Course Objective
- Describe the roles institutions have played in fostering, exacerbating and perpetuating racism and other forms of oppression
- List the ways institutions can work with neighborhoods and communities to amplify their inherent power to heal together
- Describe the role public health practitioners have in leveraging their power and privilege to embolden larger movements and coalitions seeking to name injustice and liberate oppressed groups
Date: February 20, 2018
Presenter:
Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH
Deputy Commissioner and Founding Director
Center for Health Equity at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH)
For one to have a true commitment to health equity, it is critical to engage with the political, social, and historical context of structural racism within our society. The history of slavery and segregation is deeply embedded within public policies which has fostered neighborhood underdevelopment, increased incarceration rates, and health disparities among minority and ethnic populations. Dr. Aletha Maybank, Deputy Commissioner and Founding Director of the Center for Health Equity at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) discusses the work of the Center for Health Equity to decrease health disparities and create an equitable and thriving city for all. The DOHMH and Center for Health Equity use a racial justice lense to build organizational capacity to advance racial equity through data visualization, community engagement, neighborhood investment, and public policy. Dr. Maybank discusses a neighborhood place-based approach which leverages past public health practices by implementing evidence-based interventions to provide coordinated health promotion services, clinical services, and community resources to increase community access to goods and services and close coverage gaps. Dr. Maybank discusses the importance of working with sister agencies to advance the health equity agenda and emphasizes the importance of multi-sectoral partnerships to promote community change.
