Community Grand Rounds: Healing the Trauma of Racism.  My current focus is a speaker series titled, Community Grand Rounds (CGR).  Launching in 2018 and concluding in 2020, the series will host speakers who will travel to Southwest Michigan, home of Lakeland Health, to share their knowledge of and insights into the emerging science underlying racialized health inequities. Speakers will address themes such as the health implications of psychological trauma and racism as well as the emerging science of epigenetics and social genomics. The audience for this series will include health care providers, government leaders and community residents.

Welcome to Lakeland Health’s Community Grand Rounds, a speaker series that examines how the trauma of racism affects the health of the people we serve, and how to be more aware of and better address those impacts in our professional encounters.

In Southwest Michigan’s Berrien County, poor people, and especially African Americans, experience high rates of the illnesses identified as Priority Health Needs in Lakeland’s Community Health Needs Assessment. Data provided by the Berrien County Health Department finds blacks have higher rates of obesity, diabetes, stroke and psychological distress when compared to whites. While these differences are attributable to poor access to resources required for good health, like healthy food, quality education and safe housing, emerging science is showing there’s something deeper at work.

New knowledge in the field of neuroscience and in the emerging fields of epigenetics and social genomics suggests that the experience of discrimination is strongly associated with health inequities. In particular, we are learning that the social environment we live in impacts our genes, our hormones, inflammation in our bodies, our immune systems and, therefore, our overall health. For health care providers and others, awareness of the health effects of discrimination, such as racism, is critical to optimizing patient and population health.

Community Grand Rounds is Lakeland’s effort to raise awareness and understanding of this new science and its implications for health. In a series of speakers and discussions between 2018 and 2020, Lakeland’s doctors, nurses, other clinical staff, board members as well as government and community leaders will learn from experts about the impact of racism on health. The goal is to inform and to set the stage for further discussions and actions leading to improved health outcomes across the population served by Lakeland.

Community Grand Rounds is a collaborative effort between Lakeland health and The Todman Family Foundation.

 For more information, contact Lynn Todman, PhD through the contact form below.

Los Angeles High School Students Concerned About Increasing Societal Discrimination

 

Association of Reported Concern About Increasing Societal Discrimination With Adverse Behavioral Health Outcomes in Late Adolescence. (JAMA Pediatrics, October 2018) 

Percent of Uninsured Among Communities of Color in the United States 

 

In 2017, non-Hispanic whites had the lowest uninsured rate among race and Hispanic-origin groups. The uninsured rates for blacks and Asians were 10.6 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively. Hispanics had the highest uninsured rate  at 16.1 percent nationally.

 

Data Source: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2017 https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/income-poverty.html

 

2016 Infant Mortality Rates in the State of Michigan per 100,000 Infants

2016 Infant Mortality Rates in Berrien County Michigan per 100,000 Infants

State of Michigan Data Source: https://www.mdch.state.mi.us/pha/osr/InDxMain/Tab2.asp

Berrien County Michigan Data Source: https://www.mdch.state.mi.us/pha/osr/InDxMain/BckCoTbl.asp

What was the source of inspiration for Community Grand Rounds? 

Spurred on by the findings of Lakeland Health’s Community Needs Assessment, Todman found significant health disparities in the region that she wanted to delve into further.

What is the impact of stress on health?

Tasha N. Turner, MA, LLPC, Program Director, Trauma Informed Initiatives  discusses our physical response to stress. 

It was exciting to be a part of “Navigating a New World Order” at the Hope Global Forum in Atlanta, Georgia on March 26-28, 2018.

These short animated videos tell my story of growing up on the South Side of Chicago and my observations about implicit bias.

Does a better diet lead to better behavior? While the science indicates that it does, children in one Benton Harbor, Michigan, school helped to demonstrate the link between better mental health and a food palate that involves less sugar, preservatives, trans fats and other additives and more fish, whole grains and green leafy vegetables. During the 12-week project, the students at Sorter ate meals based on scientific studies over the past 20 years that show a strong correlation between diets high in omega 3 fatty acids, vitamins and other essential nutrients help to reduce aggressive and anti-social behavior. Here’s what we learned from Sorter School’s staff and project leads.

Here are some interesting and important TED Talks on the subject of racism and its impact on health. The first is by Dr. David Williams, our July 2018 Community Grand Rounds speaker.

The new field of epigenetics sees that genes can be turned on and off and expressed differently through changes in environment and behavior. Rachel Yehuda is a pioneer in understanding how the effects of stress and trauma can transmit biologically, beyond cataclysmic events, to the next generation. [Listen to her podcast here]

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