Prognosis Grim for Poor
Minorities
By Tom Maccabe (reprinted
with permission from The Medical Herald, Vol.13, No.2, March 2001)
(Continued
from previous page) “There are some early indications that
the underserved populations may not do as well in the managed care setting,
because they don’t know to maneuver the managed care arena as well as the
majority population. I think
that’s a concern.
“I think another concern is that managed care tends to
disenfranchise the traditional providers who are culturally appropriate and
who have been taking care of this population for years. All of a sudden these patients are being enrolled in HMOs
that do not include many of them.”
He said the NMA strongly supports effective patients rights
legislation. “ That means
legislation that will re-establish a health patient-physician relationship,”
he added.
At Howard University, many students are trained in allied
health services, which include 200 professions such as physician assistants,
nutritionists, physical therapists and radiation therapists.
Many are from the inner cities.
Our Curriculum
“ They’re more likely to return to provide health care to
the inner city populations,” Valentine said. “When we look at urban
minority communities, a lot of people don’t like to work in these
communities because you have the issues of crime.
They worry about their safety.
“If we can use government funds to work with students who
are interested in health care to attract them to go into a number of health
clinical experience in inner city communities, they’re more likely to work
in those areas.”
She said there is a need for Congress to provide more money
for these programs.
“We’ve got to educate Congress, and we’ve got to let
Congress know that allied professions are neglected in terms of funding,”
she said. “We need to push to
get more funding into allied health.”
At Howard, she said, there are seven allied health programs
for students.
“We have an urban-based focus in our curriculum, where
student receive training in urban-based health issues,” Valentine said.
“When they’re in their junior year they receive a number of
lectures, and then during their clinical year, their senior year, they’re
out in clinical rotation.
She said the students work in Washington, New York, Atlanta
and other major cities.
“We find that has made a tremendous difference in terms of
students,” she said. “Once
they graduate, they’re more likely to work in those settings.
They know the population. Many
of our students come from urban populations, and they feel comfortable.
They’re able to relate more in terms of patient education and the
kinds of advice one would give in health care delivery.”
Howard has received grants from the Health Resources and
Services Administration, an agency of Department of Health and Human Services,
for its physician assistant training program and for a program that trains
student in such allied health fields as physical therapy, occupational therapy
and radiation therapy.
“When you add all those students together,” Valentine
said, “we’are talking about 150 students a year.
“It’s really a shame that they don’t fund more of those
programs for allied health, because once they graduate they’re out there in
these urban settings. They’re
providing the care, but you can’t do it if the students don’t get the
training while they’re enrolled in these allied health programs.
I’d say we’ve got to put more money in allied health to
give students these experiences while they’re enrolled. If you don’t do it then, you’re going to have very little
influence once they graduate. It’d
major health issues in terms of the number uninsured people we have in the
United States and the majority of preventable diseases in the minority
populations in urban settings.”
Valentine is president of the National Society of Allied
Health, an African-American organization of allied health professionals,
[which held its annual meeting] at the end of March.
“We’ll try to get our members to go and meet with their
Congressman to put this on their agenda,” she said. “Not enough is being
done.”
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