This LA Times story profiles a wonderful volunteer program in which doctors and nurses visit barbershops to screen African-American men for diabetes and heart disease. The program has expanded from Los Angeles to 50 cities in 13 states and helps address the vexing problem of the reluctance of black men to visit the doctor. From the story:
Many men balk at going to the doctor, and various studies have tried to get at why. They see being sick as a sign of weakness. They don’t like waiting in doctors’ offices. They’re scared of what they may find out.
“We don’t want to know,” said Inglewood’s Finest barber Dave Robinson, 62. “We’d rather go through life letting things fix themselves.”
What’s more, there are cultural barriers to medical care in the black community. Blakely points out that blacks are more likely than whites to be uninsured. Some patients feel more comfortable seeing a doctor who shares their background and culture, and only about 3% of doctors and medical students in the U.S. are African American.
And distrust of the medical system has deep roots in the black community, a legacy, Blakely says, of the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study, in which federal health officials followed 399 black men from Tuskegee, Ala., for 40 years without telling them they had the disease — long after penicillin had been found to cure it.
Where does the funding come from?
Finding funding for the program was difficult; foundations are much more likely to give to programs for women and children than for men, especially black men. (The barbershop outreach project receives grants from the Abbott Fund, a foundation of Abbott Laboratories, which makes medical products, including blood-sugar monitors and insulin syringes for diabetes.)
Great idea, great volunteer program, great support from industry.
