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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 1998)
*4 < . , r r«í¿^raa44 **♦.> * v J *■*--*■'Ä i > w > • *? Page A3 APRIL 29, 1998 (Elje Jlortlanò (ÍMwrtwr Health ©GCICIICE Is There A Doctor In The House? If Not, W hy Not? B y P rof : M ckinley B ir t “O f all the forms o f inequality, injustice in health is the most shock ing and inhum an.” Martin Luther King Jr. I do n ’t know how many mem bers o f our community are aware of the fact that we have an extraordi nary num ber o f young A frican Americans who are either prepar ing for or entering the field o f medi cine - including such disciplines as biochem istry, pharm acology and optics, to name a few. This is a remarkable turn around from several very discouraging situ ations I encountered in past years. Two dates, in particular stand out in my mind, because in both cases, rather alarm ing media statistics proved sufficient to energize me into an effort to being about a small change - at least on the local level. At this point the reader may antici pate there follows a model(s), and real-time working models, at that. Two older and one-in-progress. In the spring o f 1974, having just dismissed my m orning urban eco nomics class at PSU, I took time to scan each and every page o f the “Los Angeles Sentinel”, a weekly, African American newspaper. I was following the advice given my stu dents. “Two excellent sources o f ideas and systems not practiced in your own territory are out-of-town newspaper and the 'yellow section’ o f that city’s phone books.” Several ‘real-tim e’ and success ful student enterprises had been de veloped from this approach. This particular day, my eyes were drawn to an article captioned, “Program Encourages Minority Students to Seek ‘Health Careers’”. The article described a ‘w ork-study’ program for university students where they would be placed not only in local hospitals and clinics, but at such support institutions as social services agencies, pharmacies, laboratories, etc. Salaries and transportation pro vided. The program also incorporated a number o f disciplines where an early emphasis on medically-related ex perience would be o f immense value; accounting, counseling, psychology physical therapy and the like. The program was funded by what was then “The Department o f Health, Education and Welfare (H E W.)”, but 1 found the fact that the entire nation-wide concept had been de veloped by one o f A m erica’s most prominent and dedicated African American Physicians, Dr. Geraldine Woods was the moving factor. You know me. Within an hour, I was on the phone talking to this marvelous woman. Evidently she was impressed by commitment, cer tainly not by my medical knowl edge. Within three weeks W ashing ton had approved a grant for Port land and Twelve, minority students were soon enrolled. The ‘host’ orga nization was not PSU as I had in tended but this proved to be an ex cellent learning scene. My second venture into the medi- cal field also was spurred by a dis couraging media headline; this one in our own Portland, O bserver for June 3, 1987: “Study finds Severe Shortage o f Black Health profes sionals.” This time 1 was better pre pared for an excursion into the medi cal field, having been, first, a pa tient at the Providence Medical Center and then, a volunteer for several years. things went much better this time for 1 had an opportunity to study and evaluate the entire system be fore becoming involved; every de partment, every discipline and ev ery support unit. And 1 had taken the opportunity to interview all the personnel from the chief adm inis trator and surgeons to nurses, or derlies, and maintenance workers. 