Blogs

Last year, President Obama launched My Brother’s Keeper (MBK), an initiative that brings together the public and private sectors, communities, businesses, schools, and individuals to close opportunity gaps and ensure all of our nation’s youth, including boys and young men of color, have the tools they need to realize their incredible potential. The initiative sets a vision for supporting our youth from cradle to college and career by focusing on six important milestones across the life course. The first of these milestones is ensuring that children enter school ready to learn.

Mark your calendars. Open Enrollment for 2016 health coverage begins November 1.

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) describes a group of inherited red blood cell disorders. People with SCD have abnormal hemoglobin, called hemoglobin S or sickle hemoglobin, in their red blood cells. Sickle cell disease is a painful and potentially fatal disease that affects approximately 100,000 Americans, mostly African-Americans, every year. We’ve struggled for years to find a cure and treatments, and the latest news is encouraging.

Last week, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy launched Step it Up!, a Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities, urging community planners, local leaders and ordinary Americans to help create more safe areas for walking and wheelchair rolling.

Your heart may be older than you are – and that’s not good. If this is the case, you have a higher risk for heart attacks and stroke. But you can take action to put your heart on a healthy beat.

APHA Webinar Series on Racism and Public Health Concludes with a Look at the Relationship between Graduation Rates and Health Disparities

Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina’s flood waters filled my city of New Orleans – as I watched helplessly from Alaska where I was on vacation. I remember vividly the chaos and confusion of trying to connect with family, neighbors and colleagues from afar with nothing more than a flip phone. At that time, I was on the faculty of the Tulane University School of Medicine and School of Public Health, where I conducted research, saw patients and oversaw the faculty and students of the general medicine section. After the flood, I was in charge of re-assembling my faculty and helping stand up the medical school, which was being temporarily relocated to Houston.

Yes, breastfeeding is the best nutrition for babies. But breastfeeding has never really been just about breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is about rethinking society's rules for infant feeding, overcoming cultural and environmental obstacles, and improving the workplace for breastfeeding women. On top of all this, there are different cultural ideas about breastfeeding for black women, including the historical trauma of wet nursing and the marketing of infant formula in our communities, and the issue gets even trickier. It is no wonder that there have been huge differences in breastfeeding rates between black women and white women for over 40 years.

As the nation recognizes the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina—one of the most devastating and expensive natural disasters in our history—individuals, families, and communities that were directly affected continue to recover.

Twenty five years ago this week, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law, making clear that people with disabilities should experience equal opportunity, independent living, economic self-sufficiency, and full participation in all aspects of our society. Over the past two and a half decades, our communities have become more accessible and more inclusive – in obvious ways, like curb cuts and accessible buildings, and in sometimes less recognized ways, such as the integration of people with disabilities in our schools, workplaces, businesses and neighborhoods.

Discrimination exacerbates health and health care disparities for communities of color. Inequity results in lack of access to quality, affordable care and can lead to prolonged and unnecessary illness. This is especially true for people with a mental illness or substance use disorder. During July, National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, we shine a light on the discrimination that minorities often experience when living with a mental health condition, and learn how we can prevent it.

Discrimination exacerbates health and health care disparities for communities of color. Inequity results in lack of access to quality, affordable care and can lead to prolonged and unnecessary illness.

This July 28th marks the 6th annual World Hepatitis Day (WHD), an opportunity to raise awareness about viral hepatitis and come together to share our successes and strategize about our challenges. Importantly, WHD provides a platform to mobilize greater support for our continued work toward better surveillance and prevention programs and improved access to diagnosis and treatment, through focused governmental and nongovernmental action. Globally, over 400 million people are living with viral hepatitis, and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 1.4 million people around the world die each year as a result of viral hepatitis. WHO focuses attention on World Hepatitis Day as one of the 8 official global health campaigns mandated by WHO Member States. We are honored to join in this annual global observance.

Today is a special day at the White House. Every decade since 1961, the White House Conference on Aging has brought together men and women from across the country who are working to improve the lives of older Americans. And today marks the sixth and largest White House Conference on Aging.

As a first-generation Caribbean American, I often draw inspiration from my greatest role models — my parents.