Advocacy

Over the past 35 years, NHBW has confronted issues adversely affecting the African-American family and communities at large. According to the National Women’s Health Information Center, the leading cause of death for African-American women are hearth disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease.

Breast Cancer and Domestic violence have a particular impact on African-American women. Each year, NHBW ‘Reaching Out to Save Lives’ campaign helps African-American women improve their health by increasing the awareness of their health status, motivate behavior changes in the African-American community through the dissemination of health information and to encourage women to pledge to share this information with other women.

For African-Americans in the U.S., health disparities mean earlier death, decrease in quality of life and loss of treatment opportunities. For our society, it means less than optimal productivity, higher health costs and social inequity (MMWR, 2005). In a landmark study, conducted by the Institute of Medicine (2002), ‘Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care’, revealed that African-Americans and other ethnic minorities received lower quality health care than non-minorities, regardless of the types of insurance, income, age, or severity of illness as compared to Whites.

NHBW programs have focused on addressing the disparities that exist in the U.S. healthcare system. NHBW is a strong supporter of the American Stroke Association and the Power To End Stroke campaign to educated African-Americans of the Warning Signs of Stroke.

Resources:

American Stroke Association

American Heart Association

Power to End Stroke

American Cancer Society

American Diabetes Association