Health Care in the Black Community

Empower patients with culture-specific strategies for promoting health, treating disease, and preventing violence!Current reports show that Black Americans have the highest death rate of all racial and ethnic groups. They suffer disproportionately from a number of fatal diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, and certain cancers. Moreover, violence takes far too high a toll, especially among young Black men. Clearly a different approach to health education and promotion is needed to end this tragic waste of valuable human lives. Health Care in the Black Community: Empowerment, Knowledge, Skills, and Collectivism proposes an innovative model for health professionals working in the Black community.Traditional Western medicine focuses on sickness, the isolated individual, and the material world. However, the Afrocentric values of many Black people emphasize wellness, the community, and the spiritual world. By basing health care approaches on the community''s positive values of holistic healing and mutual assistance, Health Care in the Black Community suggests practical, effective strategies for promoting physical and emotional wellness. This comprehensive and informative book offers a solid intellectual framework as well as practical advice. Health Care in the Black Community:

• identifies deeply held African-American cultural traditions and attitudes
• offers specific suggestions for combining health care priorities with respect for cultural concerns
• shows how to gain compliance by involving patients in their own care and drawing on community strengths
• discusses the impact of specific problems such as low self-esteem, infertility, HIV/AIDS, and violence on Black families
• develops strategies for preventing family violence by helping family members define and identify emotions
• shares programs and ideas for enhancing the physical and mental health of elderly Black people
• identifies ways to overcome the drawbacks of early parenthood

Health Care in the Black Community offers health care professionals-- policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and educators in the fields of social work, health care, and cultural studies--successful methods, models, and suggestions to help improve health care in Black communities.