Health Policy Commons^™

The Multicultural Mental Health Research Center (Mmhrc), Castellano Turner

Trotter Review

African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and Native Americans have had relatively less access to the resources of society compared to white Americans. These resources include such things as educational and employment opportunities, political and economic power, and the goods and services that a prosperous society can produce. Health care is an important resource to which access is not equal for all groups. African Americans and other ethnic minority groups are, by most indices of health care access and utilization, underserved. Mental health services, in particular, have been shown to be less available to ethnic minority populations. Jones and Korchin, …

Disparities In The Health Care Status Of Women: Implications For Research, Marcia I. Wells-Lawson

Trotter Review

Even a cursory review of data on the health status of women reveals striking differences by race. According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, death rates among Black women from the three leading causes of death (cardiac disease, cancer and cerebrovascular disease) exceed those of white, Asian, Native American and Latina women for each age category from 45-84. With the exception of Black women, the death rates among white women from these diseases exceed those of other ethnic groups of women. Data on two of the risk factors for cardiac and cerebrovascular diseases (hypertension and obesity), show …

Can The Health Needs Of African American Men Be Met Through Public Health Empowerment Strategies?, Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Eric Whitaker

Trotter Review

Health promotion and disease prevention efforts, which use empowerment strategies and emphasize community control, are essential to overcoming the legacy of medical malfeasance and successfully improving the health status of black males. This discussion depicts the legacy of harm and presents the case for empowerment strategies; it also describes one Boston community-based program example of utilizing an empowerment strategy and concludes with a challenge to all health professionals to become enablers of empowerment rather than obstructions to it.

Programmatic Responses To The Aids Epidemic By Communities Of Color In Massachusetts, Ron E. Armstead

Trotter Review

The Centers for Disease Control found that minorities now account for more than half of all the HIV cases in the United States. For African Americans, the rate was more than 5 times as high as that for whites. Further, the disease has equally affected women and children in the African American community; 84% of the AIDS cases involving children age 12 and under can be found in the African American community. AIDS has now become the second leading cause of death for African American women. This essay describes a research project focusing on the factors involved in developing and …

Warning: Urban Living May Be Hazardous To Your Health: A Personal Perspective, Frederick G. Adams

Trotter Review

As a result of remarkable scientific and medical achievements of the 20th century, we now know that full and quality health is within reach for all Americans. Yet, despite these achievements, the burdens of inadequate health services too often falls more heavily on some population groups more so than on others. The fact that this "gap" in health status occurs more frequently among people with low income and people belonging to racial/ethnic minority groups, in particular African Americans, has been well documented nationally. Not only does the "gap" in the health status experienced by these groups include consistently higher excess …

Improving Health Care For Disadvantaged Local Communities: Proposing User Fees Based On Some International Experiences, Saskia Wilhelms

Trotter Review

The fact that national health care reform in the United States has been stalled is not reason for resign. More than ever, one has to design and implement creative options to achieve satisfactory health service at low costs. The political turnover in Congress shifts more responsibility to local governments. This means less funding and less willingness by the national government to be held accountable for health and social services. On the other hand, this situation may carry opportunity to impact social policies on a local level.

The living conditions in some of our communities equal those in so-called third world …

Coalition Building: Moving Toward Effective Coalitional Strategies Of Hiv/Aids Prevention In Communities Of Color, Lisa Roland

Trotter Review

Despite the overwhelming burden carried by blacks and Latinos in terms of AIDS, it has become evident that in keeping with the general and historical pattern of discrimination reflected in funding, allocation of resources, policies etc., communities of color have received insufficient support to effectively address the problem at hand. Further compounding this dilemma, communities of color have fought against each other to secure funding for particular community programs. While looking at our individual, immediate, and entirely valid needs, many of us have at times failed to see the impact of our individual actions and attitudes on a broader picture.

Ethnic Minorities And Mental Health: Ethical Concerns In Counseling Immigrants And Culturally-Diverse Groups, Gemima M. Remy

Trotter Review

Between 1980 and 1990 nearly 9 million foreign-born individuals migrated to the United States. In 1993, the Immigration and Naturalization Service recorded the entry of over 900,000 immigrants and refugees. This figure is believed to be higher given the estimated 1.5 to 2.5 million people who enter this country illegally each year. Currently, ethnic minority groups make up one-fourth of the United States population. It is estimated that by the year 2000, one-third of the U.S. population will be comprised of ethnic minorities. As the population of the United States becomes increasingly diverse, considerable attention is being directed to a …

Doing More With Less: The Marie Stopes Clinics In Sierra Leone, Nahid Toubia, Grace Ebun Delano

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This edition of Quality/Calidad/Qualité reports on the Marie Stopes Sierra Leone (MSSL) organization which pursues its goals with compassion and ambition, despite seemingly insurmountable economic hardships. MSSL has established a service model that many programs in richer countries should try to imitate. Several particularly important lessons emerged, including: creative, skillful management, well-organized and flexible financial administration, and human motivation and perseverance can enable an organization to overcome financial difficulties; family planning is an integral part of people's reproductive and general health concerns and can dovetail with concern for development in useful and practical ways; men appreciate being involved in the …

Is Equal Access The Prescription For Equity?, Victor Sidel, Dorothy E. Roberts, Jennifer Dohrn, Kathy Anastos, Nitza Milagros Escalera, Peter Holland, Sylvia Kleinman, Sylvia Law, Jack O'Sullivan, Robert Padgug, Dennis Rivera, Beth Weitzman

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Tuberculosis And The Power Of The State: Toward The Development Of Rational Standards For The Review Of Compulsory Public Health Powers, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article uses tuberculosis as the paradigm for exploring rational standards for the exercise of compulsory public health powers. Extant doctrine in disability and constitutional law provides a lens for examining judicial review of state interventions. The author first sets out the central epidemiological and biological aspects of tuberculosis to demonstrate the strength of the governmental interest in curtailing the epidemic. Second, he examines the interventions of testing, screening, and confinement of persons with tuberculosis, where he focuses on two congregate settings--correctional and health care facilities--that present substantial health risks and are principal foci for the exercise of state intervention. …

The Resurgent Tuberculosis Epidemic In The Era Of Aids: Reflections On Public Health, Law, And Society, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The resurgence of tuberculosis and the rise in drug-resistant cases is neither inexplicable nor unexpected, but rather is the predictable outcome of a complex configuration of biological, social, and behavioral factors that have converged in America over the past decade. This article examines the biological, social, and behavioral causes of the epidemic, and suggests a comprehensive public health strategy for curtailing tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. When thoughtfully conceived, public health strategies can be implemented that are consistent with the limitations that both constitutional law and disability law place on the authority of the state. While traditional concepts of public …