February 2022: Black History Month
HSCommunity is a newsletter from the Health Sciences Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Subcommittee on Communications.
This year’s Black History Month theme, Black Health and Wellness, shines an important light on the work Black healthcare workers and advocates do to positively impact their communities and decrease health disparities.
Despite the high risk for COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and death faced by Black Americans, COVID-19 vaccination rates among this population are lower than their white counterparts.
As Candice Brown, an assistant professor with the WVU School of Medicine and Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, noted in the early days of vaccine availability, “vaccine hesitancy has a significant historical framework, which goes back as far as slavery.”
/ Research
WVU School of Public Health aids state efforts to boost COVID-19 vaccination among minority communities
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the WVU School of Public Health has provided critical insights to help target minority communities and other key demographics as the state works to boost its vaccination rate.
Research conducted by Linda Alexander, senior associate dean for academic, student and faculty affairs, revealed that minority communities often relied on personal faith to make their decisions, and they were eager for information from sources they could trust to help guide their choices. Her work also reiterated lingering health disparities that have reduced trust in medical providers within communities of color.
WVU leads global effort in steering the future of oral health through behavioral, social science lens
The intersection of oral health and behavioral and social sciences is highlighted in a newly-released international consensus statement, authored by Daniel McNeil, a researcher in both the WVU School of Dentistry and the Department of Psychology.
“Uniquely positioned to help advance racial, cultural and other equity in oral health, behavioral and social sciences must be integrated into the education, training and mentoring of all oral health clinicians and researchers.”
Since 2000, McNeil has served as a principal investigator of the Center for Oral Health Research in Appalachia. The COHRA Smile project is currently engaging a group of African American women, who entered the study during pregnancy and whose children now range from infancy through age 2, to identify factors that contribute to the burden of dental problems and oral health disparities.
/ Events
Feb. 15 & 22: A Long Talk About the Uncomfortable Truth
Feb. 16: Lecture with School of Medicine Harriet Tubman Visiting Professor
Feb. 17: Screening of “The Loyola Project”
Feb. 17: The Color of COVID-19: Racial health disparities, mental health and policy
Feb. 19: Student Nurses’ Association Ethnic Hair Event
For more events, visit the WVU calendar.
/ ENGAGE: Share your lived experiences
We introduced this ENGAGE section of HSCommunity as an opportunity for you to share your experiences and attitudes towards a health-related situation so we can learn and grow together.
This month we ask, “After diagnosis, a health care provider may prescribe medication(s). What factors would you consider before filling the prescription? What types of questions might you ask your pharmacist? What experiences may have led you to these decisions/questions?”
If you have any questions, please contact the WVU Health Sciences Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Subcommittee on Communications by emailing Jessica Wilmoth at jessica.wilmoth@hsc.wvu.edu.
