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William A. Hinton was the first African American to serve on the faculty of HMS and later was an instructor at HSPH. He served as assistant director of the Division of Biologic Laboratories and chief of the Wasserman Laboratory when it was transferred from HMS to MDPH in 1915. He is recognized for creating the "Hinton test," used extensively in the past to diagnose syphilis. HSPH Dean Barry Bloom welcomed the audience and speakers, describing the event as a "great occasion" and reflecting on the relationship between co-sponsors HSPH and MDPH. Present in the audience were two former commissioners of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Deborah Prothrow-Stith and Howard Koh, both of whom are now HSPH faculty members. Bloom also introduced and welcomed Christine Ferguson, who was making one of her first public appearances as the new Massachusetts public health commissioner. Among her remarks, Ferguson noted a shift in the national dialogue about people with disabilities over the past 20 years. She said that the national dialogue used to be about inability, not ability; about being crippled; about taking children with disabilities away from their parents because that was considered the medical norm. Now, perceptions are changing, helped in part by better funding of community-based services for people with disabilities, she said.Providing the first keynote address, Ethel Briggs, executive director of the National Council on Disability, said that African Americans with disabilities face special challenges because of socioeconomic, health, cultural, and other factors. Prejudice and economic barriers deny African Americans with disabilities full participation in the community, but little research is focused on their population, she stated. African Americans as a group are more likely to experience a shorter life expectancy and higher rates of chronic disease than other groups in the US, said Briggs. Disparities such as these reverberate in communities of people with disabilities. Briggs noted that findings reveal there is unequal treatment of African Americans with disabilities in major dimensions of the rehabilitation process. For example, research indicates that a larger percentage of African Americans than other groups are not accepted for rehabilitative services. To address health disparities related to African Americans with disabilities, Briggs emphasized that nontraditional approaches are needed. She cited several examples, including using mobile health units that go into communities and providing transportation to community service providers. Following Briggs was fellow keynote speaker Lisa Bundara Sinclair, health-science policy analyst, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sinclair provided information from an ongoing literature survey she is conducting about disability and ethnic minorities. The review covers the years 1990 to 2000. While according to data from the National Health Interview Survey, the overall rate of disability in the US has slightly decreased over ten years for all races, the highest rates are within Native American and African American populations. These groups experience rates between 15 and 20 percent compared to rates between 10 and 13 percent among white and Hispanic populations. Factors that influence health differences range from societal behavior, such as hiring practices, to individual knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors. Intraethnic comparisons are a relatively new way of looking at data, said Sinclair, who provided some examples. The poverty rate for African Americans with disabilities is 37 percent. The rate for African Americans without disabilities is 19.2 percent. More data on health status and health resources and visible national leadership related to disability and ethnic minorities are needed, said Sinclair. Following the keynote addresses, three panelists took up the conversation. Nancy Wilber of the MDPH discussed a health survey undertaken by MDPH and the CDC each year. Among the findings, disability is associated with elevated health risks, reduced access to health care, and poorer health outcomes. Dalene Basden, a parent advocate, described her sometimes frustrating attempts to receive services for her children with special needs. She urged other parents of children with special needs to recognize that their families have a right to quality health care and to support parents in similar situations. Matlyn Starks of the Vivienne S. Thompson Independent Living Center talked about her experiences as an African American woman who acquired a disability later on in life. One deficit she identified was a lack of information about services available to people with disabilities within minority communities. Following this discussion, Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Christine Ferguson presented the Rebecca Lee Award to panelist Dalene Basden and the William A. Hinton Award to Kenneth Bridges, director of the Joint Center for Sickle Cell and Thalassemic Disorders at BWH. Paraphrasing writer Samuel Johnson, Bridges said that the quality of a society can be measured by how it treats individuals who have needs but no advocate. Closing the lecture, Dean Bloom observed: "What is public health?
You heard today. It is numbers, analysis, commitment to reducing disparities,
compassion, and passion." Harvard Public Health NOW is published biweekly by the Office of Communications Harvard School of Public Health 665 Huntington Ave., SPH 1-1312A Boston, Massachusetts 02115 617-432-6052 Editor and Layout: Christina Roache Photos Credits: Suzanne Camarata, Christina Roache, Academic Press, Richard Chase Archived Issues || HSPH Home Copyright, 2009, President and Fellows of Harvard College |
