Why should I be an organ donor? Will this treatment benefit or harm me? How do I know you'll listen to me? These are just some of the questions that physicians committed to reducing healthcare inequities hear from their patients and others in an underserved community — people who may be hesitant to seek disease treatment and prevention designed to improve their health and wellbeing.
Uché Blackstock, MD, and Julius Johnson, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, are dedicating their lives to being "trusted messengers" for their communities and to training healthcare organizations to implement programs to do the same. Both were heavily influenced by their parents, who were equally committed to gaining the trust of the patients they cared for. Blackstock and Johnson spoke with Cure about their upbringings, their careers and ways to help advance health equity in our communities.
A Legacy of Care
Blackstock's mother, Dale Blackstock, was the first in her family to go to college, graduating from Brooklyn College and attending Harvard Medical School. She came back to New York City to train at Harlem Hospital and became a nephrologist at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn. "She ended up working in the very same neighborhood where she grew up, taking care of her neighbors," said Blackstock. "She was working to advance health equity when health equity wasn't an expression yet."
Dale Blackstock mentored junior faculty and medical students, performed academic research and organized community health fairs. She participated in diabetes and blood pressure screenings with her colleagues. She was the president of a local Black women's physician organization and would take Uché and her twin sister, Oni, to the meetings. "I grew up thinking that most physicians were Black women, but it wasn't until I got older that I realized that wasn't the case. It was my normal growing up," said Blackstock.
Both she and her sister followed in their mother's footsteps, going to Harvard Medical School and becoming physicians. Their mother died of leukemia when they were 19 years old. In 2019, Blackstock left emergency medicine and founded a consultancy called Advancing Health Equity.
"My mother was an incredible inspiration for a lot of the work that I do," she explained. "Advancing Health Equity is based on her legacy and my wanting to continue that legacy."
Johnson also grew up in Brooklyn. His father became a nurse in 1983, following the shooting death of his own father — a prominent business leader in the Brownsville community. After graduating from Binghamton University, Johnson began a position as a nurse in a hospital, but was not satisfied with his work. He went back to school to become a nurse practitioner, getting his master's degree from Binghamton and then a doctorate in nursing practice from the University of Miami.
"I liked the idea of being a nurse practitioner. You could own your own business," Johnson noted. "I could create a difference in the communities where I grew up. When I went back, the people there said, 'We know you. We remember you.' And now I was there making a difference."
In addition to being a primary care nurse practitioner and CEO of his company, Premium Health Depot — which specializes in home-based care — he also teaches nursing at New York University and has held leadership positions in the Greater New York City Black Nurses Association.
Building Trust
Both Johnson and Blackstock understand that a major obstacle to reducing healthcare disparities is building trust with community members. To overcome those barriers, Johnson has led "barbershop talks," which began virtually during the pandemic and have continued.
"For Black men, a barbershop is our most sacred place. We go there to have conversation. We go there for marriage counseling, regular therapy and to learn job interview skills," he said. He has led barbershop talks encouraging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, to provide education about maternal health issues affecting Black women and to help people understand the value of organ donation.
Blackstock's company Advancing Health Equity partners with healthcare organizations to provide leadership development and coaching, program evaluations and organizational assessments to promote inclusiveness within those institutions and to enhance the care they are providing to their patients.
But she doesn't want just any company signing on for her services. "A lot of them want to do the work but for some, it's obvious that they just want to check a box. If they really want to do this work, they have to be in it for the long term," she explained. "I would love to see healthcare organizations embed equity into everything that they do, to create a place where everyone's voices are heard."
Being a trusted messenger starts with being relatable to the organizations and community members with whom you are interacting. "I don't want to be a hero. I want to be a window — meaning I want to help people see a way out of their situations," said Johnson. "It's important to talk about our work and the things that we do. When they see us and they see somebody that looks like them, they understand it better."
How We All Can Help
We can all play a role in reducing health inequities in our communities. "A lot of these inequities are right next door to us. Find out what is happening in your own community," said Blackstock. "Learn what community organizations you can get involved with and support. Educate yourself, your family members and your friends."