Wednesday, November 27, 2002
Public Health & Education
The Nashville, Tenn., Metro Public Health Department is launching an "ambitious" public health campaign to address the city's high infant mortality rate among African Americans, which is four times as high as the rate for whites, according to the most recent figures from the department, the Nashville Tennessean reports. The goal of the program, which is titled "It Takes A Community," is to change "behaviors and societal pressures" that increase health risks for pregnant women and infants. The program, which depends on the community for help and support, uses a strategy similar to one the city used to reduce the number of cases of syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases, according to the Tennessean. Dr. Kimberlee Wyche-Ethridge, head of the department's maternal child health division and coordinator of the campaign, said that both race and economics play a part in the disproportionate rates. David Sellars, chief medical officer of Nashville's United Neighborhood Health Services, said, "[I]t is necessary that you have enough people out there to perform the kind of outreach (required) to educate people and identify at-risk people early," adding, "Access to care doesn't mean a person has to show up at a clinic's or a doctor's door. Access to care could mean that you bring it to the individual and identify people who are in need of care and may not realize it" (Hurst, Tennessean, 11/25).
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