Q&A
Strategies for addressing health disparities in underserved communities
1:33:27
ยท
129 sec
Dr. Morse outlines DOHMH's approach to addressing health disparities in underserved communities, acknowledging the long-term nature of the challenge.
- Emphasis on focusing interventions in communities that have experienced unfair impacts
- Description of the Race to Justice program to educate DOHMH staff on systemic issues
- Mention of neighborhood health action centers in areas with the most unfair health outcomes
- Discussion of policy tools like the declaration of racism as a public health crisis
- Collaboration with the mayor's office on a citywide racial equity plan
Mercedes Narcisse
1:33:27
We can say that I read a statement right here which I love.
1:33:32
In other words, I'm not gonna read the whole thing, we can literally buy ourselves more health and time.
1:33:41
That's right.
1:33:43
But in the most need underserved population, when things like that happen, it's so scary because we know is the underserved community that gonna get the biggest hit.
1:33:57
So what's your plan?
Dr. Michelle Morse
1:33:59
I would underserved is a choice and you know I can't make up for generations of policy choices and systemic racism in, you know, months or weeks or or even years.
1:34:11
It's gonna take time.
1:34:13
But what I will say is that what we learned during the COVID pandemic and what commissioners prior to me have worked on is making sure that we use interventions and focus our programs in the places and communities that have experienced unfair impacts.
1:34:29
So across the whole entire health department, we have a program called Race to Justice that's focused on making sure all 7,000 of our staff understand the ways in which policy choices, history, exclusion, etcetera, have shaped the current health outcomes that we see.
1:34:49
We also have neighborhood health action centers in three neighborhoods across the city that are the neighborhoods that have the most unfair outcomes for health outcomes, and those action centers are intended to help to focus on that exact issue that you're describing.
1:35:06
And then we're continuing to use policy tools like our board of health declaration of racism as a public health crisis and partnering with the mayor's office of equity and racial justice, commissioner Sidia Sherman, to make sure that the citywide racial equity plan that was passed in the charter and is planned to come out at some point, that those documents really guide the remedy and the repair that needs to happen in communities that have been historically underserved.