2022 Black Well-being Final w links for Web 11.29.22 - Flipbook - Page 52
BLACK WELL-BEING REPORT 2022
BLACK FUTURE CO-OP FUND
Contextual Factors
Related to Health
Known, ongoing racism is built into medical
Without a race adjustment for kidney
C-section deliveries are associated with
practice. Medicine is a practice. And
function:
higher rates of maternal mortality and
“modern” medicine was built on practices
•
3.3 million (10.4%) more Black
severe maternal morbidity. They also cost
of racism, the destruction of non-white
Americans would reach diagnostic
more.
knowledge and knowledge systems, and
threshold for Stage 3 Chronic Kidney
•
ableism. The saying goes, when you know
better, you do better, but are we? The history
•
of racial inferiority built into “objective”
measures like kidney and lung function or
pain management directives are not new.
There are too many examples to name.
Disease.
charge $8,572 a vaginal birth on
300,000 more would qualify for
average and $11,781 for a c-section.140
•
beneficial nephrologist referral.
•
From 2018 to 2020 in Washington,
31,000 more would be eligible for
cesarean delivery rates were highest for
transplant evaluation and waitlist.
Black infants (34%) compared to the
138
•
Washington healthcare providers
Medical students at the University of
statewide average of 28.1%.141
Washington have raised this issue.
139
Medical racism is taught
Not enough is being done to correct ongoing medical racism, starting with schools.
Healthcare professionals, including Black professionals, are trained using biased materials
and within systems built on racist practices. They are faced with challenging professors
and institutions from the time they are educated well into their careers. Passed in 2021,
SB 5229 requires health equity continuing education for licensed professionals and dictates
that communities most impacted are involved in developing course information.142 It’s a start,
but if we want to eliminate medical racism we must identify and address the ways it has
been embedded into the training environment — and then internalized throughout a system,
expressed in research, the day-to-day administration of care, policy, and more.
Continuing to treat the symptoms, not the root causes
Our medical system, as Black people are acutely aware, focuses on treating symptoms rather
than addressing root causes. The ‘social determinants or drivers of health’ is a framework
that considers the conditions that are foundational to addressing human health. Conditions
like clean air, healthy housing, nutritious food, transportation, living wages, good schools, and
a supportive community are all well known to be essential to our health. Clinical care, a last
resort for many, is only 20% of the equation.
In a 2021 research poll, Black Americans attributed health inequities to a lack of access to
quality care where they live. The second most common reason was environmental factors.143
New local data shows how racist urban planning decisions made decades ago (i.e., redlining)
continue to negatively and disproportionately impact Black health in our state today through
divestment and continued pollution.144
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