The Black Women's Health Coalition will move to address health inequities, gaslighting among African American patients, and the lack of empathy and sensitivity displayed by some medical professionals when interacting with African American patients during a health crisis.

We are committed to tackling the racial injustices that produce these statistics within the African American community in healthcare, and we are asking you to do the same. 

BWHC is brought to you by African American women who are tired of being gaslighted, misdiagnosed, ignored, and mistreated. Enough is enough.We are asking the top ten hospitals to take a stance. Join us in this movement together.

*For inquiries, please reach out directly to blkwomenhc@gmail.com.

HERE ARE THE TOP TEN HOSPITALS: (click hospital to send pre-written emails to the hospital's leadership)

• Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
• Johns Hopkins Hospital
• Grady Memorial Hospital
• Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center 
• The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Hospital 
• University of Cincinnati Medical Center
• Massachusetts General Hospital
• Stanford Hospital
• Detroit Medical Center
• Emory University Hospital

We've included a PLEDGE for each hospital and medical staff to sign, print, and post inside of their working area. Click PLEDGE to view.

HERE ARE THE FACTS:

1. 50% of Caucasian medical trainees believe that African Americans have less sensitive nerve endings than White people.
2. African Americans are 50% less likely to receive pain medication than Caucasians.
3. African American women are three times more likely to die during childbirth than Caucasian women.
4. African American women are more likely to receive a hysterectomy for pain compared to white women receiving alternative health options.
5. African American women are 50% less likely to be diagnosed with endometriosis.
6. African-American women are less likely than white women to receive evidence-based care for endometrial cancer.
7. Some estimates show that 26% of African American women between ages 18 and 30 have fibroids.

HERE ARE OUR DEMANDS:

1. ACCOUNTABILITY -- Develop a patient advocacy board that is led and driven by members. This board should include patients and family members an opportunity to discuss their experiences during visits.
2. EDUCATION FOR ADOLESCENTS -- Provide educational community outreach programs such as seminars and speaking engagements to appropriate-aged children around women’s reproductive health issues. Sharing knowledge with appropriate-aged children about specific health disparities and diseases that may affect them allows the medical community to be preventive, instead of reactive.
3. DIVERSITY TRAINING -- Require more effective and efficient training for all medical professionals and staff in areas such as racial and ethnic diversity awareness and discrimination in healthcare. This allows for medical professionals to be equipped properly when interesting with a diverse patient population.
4. CLEAR COMMUNICATION -- Review all organization communications and publications such as magazines, pamphlets, websites, newsletter, for racial divides and inaccurate verbiage that may prevent African Americans not to receive the necessary care or treatment as other patients. 
5. PAIN MANAGEMENT AWARENESS -- Develop pain management norms and policies for addressing every patient equally dealing with pain. Implement changes to prevent medical professionals from gaslighting African American women. Gaslighting mainly causes mistrust, emotional damage, trauma among patients, and manipulates patients into believing that it’s all a psychological or mental problem rather than physical.
6. INCLUSIVITY IN RESEARCH -- Ensure that all current and future research studies include African American women. Most research studies are conducted on white women, which can necessarily make it difficult to treat patients that are African American effectively.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP:

Post and share provided graphics and tag hospitals.
Use the hashtag #6forhealthequity when posting.
Use the pre-written template to send letters to each hospital.
Each day we will target a specific hospital to post about on social media.

SUPPORTIVE LINKS:

https://endometriosisnetwork.com/blog/endometriosis-racism-how-the-strong-black-woman-stereotype-hurts-endo-patients

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6167003/

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2018/05/10/450577/health-care-system-racial-disparities-maternal-mortality/

https://www.healthline.com/health/endometriosis/endo-race-matters

https://www.self.com/story/tia-mowry-endometriosis-black-women

https://www.contemporaryobgyn.net/view/how-raceethnicity-influences-endometriosis

 

*For inquiries, please reach out directly to blkwomenhc@gmail.com.