethnic disparities, there are many dimensions of disparity that exist in the U.S. "There's evidence indicating that socioeconomic status, racial discrimination, and their consequences play a substantial role in health disparities in the U.S." Research shows that racial and ethnic disparities in health are the result of existence of adverse social determinants that contribute to minorities poor health and less access to healthcare. In this report I talk about why there's disparities in healthcare, and the reason why African Americans have…
Purnell, Jason Q., Peppone, Luke J., Alcaraz, Kassandra, McQueen, Amy, Guido, Joseph J., Carroll, Jennifer K., Shacham, Enbal, Morrow, Gary R. (2012). Perceived discrimination, psychological distress, and current smoking status: Results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Reactions to Race Module, 2004–2008. American Journal of Public Heatlh, Vol 102(5), pp. 844-851.…
Studies show that African Americans receive diffidently more in social security benefits for each dollar they pay in payroll taxes than the whites do. They earn 73% as much than as white individuals, especially on average, but because of social security liberal benefit structure, their average retirement is about 85% as much as whites. In addition, studies show that African Americans benefit excessively from social security’s disability and survivor’s benefits, since they are more likely than the other workers to develop disability or die before their retirement. Example, let’s say while 15% of all U.S children are African Americans, 23% of the children receiving social security survivor’s benefits are also added in the group.…
I am part of a subordinate group called African Americans. My family was brought to Jamestown Virginia in 1619 as slaves. I was therefore born into slavery. When I was 11 years old, my sister and me were kidnapped and never seen our parents again. I sit here and all I can think about is being free. When will the world treat me as an equal? The rising demand for sugar, coffee, cotton, and tobacco created a greater demand for slaves by other slave trading countries. Spain, France, the Dutch, and English are in competition for the cheap labor needed to work their colonial plantation system producing those lucrative goods. The slave trade is so profitable that, the Royal African Company chartered by Charles II of England superseded the other traders and has become the richest shipper of human slaves to the mainland…