Health Issues in the Black Community


Book Description

Health Issues in the Black Community THIRD EDITION "The outstanding editors and authors of Health Issues in the Black Community have placed in clear perspective the challenges and opportunities we face in working to achieve the goal of health equity in America." David Satcher, MD, PhD, 16th Surgeon General of the United States and director, Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine "Eliminating health disparities must be a central goal of any forward thinking national health policy. Health Issues in the Black Community makes a valuable contribution to a much-needed dialogue by focusing on the challenges of the black community." Marc Morial, Esq., president, National Urban League "Health Issues in the Black Community illuminates comprehensively the range of health conditions specifically affecting African Americans, and the health disparities both within the black community and between racial and ethnic groups. Each chapter, whether addressing the health of African Americans by age, gender, type of disease, condition or behavior, is well-detailed and tells an important story. Together, they offer practitioners, consumers, scholars, and policymakers a crucial roadmap to address and change the social determinants of health, reduce disparities, and create more equal treatment for all Americans." Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, president, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation "I recommend Health Issues in the Black Community as a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of the African American community. Health disparities continues to be one of the major issues confronting the black community. This book will help to highlight the issues and keep attention focused on the work to be done." Elsie Scott, PhD, president of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation "This book is the definitive examination of health issues in black America issues sadly overlooked and downplayed in our culture and society. I congratulate Drs. Braithwaite, Taylor, and Treadwell for their monumental book." Cornel West, PhD, professor, Princeton University







Communities in Action


Book Description

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.