Why Advocacy Is the Key to Better Healthcare

My Journey From a Patient to an Advocate for Black Women's Health

I cannot believe it has almost been a year since I launched Enhance Black Women's Health, and I still have not shared the story behind why I do what I do. As a healthcare professional, it has been an oversight not to share more about my healthcare journey with you. As a patient who is still very much navigating a healthcare system that is fraught with biases and disparities, I am still very much in the trenches. 

Even though it was not apparent to me even a year ago, my encounters with racial discrimination and bias within the healthcare system fueled the mission behind Enhance Black Women's Health. As we near our first anniversary, I knew it was time to delve into my journey from a patient to an advocate. Through this journey, I discovered my life's mission to improve healthcare for Black women by addressing the stark disparities Black women face.

My journey in healthcare did not start with a medical degree. 

It began with personal experiences that shed light on the disparities faced by Black women in the healthcare system. While there have certainly been a few exciting healthcare experiences in my youth, the one that impacted me the most was as an adult. I was meeting my new general practitioner, and they made a misguided assumption about my health solely based on my BMI. 

BMI, or Body Mass Index, is an inaccurate measure developed in the 19th century by a Belgian statistician from a small sample of White European men (Haynie et al., 2022). Even though it has long been proven that BMI is an inaccurate healthcare metric, it has continued to be used in healthcare for reasons I will not get into today. This serves as a stark reminder of the inaccuracies and biases that impact Black and Indigenous Peoples of Color. 

These encounters propelled me from graduate school to international health work.

It was through working with an international health organization that I was confronted with the stark disparities contributing to adverse health outcomes for Black women globally. From the United States to Sierra Leone, I greatly appreciated our organization's healthcare workers, who understood health disparities and took initial steps to do something about it. Then, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began, and the health disparities Black women experience became even more apparent. Not only was I seeing my organization's healthcare workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but I was also seeing how it impacted my family members. 

What added insult to injury was the "infodemic" happening worldwide as an overabundance of misinformation was spreading online (Patil, 2021). As a result, it became apparent that a lack of digital health literacy (DHL), which refers to the ability to evaluate the reliability of health information found online, contributed to the spread of COVID-19. The more I learned about DHL, the more it reshaped my advocacy approach. Thus, it has ignited a passion for raising awareness about how healthcare providers can utilize DHL to address the unique health needs of Black women.

I invite you to join me at the 5th Biennial Black Women's Health Conference.

On Saturday, February 17, 2024, I am hosting a workshop titled "From Ancestors to Algorithms: Black Women and Digital Health Literacy." This workshop will address the impact of digital health literacy on the healthcare experiences of Black women and how it contributes to making informed decisions that yield equitable healthcare outcomes for Black women. 

This conference is not just for healthcare providers; it is open to everyone interested in raising health awareness and knowledge of health-related issues and concerns that disproportionately impact Black women and girls. 

Register Now to attend this free conference: https://bwhconference.com/conference-registration

Let me know in the comments if you are attending. I would love to meet up if time allows!

Reference 

Haynie, Jeannette Gaudry, Joslyn Fleming, Alicia Revitsky Locker, & Alice Shih, Impacts of Marine Corps Body Composition and Military Appearance Program (BCMAP) Standards on Individual Outcomes and Talent Management, RAND Corporation, RR-A1189-1, 2022. As of January 21, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1189-1.html

Patil, U., Kostareva, U., Hadley, M., Manganello, J. A., Okan, O., Dadaczynski, K., Massey, P. M., Agner, J., & Sentell, T. (2021). Health Literacy, Digital Health Literacy, and COVID-19 Pandemic Attitudes and Behaviors in U.S. College Students: Implications for Interventions. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(6), 3301. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18063301