The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
NAACP panel’s report cites ‘deeply inequitable systems’
Study finds pandemic worsens inequities experienced by people of color
MIDDLETOWN — Data gleaned from a report by the Middlesex County NAACP Health Committee is being used to address inequities in, and barriers to, good health experienced by minority communities.
It’s an issue that’s become all the more urgent during the pandemic, according to Judy Omphroy, committee co-chairwoman.
Project leaders learned they needed to join community partners in forming the Middlesex County COVID-19 BIPOC (Black people, Indigenous people and people of color) Health Initiative last year, Omphroy said.
“The BIPOC community has had lower success in terms of health outcomes. We have higher incidence of certain diseases,” she said. The study determined the biggest health issues facing the community are diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
“The pandemic has exposed what BIPOC community members have known all along,” said Catherine Rees, director of community benefit at Middlesex Health, co-leader of the project. “The legacy of institutional racism has created deeply inequitable systems for Black and brown people, which negatively impact health outcomes and life expectancy in profound ways.”
This inequity has resulted in a disproportionate COVID-19 mortality for BIPOC communities, Rees said. “The work that the Middlesex County NAACP Health Committee is doing, in partnership with the Ministerial Health Fellowship and other key community agencies, is to address the disproportionate COVID-19 BIPOC mortality in our local community, and it is now focusing on vaccine acceptance,” she said.
The COVID-19 vaccine has brought to light a longtime distrust of the medical community when it comes to health care, Omphroy said, pointing to incidents such as the Tuskegee Study of the 1930s.
“The biggest thing is education, and getting the word out to the population: These are the myths, and these are the facts,” Omphroy said.
“It’s important that we all take the vaccine. There’s not only misinformation about taking the vaccine, there’s misinformation that you don’t need to wear masks anymore,” Omphrey said. “That’s not true. You can still get COVID.
“The purpose of the vaccine is to make it so if you do get COVID, you won’t have as severe of a reaction,” Omphrey said. “Your body is now
prepared to fight it off. You may not know you have it, but you could.”
Those who participated in the study were anonymous. In fact, project leaders didn’t know their identity so people would feel more comfortable speaking their mind, she said.
“We had already been told that community does not get all the information, and we felt it was important they knew how to prevent themselves from catching COVID-19,” Omphroy said.
Her group assembled wellness packages for families, which included hand sanitizer, masks, thermometers, a magnet reminding people to wear a mask, a link to 211 and other resources.
Omphrey and Rees presented a synopsis of information on health factors at Monday’s Common Council meeting.
Deputy Majority Leader Grady Faulkner used some of what he learned for the city’s Black History Month presentation.
One of the big things that came out of focus groups conducted in 2019 is “racism is a public health crisis,” the report said. The project is based on the overarching principle of “nothing about us without us is for us,” it concluded.
Valuable feedback was culled from members of the focus group, who live in Middletown, Middlefield, Cromwell and East Hampton.
Project leaders didn’t want to conduct the sessions on Zoom, because not everyone has access to computers, let alone the platform, Omphrey said. Some can’t afford internet service, or even masks, in some cases; and others didn’t have thermometers at home, she said.
“It’s something we take for granted,” Omphrey said.
The study determined one of the main causes of disease is stress, which “has everything to do with it. We have a tendency not to open up .. and it eats at you and really affects your health, and is a big factor with blood pressure,” another focus group member said.
Funding provided by the Community Foundation of Middlesex County will help address the focus group’s requests for recurring dialogue-based sessions by conducting quarterly adult health programs with topics drawn from the report, and monthly children’s programs that couple health education with art therapy, Omphrey said.
To view the report, visit bit.ly/36EOgfq. For information, email healthcommittee2018@gmail.com.