Public Health-Seattle and King County and Black Providers Network Address “Racism As A Public Health Crisis”

By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium

Last Friday, The Black Community Equity Team Partnership, a coalition of Black organizations in King County, held a Black Providers Network workshop at the African American Museum to address racism as a public health crisis, and to help create connections and partnerships with service providers to the community.

In June 2020, King County and Public Health declared racism a public health crisis. To tackle this issue, the Black Community Equity Team built on the work of Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, an epidemiologist and family physician dedicated to understanding and addressing racism’s impact on health and well-being.

Regarding racism as a health crisis, Jones said, “Now that we see, what do we do?”

Building on the work of Dr. Jones, the Black Community Equity Team was created to confront the longstanding, systemic health inequities experienced by Black people living in King County.

The workshop brought together a diverse group of healthcare providers and public health officials, aiming to improve communication and resource sharing. Daphne Pie, Regional Health Services Administrator of Public Health Seattle and King County, says that a recent survey found that 26 percent of the Black community indicated the government and public health needed to improve communication with underserved communities and emphasized the need for public health to listen and provide better communication channels for the Black community.

“When we set out to talk to the Black community about how we could improve our relationship with them, the one thing that stood out to me was public health’s need to communicate,” says Pie. “They (Public Health) need to bring information to us; they need to listen to what we have to say and provide us some kind of way to communicate with them.”

“So, that really came across to me that we needed something, some type of network, or something to bring to the community,” Pie adds.

Through surveys and research, King County and Public Health uncovered systemic inequities throughout the healthcare system that affected Black communities, communities of color, the homeless, and other underrepresented communities.

The research uncovered concerns around Public Health’s resources in desert neighborhoods, support of community-based organizations, and the need for Public Health to provide more outreach, information, and support to youth.

“The second essential thing the Black community expressed was they wanted to hear from Black providers,” says Pie. “They wanted to talk to people that look like them. And that really stuck in my head because for the last 25 years I have been facilitating a monthly group called “The First Friday Forum” with the same concern that folks could not access services they couldn’t get enrolled in insurance and they were too many barriers and how do we bring the community together to solve it?”

“So, it really struck me that we don’t have that mechanism for the Black community,” continued Pie. “We don’t have a mechanism where we can pull our Black providers from, from various occupations, where we can have conversations with the community, for the community to come out say “I can’t find a mental health provider,” why can’t I access these benefits and that’s why we think this Black Providers Network for King County is going to be so important.”

The Black Providers Network along with their co-facilitator, the Black Community Equity Team Partnership, looks to strengthen their collaborations with insurance companies, the City of Seattle, King County, Health Care Authorities, and the Department of Social and Health Services and Health Benefit Exchange. But by listening to community members, the aim of The Black Providers Network is to uncover the healthcare access issues of the Black community and eliminate them altogether, as well as provide resources, training, and support.

“We are listening to the Black community,” says Pie. “We want the community to be a part of the Black Providers Network and we want our providers to be a part of this network. Our goal is eliminating health inequities, please work with us to do that.”