Time to take advantage of the help that is out there
on October 25th, 2006 at 3:04 am[excerpted]
(oregonlive.com) [Mel] Kohn released his State of African American Health in Oregon report at Friday’s second annual Health Disparities Conference, organized by the African American Health Coalition. His presentation was full of eye-opening statistics and a thinly disguised truth: Health disparities could be dramatically reduced if black people would take better care of themselves.
“At some point,” Kohn says, “we all need to make personal choices as well.” Mostly, he adds, that means stop smoking and start losing weight.
[...]
About six years ago, coalition President Corliss McKeever created a diabetes education program after she attended a public forum about the disease. She says she was only one of two blacks who attended. And the panelists had been living with diabetes for 20, 30 and even 50 years.
“Not one of them,” McKeever says, “was black or a person of color. Whites are living with diabetes, and blacks are dying from it.”
So McKeever started a diabetes support group. The coalition’s other free classes — which range from aerobic exercise to cooking to condom use for substance abusers — offer a culturally specific approach that gets black folks’ attention and inspires trust.
The coalition’s programs have touched more than 4,000 people. But more black folks still have to decide to take advantage of what’s available. (more…)
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