Working Together to Address Health Disparities in the Black Community

多年来，ladbrokes立博体育都知道黑人和拉丁裔美国人在医疗体系中受到的待遇不同. As our country wrestled with racism following deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, 对百特公司和我个人来说，影响美国黑人的健康差距成为了更清晰的焦点.

Growing up on the southside of Chicago, I've seen the impact of these disparities, but I didn't really understand why it was happening. It was common to see friends or neighbors with missing limbs due to diabetes. Being on dialysis was considered normal. You accept this as a way of life even though it doesn't have to be. 

我很震惊地得知，美国黑人患慢性肾病的可能性几乎是美国白人的四倍.¹ 造成黑人社区健康差异的原因有很多，包括医疗系统中的系统性种族主义，以及缺乏获得医疗服务的机会等社会决定因素, lack of education around diseases, and food deserts leading to poor nutrition and health behaviors. Systemic racism in the healthcare system can impact how Black people are diagnosed, 如何考虑治疗方案，黑人患者是否觉得他们可以信任他们的医疗保健提供者. 

试图解决导致这些差异的系统性种族主义可能会让人感到难以承受. But, 我知道当医疗保健社区团结起来做出积极的改变时可以取得什么成就. 一个例子是已经完成的改变黑人患者肾脏疾病评估方式的工作. If you think you have kidney disease, your doctor will order a blood test. A lab will then use an equation to calculate your remaining kidney function. While that seems straight forward, we learned that when calculating this for Black patients, many labs apply a race adjustment which some believe is the result of systemic racism. 这可能会导致治疗延误，或者不能像白人患者那样被列入肾脏移植名单. In 2020, the community came together to change the practice. Last year, 美国国家肾脏基金会和美国肾脏学会发布了一种诊断肾脏疾病的新方法 that does not use race as a factor.

我为ladbrokes立博体育在百特所做的工作感到自豪，ladbrokes立博体育正在解决肾脏护理中存在差异的另一个根本原因——缺乏有意义的教育. As part of Baxter's Activating Change Today (ACT) initiative, we had an opportunity to make a bigger impact. We launched a new initiative called Black K.A.R.E. in partnership with The LINKS, Incorporated, a volunteer service organization comprised of 16,000 women of color. 百特为这个肾脏疾病意识项目提供了资金，该项目旨在提高黑人社区对肾脏健康和慢性肾脏疾病管理的认识和教育. 该项目专门针对多个州的慢性肾病高发地区. Grants were awarded to local LINKS chapters in the organization's 17-state U.S. Central area over a 9-month period. LINKS分会并不是单独做这件事的——他们与当地的医疗保健专业人员合作, faith-based organizations, civic leaders and other influential community members. 我为LINKS章节所做的工作感到自豪，他们与500多名社区成员和200多名医疗保健专业人员合作，参与和教育了近50人,000 community members to drive awareness of kidney health. Through their respective partnerships, chapters hosted local events, ran social media campaigns and more. 真正引人注目的是在社区开展的健康筛查活动. At one community event, 在接受肾功能筛查的人中，有十分之三的人结果异常，并被指示进行护理. Without this program, it's possible they may not have received care in time. 

Now that the pilot is almost complete, 在这个过程中，ladbrokes立博体育学到了一些关于如何有效地影响变革和吸引黑人社区的东西:

• When it comes to change, it needs to be done for the community, by the community. 参与项目的每个人都来自社区，愿意为这项重要的事业发出值得信赖的声音. 
• Engage an organization that has the infrastructure and passion to be effective. In our case, LINKS组织有强大的地方分会，他们利用这个机会团结起来教育他们的邻居, families and friends. ladbrokes立博体育帮助这些章节与资源联系起来，然后为他们让路，让他们发挥作用.
• Start small. ladbrokes立博体育专注于一种健康状况，然后运行一个试点项目，以了解什么最有效. ladbrokes立博体育现在能够吸取这些经验教训，并将最有效的方案应用到the Links的300多个国际分会.