Perceptions of one African American community about its' health, health status and safety.

Abstract: African Americans remain at the low end of the socio-economic stratum, have less health care access, and have the highest mortality from illnesses. This supports a need for African American nurses to enter African American communities to offer health education/literacy sessions. This project conducted a survey to determine the health status of African Americans living in a select section eight housing area and their perception of their health, health status and safety. Participants identified their health and health status as good. They had a high concern about safety in their neighborhood. Earlier reports from the county and state do not support the respondents' belief about their health or health status. These same reports do support the respondents concern for safety. Key Words: Self-help; Empowerment,- Health Education/ Literacy; In-Community Group; In-Community Health Education Model he 1991 census indicated that African Americans have the highest death rate attributable to cancer and heart disease. While there has been improvement in these T areas, the 1998 Healthy People 2000 report indicates the rates among African Americans remain the highest. African Americans are also at the lowest end for income, health, health care and chronic disabilities. Data are available which indicate that there are clear racial disparities related to disease occurrences such as AIDS, hypertension, kidney disease (Miller, 1990; Young, 1995) and death from breast cancer (Henderson, 1996). African American health continues to be on the low end of the health illness continuum. However, the person's personal concept of health may overshadow the true status of her/his true health status. These are compelling reasons for nurses, especially African American nurses, to form coalitions with neighborhoods that are primarily African American. The purpose is to develop programs that empower the communities by enlightening the residents and improve their health literacy about changing health care policies, and present strategies to promote a health style that is conducive for a longer, healthier life. Felder (1993) posed the question, "Are nurses prepared to effect change in Black family health?" A broader question posed is whether African American nurses are prepared to effect change in African American health? This means even working with just one individual at a time, if necessary. In the larger scheme of life, the effects made with one person at a time can be as effective as the effects made within a group. Effectiveness of the education is measured by how well the individual improves in making changes toward a healthier lifestyle. Neighbors, Braithwaite and Thompson (1995) relate this to self-help wherein the one individual takes care of self and in turn passes the learned information on to others. To encourage self-help, information should be wellness-focused rather than illness-based. Knowledge from this perspective leads to individual empowerment and helps to build trust in the health care industry. Covington (1999) noted that an illness-focused model gives control of health issues to the health care professional which leads to lack of trust, faith and confidence when something goes wrong. This study surveyed one African American community to determine its health status, perceptions of health, and perceptions of community safety. The survey was also conducted to determine what health educational information would benefit the community. The findings indicated the amount and level of educational resources required to deliver appropriate health information to lead to health literacy in a community with strife and near chaos. LITERATURE REVIEW When African American health is discussed various themes arise: a) socioeconomic status, b) limited health care access and c) high mortality to same health problems as the majority population. Socio-economic status is a strong and consistent predictor of mortality and morbidity (Alder, Boyce, Chesney, Folkman & Syme, 1997). …