Interview with BRITE Center Director Dr. Vickie Mays and New Orleans resident Viola Washington on the stress caused by disaster and paths to recovery.
Listen to the interview or read a full transcript here. займ онлайн на карту без отказа
BRITE Center Director Dr. Vickie Mays has been appointed by former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to fill the House of Representatives seat on the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics.
The committee serves as a public advisory body to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. Eighteen individuals serve on the committee at a time, and they are selected from a pool of nominees distinguished in health sciences, health care and public health fields. While 16 members are selected by Sebelius, two are chosen by Congress. Dr. Mays is part of the latter group. The committee serves as a national forum on health data and information systems to enable the evolution of public and private health information systems toward more uniform, shared data standards, operating within a framework that protects privacy and security. Read more about the National Committee on Vital Health Statistics here. Read an interview with Dr. Mays about her appointment in the Los Angeles Wave here. buy viagra online
While the influence of social determinants on the health of minority populations is well documented, the COVID-19 pandemic represents a new challenge to the health of Americans and is affecting minority populations disproportionately. As of May 9, 2020, for instance, deaths among African Americans due to COVID-19 accounted for almost double their population share.
Speculation as to why African Americans were bearing a burden of mortality twice their representation in the US population was initially tied to the pre-existing chronic health conditions that already affect African Americans at disproportionate rates including
A recent analysis, however, shows counties that are predominantly African American are currently bearing higher burden of both COVID-19 diagnoses and COVID-19 related deaths even after controlling for chronic conditions such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and HIV, suggesting that social factors again may be elevating the degree of disease burden borne by predominantly black communities. In fact the same analysis shows that counties with higher unemployment were relatively protected against COVID-19 as evidenced by lower rates of diagnoses, as were counties with greater access to healthcare, and counties with fewer individuals per dwelling.
These findings could mean that individuals or segments of the population who are unable to perform job duties from home (ie, frontline workers, essential workers) or who cannot afford a temporary leave from employment were and continue to be placed at higher risk of infection. With African Americans making up a larger proportion of our Nation’s essential worker professionals it makes sense that African American individuals would acquire COVID-19 at higher rates (given continuous exposure to the public). Professions where African Americans, specifically, are over-represented and likely encountered excess risk of infection include:
Individuals working in these professions would have had regular contact with other individuals throughout local lockdown periods and may not have had ready access to personal protective equipment (PPE) at early stages of the pandemic when masks were redirected toward the nation’s hospitals and health care facilities. However, without more data including the occupation and ethnicity of those whose death can be attributed to COVID-19, this remains conjecture.
Center Director Vickie Mays is currently working with members of congress on a bill to require better data on the race and ethnicity of people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic so that the BRITE Center and other public health organizations can better address and respond to the differential impact COVID-19 is having on minority communities.
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Neighborhood Knowledge California (NKCA) |
| OBJECTIVES
NKCA will conduct an introductory workshop that provides an overview of the basic concepts of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and how geographic information can be used in a planning, research and policy environment. There will be a demonstration of the GIS research tools of NCKA’s website (nkca.ucla.edu) that makes demographic, socioeconomic, housing, and lending data available to the public. Finally, participants will be instructed on how to develop personal profiles on the site which allow them to conduct their own analysis, develop community profiles, and import outside data sources. ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
This workshop is part of an all-day event “Mapping Community Health: Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Health Research” co-sponsored by the Ralph & Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies. For a listing of the rest of the day’s events, please visit the Ralph & Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies’ website at: http://lewis.sppsr.ucla.edu/CommunityHealthGIS/ or email lewisctr@sppsr.ucla.edu DIRECTIONS FOR MORE INFORMATION Ralph & Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies Email: lewisctr@sppsr.ucla.edu Fax: 310-825-1575 (ATTN: GIS) |
On Wednesday, August 13, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will recognize television and film screenwriters and producers, and more who educate the public about substance use and mental disorders at the 2014 Voice Awards, held on the UCLA campus. Now in its ninth year, the Voice Awards event brings together the behavioral health community and the entertainment industry to improve public awareness about behavioral health and recovery.
“There is no discounting the power of media and particularly film and television to educate others about inclusion and recovery for people living with mental and substance use disorders,” said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde. “Voice Award winners illustrate how we’re getting better at representing the realities of behavioral health and promoting how recovery from these conditions is commonplace and that people in recovery contribute to their communities every day.”
This year’s theme — Learning About Young Adult Behavioral Health — underscores SAMHSA’s commitment to educate the public about the challenges young adults face in dealing with mental and/or substance use disorders and empower them to help those young adults find a path to recovery.
The Voice Awards program is a collaborative effort among behavioral health and entertainment industry organizations. For a complete list of the 33 program partner organizations involved in this year’s effort, visit http://beta.samhsa.gov/voice-awards/partners.
The 2014 Voice Awards event will be streamed live on the Voice Awards’ Web page on Wednesday, August 13, beginning at 7 p.m. PDT/10 p.m. EDT. To learn more about the Voice Awards program and view the live Webcast, visit http://www.samhsa.gov/voiceawards.
Follow #VoiceAwards to join the conversation about the Voice Awards on Twitter.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation. SAMHSA’s mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America’s communities.