Effecting change, breaking through barriers
Nova Scotia Brotherhood Initiative bridging gaps for people of African descent
Mario Rolle says the Nova Scotia Brotherhood Initiative has been breaking through long-standing barriers and bridging gaps between Nova Scotian residents of African descent and healthcare systems.
Rolle is the initiative’s team lead and says the group he leads is among Nova Scotia’s best kept secrets, as much of its work is under the radar.
But this subtle work has seen bold results, as Rolle says Black men are learning they can still be strong and take care of themselves and the initiative is expanding into areas beyond health care.
“The movies and media we saw growing up showed strong men who never got sick. That perception was passed on to us,” he says. “We’re bridging these gaps and changing the stigma, making men see that it’s cool to talk about health and wellness.”
FOSTERING CONNECTION DURING COVID-19
The NSBI was created in 2012 after Black stakeholders in Nova Scotia met to discuss research that had found many men of African descent were not getting the medical help they needed, nor seeking it out.
Rolle says the Health Association of African Canadians (HAAC) visited the pioneering holistic healthcare organization Project Brotherhood in Chicago, returning to Nova Scotia with its holistic framework to found the NSBI here with the support of the predecessor to Nova Scotia Health (NSH).
The initiative has become a free service offered with support from the NSH, which provides a variety of health and mental health services to men of African descent.
“This service is unique not just to Nova Scotia, but also to Canada – it’s the only one providing these services to a marginalized group. The next nearest would be Chicago,” says Rolle.
While the group had been focused on bridging the gaps that existed between Black men and the health-care system – whether a regular doctor’s appointment, dentist or other service – Rolle says its focus pivoted to community zone talks after the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic.
These talks happened after the NSBI was approached separately by Preston-area community leaders and by public health, who came together to ask that it help bridge the gap between the communities and COVID-19 health information.
“We were able to get community talking with government,” says Rolle. “We brought in doctors to talk about COVID-19, how to avoid it, why testing is important … and the community started asking questions. Public health was able to bring in a testing site. That gap was bridged.”
ADVOCATING FOR REPRESENTATION WITHIN HEALTH CARE
Rolle says the initiative experienced such success with connecting Black communities and public health during the pandemic that it is stepping back from this to once again focus on general health, where many ongoing health issues are still impacting Black communities.
“Before COVID-19 there was diabetes, AIDS, hypertension and other things. We need to bring the focus back to these issues,” he says.
Rolle says this back-to-basics focus has come with some changes, including expanding health discussions to include subjects like social determinants of health and expanding its target groups from just Black men to also include women to ensure gaps are being bridged for all community members.
The initiative will also continue its community zone talks and has started a new barbershop talk safe space initiative, where men can get a haircut and talk about mental health.
“Men were helping and consoling other men while talking about mental health and racism, how it’s impacted their mental psyche. Those barriers dropped,” says Rolle.
The initiative’s next healthcare goal is to advocate for more primary care physicians who reflect the marginalized communities they serve. Rolle says the NSBI has worked with a Black doctor and has already seen dramatic improvements in community engagement.
He says this next step of more representation within the health care field itself is essential to breaking down even more barriers in health care and working towards the end of racist health-care systems.
“Our doctor takes time to get to know his patients and it’s having an incredible effect. Once one man sees him, he’ll tell his community about how good it was and so on. That positivity travels fast,” says Rolle.
“This will get more men out, knowing their doctor looks like them, doesn’t judge them and will be real with them.”