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GREENWOOD, Dist. — Along with 250 Links, Inc. chapters across the country, Tulsa hosted a Black Family Wellness Expo at Metropolitan Baptist Church. It was the Links organization’s second year hosting the event, but a first for the Chapter.
Links, Inc. Tulsa is an Event for Everyone
March 16th, three trucks lined the front lawn providing dental services, counseling, and supplies for infants, along with an ambulance and food truck passing out crunchy veggie wraps paired with beet juice.
Children lined up to get their picture with Black Princesses Ariel and Tiana who were graced the event with their presence.
Faces were painted, balloons were made and attendees lined up at over 20 tables filled with information on a variety of health issues and how they affect black families, because every health issue disproportionately affects the black community.
“Unfortunately, in the black community, every health issue affects us disproportionately,” said Runako Whittaker, Health and Human services facet Co-Chair.
The Organizers on Bridging the Gap
Whittaker is a pediatrician and her medical advice to bridge the health gap is making sure that you have a primary care physician because regular preventive care is important. As part of that prevention, eating a healthy diet, getting exercise daily, getting plenty of sleep, those things go a long way in promoting a healthy lifestyle. Co-Chair Rhonda Johnson for the Links, Inc. Tulsa Chapter’s Health and Human Services facet is a pharmacist, and her medical advice to bridge the gap involved social change.
“The community can increase access to health care, address social determinants of health, promote diversity in the healthcare workforce, combat stigma and discrimination, support community based organizations and engage in advocacy and policy change,” Johnson said.
The expo, Johnson believes, will also help bridge the gap and so will educational events like it. She shares this view with Whittaker and together they organized an event educating the community on modern health needs impacting black families.
“Ultimately, I hope the black family Wellness Expo serves as a catalyst for positive change, sparking conversations, raising awareness, providing resources and fostering a commitment to improving the health and well being of the black community,” Johnson said.
Going In-Depth: Diabetes
In 2019, non-Hispanic blacks were twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to die from diabetes. In 2018, African American adults were 60 percent more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes by a physician. This all according to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health
The American Diabetes Association handed out fact sheets to black families at the expo letting them know the signs, risk factors, prevention habits, and resources for diabetes.
Development Director Staci Clinkscales says type 2 diabetes can be managed and you can test if you’re pre-diabetic using the organization’s tool.
“We do find that with type two diabetes there are higher risk factors in the black community, and disproportionately they have a higher risk in also getting access to the nutrition, quality medical care that they need for that as well,” Clinkscales said. “One of the things that we have is a very simple online test you can take to find out what your type two risk factor is. Anybody can take it takes about 30 seconds and it will give you a score.”
Take the test here: 60-Second Risk Test for Type 2 Diabetes| ADA
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Going In-Depth: Food Disparities
Black children are more likely to experience food insecurity than children of other races. In 2022, 29% of Black children lived in food insecure households. That’s 1 in three Black children without reliable access to food. This all according to Feeding America.
Ramal Brown with Food on the Move was there to spread information on the organization’s work to combat food deserts. They host food and resource festivals where they give away 30 pound bags of fresh produce while meeting the needs of resources like the Mental Health Association and Morton Health. Brown says food is medicine so they try to meet that need for the community.
“Most of the dollar stores are in the North Tulsa area and they don’t get access to healthy foods and fresh vegetables,” Brown said. “It affects people’s just livelihoods, mental health, heart health, and just overall health in general. The fact that we just don’t have access, it really affects the community. They say that people in North Tulsa also are prone to die 20 years sooner than people in South Tulsa and that’s all because we just don’t have access to healthy fresh produce.”
To stay informed sign up for Food On The Move’s newsletter on their website.
Health Resources from the Black Family Wellness Expo
- Dental Van –Smiles of Faith
- Skillz on Wheelz Van – Skillz on Wheelz
- Emergency Infant Services Van – Emergency Infant Services
- National Kidney Foundation
- LifeShare of Oklahoma
- Breast Cancer survivors – Soulful Survivors Tulsa
- American Heart Association
- American Heart Association
- Child Care Warmline
- Tulsa Health Department Maternal/infant division – Safe Sleep for Infants
- Voters Registration – Vote.gov
- National Medical Association
- Centene
- Humana
- Aetna
- Genentech
- Westview Clinic
- Links, Inc.– Tulsa Chapter
Other Black Health Disparities
- In 2019, African Americans were 30 percent more likely to die from heart disease than non-Hispanic whites. African American adults are 30 percent more likely to have high blood pressure, and are less likely than non-Hispanic whites to have their blood pressure under control. – Heart Disease and African Americans | Office of Minority Health
- Black people have the highest death rate for cancer overall. Black people have a lower overall 5-year cancer survival rate than White people. Black people are more likely than White people to be diagnosed with female breast, lung, and colorectal cancers at a late stage. – African American People and Cancer | CDC
- Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women. Multiple factors contribute to these disparities, such as variation in quality healthcare, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism, and implicit bias. Social determinants of health prevent many people from racial and ethnic minority groups from having fair opportunities for economic, physical, and emotional health. – Working Together to Reduce Black Maternal Mortality | Health Equity Features | CDC
- Conclusions and relevance Over a recent 22-year period, the Black population in the US experienced more than 1.63 million excess deaths and more than 80 million excess years of life lost when compared with the White population. – Excess Mortality and Years of Potential Life Lost Among the Black Population in the US, 1999-2020 | Health Disparities | JAMA.
- About 4 out of 5 African American women are overweight or obese. In 2018, non-Hispanic blacks were 1.3 times more likely to be obese as compared to non-Hispanic whites. In 2018, African American women were 50 percent more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic white women. – Obesity and African Americans | Office of Minority Health.
- Approximately 11% of African Americans are not covered by health insurance, compared with about 7% for non-Hispanic whites.
- Death rate for African Americans is higher than whites for heart diseases, stroke, cancer, asthma, influenza and pneumonia, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and homicide.5
- CDC estimates that African Americans represented more than one-third (40% or 498,400 persons) of all people living with HIV and almost half (45%) of all persons with newly diagnosed infection in 2015.6 Mental Health Disparities: African American
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