This is part three of Word in Black’s patient advocacy series, “Dismantling Dismissal.” The article examines how African Americans navigate the health care system and what equity leaders are doing to make health care more accessible. Read the series.
Where can one find fair healthcare in a complicated healthcare system?
Why this is important: Too many Black women have experienced their pain being dismissed and report negative experiences with health care. In one survey, 55% of Black women said they had to speak up to receive appropriate treatment and felt they were treated with less respect than other patients.
When Black women feel rejected in the health care system, it can lead to poorer outcomes, seeking other providers, or not seeking care at all, according to a KFF Health Survey. Currently, only 6% of physicians, 4% of psychologists, and 2% of psychiatrists are Black—but their influence is important.
What the data says: Black women who saw a doctor who shared their racial and ethnic background reported more positive interactions. Even black women who saw a doctor of the same race and ethnicity less than half the time reported feeling understood and included in their care.
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What healthcare organizations can do: “I really despise the responsibility and burden on patients to have to advocate for themselves in a system that has never really earned their trust,” said Uché Blackstock, founder of Advancing Health Equity, which works with health organizations across the country to dismantle racism and eradicate racial health disparities. The organization provides training, consultations and assessments to organizations to identify practices and policies that can be reformed using equitable approaches.
While it is important to reduce patient burden, Blackstock says patients can prepare questions to ask their doctor, such as:
- What do you think is wrong with me?
- What is your plan for me?
- What symptoms should I go to the emergency room for?
- When should I follow up?
If you need therapy: Finding the right therapist can take some time, but it doesn’t have to. Therapy for Black Girls and Therapy for Black Men are two organizations that have created directories with hundreds of Black and culturally competent providers in various cities and states across the country. The user-friendly directory allows people to select gender, specialty, insurance, and type of therapy.
If you are a woman giving birth: Given the high maternal mortality rate among Black women, finding and accessing appropriate care can literally mean life or death. Founded by Kimberly Seals Allers, the Irth app allows birthing women to find reviews of prenatal, labor, postnatal and pediatric care from other Black and brown women. Often touted as a Yelp-like platform, the app allows birthing women to search for doctors and hospital reviews in their community.
If you need access to sexual wellness and reproductive health care: Kimbritive is a sex-positive company where Black women can reclaim their sexual wellness and reproductive health. Part of their approach is to initiate conversations about healthcare with diverse leaders in the field to allow Black women to dive deeper and learn more about pleasure, self-love, and connection. The organization offers guides and workshops to its members.
If an organization needs help promoting equitable care: Violet, a health equity platform, is building an infrastructure for culturally competent care that makes it easier for patients to find inclusive providers. The company delivers data-driven interventions and partners with digital health platforms and hospital systems.
Where you can find culturally competent support: Health in Her Hue, an organization founded by Ashlee Wisdom, is working to close the gap for Black women seeking Black and brown providers. The platform connects patients with care providers, features articles about specific health conditions, and a community forum.
Wisdom founded the organization after her own experience at a university hospital, which she described as a “really toxic racist environment.” As a doctoral student at the time, she learned about the poor health outcomes faced by black women, such as heart disease, maternal mortality and diabetes.
“I learned that it wasn’t because there was something necessarily wrong with black women. It’s the social and structural factors that we have to live with in America,” she said. “I got really angry and felt like I needed to channel that anger, rage and energy into something constructive.”
In response, Wisdom has developed a solution.
It’s not just about connecting black women with black doctors; all black patients should be able to go to a medical facility and receive the care that every person and patient deserves, she said. “It’s unfortunate that all too often we only feel safe with doctors who look like us, even though all doctors are sworn to care for all of their patients.” She still makes it a point to tell black women that there are non-black doctors who are compassionate and provide culturally appropriate care.
“Black women deserve to feel seen,” Wisdom said. “We deserve to have our healthcare providers consider our entire context and care for us. We also deserve to be heard. We deserve empathy and understanding from our healthcare providers.”
