TAMPA, Fla. — April is Minority Health Awareness Month. According to the CDC, the goal is to highlight the importance of improving health outcomes for racial and minority groups. Also, according to the CDC, those disparities are created when people are disadvantaged by social or economic status, location or environment.
Dr. Brandon Blue has dedicated his career to treating cancer patients and raising awareness among patients and colleagues at Moffitt Cancer Center.
“The thing about cancer: cancer does not discriminate. And unfortunately, for a lot of different cancers, they affect people of color. And so, I knew that I needed a way to give back to my community,” said Dr. Blue. “My people need me. I’m from Tampa Bay, I’m here in the Tampa Bay community to make a change.”
Dr. Blue said finding accountability partners is the best way to advocate for your health.
“Bring somebody with you to the visit. Cancer, diagnosis, treatment, staging, these are all super complicated things. The moment that I sit across from you and say you have cancer, you’re not hearing anything,” said Dr. Blue.
Mental wellness is another health component getting added attention in many communities. Jewel Woods said it has taken time to get to this point.
“First of all: we haven’t been given permission to address our pain in minority communities. Certainly, as men. So, the idea that we would be talking about, ‘I’m suffering from anxiety,’ or ‘I’m suffering from depression’ was never anything we would be afforded outside of the culture. Because any pretense or identification of weakness was going to be used against us,” Woods said.
“The other part: is to simply give our people freedom to be able to talk about their stories and to talk about their pain. And that they don’t have to be superman or superwoman. As brilliant professionals who have to deal with a lot of other things and including discrimination. The challenge is whether or not, we are not able to do that in our personal lives but also in our professional lives.
We’ve never been able to do that either. Right? There are so many clients that I deal with that are professional African American men who absolutely feel silenced. Who absolutely feel guilty about some of the things they can’t say, or do? Or this lack of feeling authentic. Why? For fear of being targeted at worst. At best: misunderstood. And know that there’s a potential career cost.”
July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Woods said she is working on a network for African American therapists to better treat people.