1 detail this process to the youths with whom 1 work so that they may get a better idea o f the necessary hard work and discipline required to bring any project to a successful conclusion. The end result was that, as de tailed on page 1 o f the August 26, 1987 edition o f the Portland O b server, the Providence administra tion accepted a work-study pro posal o f mine exactly as submitted. This time the design was for high school students, for I had com e to realize that effective intervention was going to have to come about long before the university experi ence. My first ‘interns’ were from Benson High School. C ont’d next week. Third Annual Black Achievers Recognition Banquet J u d ith E. N ic h o ls , Ph D ., C F R E in h e r b o o k G ro w in g From G o o d T o G re a t h as d e fin e d th e g e n e r a tio n b o rn in 1 9 7 7 -1 9 9 6 as th e M ille n n iu m G e n e ra tio n w h e re w e h av e se iz e d th is te rm . Ju d ith sta te s the fo llo w in g : “ M in o ritie s w ill e x e rt m o re in flu e n c e o v e r th e n a tio n a l a g e n d a as th e p o p u la tion o f A fric a n -A m e ric a n , H is p a n ic s, an d A sian A m e ric a n s in c re a se s fro m s e v e n te e n p e rc e n t in 1990 to th irty -th re e p e rc e n t by 2 0 0 0 . In 1990, 1 o u t o f 6 w o rk e rs b e lo n g e d to an eth n ic m in o rity . By 20 0 0 , th ey w ill be 1 in 3 .” T he B lack A c h iev ers Program re c o g n iz e s th e n e c e ssity to train and m e n to r o u r yo u th fo r the w o rk fo rc e and b u sin e ss w orld th a t lies ah ead . T h e tim e is N O W fo r us as a d u lts to p re p a re o u r c h ild re n , fo llo w in g th e p rogram m otto: “ E ach O ne M ust R each O ne and T e a c h O n e .” T h is e v e n t is to re c o g n iz e A f ric a n -A m e ric a n s w ho h a v e a c h ie v e d in th e ir c a re e rs and are g iv in g back to th e ir c o m m u n ity . F u rth e rm o re , w e w ill h o n o r and a w a rd tw o te e n s T h e Y o u th A c h ie v e r A w ard o f th e y e a r. P le a se jo in us fo r a fun and e x c itin g e v e n in g as w e c e le b ra te o u r . . . T h ir d A n n u a l B la c k A c h iev ers R eco g n itio n B anquet. The outer walls and roof are now up on a medical office Kaiser Permanente is building in the 3600 block o f North Interstate Avenue in north Portland. Observing the construction work are Hoffman Construction's Kelly Rowland, field superintendent, and Ken Pasley, project superintendent. Kaiser Permanente expects sometime this fall to open the two-story medical building, which has three stories o f underground parking. Remodeling work on a 20-yearold medical office next door is slated for completion early next year. Photo by Carole Archer. // Overweight Children Need to "Get O ut O f The House" O v e r w e ig h t c h ild r e n n e e d to “ g e t o u t o f th e h o u s e ” a n d e x e rc is e . “ In m o st c a s e s , o b e s ity is n o t s o l e l y d e f i n e d b y th e a m o u n t o f c a lo r ie s y o u c o n su m e o r fo o d y o u e a t ,” sa id B eck y G o rh a m , a re g is te r e d d i e titia n an d r e s e a r c h n u tr itio n is t at th e U S D A /A R S C h ild r e n ’s N u tr itio n R e se a rc h C e n te r at B a y lo r C o lle g e o f M e d ic in e in H o u s to n . “ B ut in ste a d by i n a c tiv ity .” C o m p u te rs an d v id e o g a m e s m ean m o re c h ild r e n sta y in sid e w h e n th e y c o u ld be o u t sid e b u r n in g o f f c a lo r ie s . “ W h e n c h ild r e n sit in fro n t o f a c o m p u te r o r T V s c re e n th e y te n d to e a t m o re w h ic h m i g h t c a u s e th e m to g a in w e ig h t,” said G o rh am . H ere are so m e e x e rc is e tip s fo r p a re n ts to re m e m b e r: * Encourage kids to walk to and from school if it is safe. * Basketball, volleyball, swimm ing, and biking are all good forms of exercise. * Keep exercise eq u ip ment in the house, not in the garage. * Encourage kids to play during recess. * Look for churches or o th e r o r g a n iz a tio n s that offer activities for children. P a re n ts sh o u ld s tr e s s e x e r c is e an d n o t d ie ts , w h ic h a re n o t h e a lth y fo r g ro w in g c h il- d re n . T h e b e st p ro g ra m s fo r o v e r w e ig h t c h ild r e n a re th o s e th a t in c o r p o r a te lif e tim e h a b its o f h e a lth y e a tin g and c o n s is te n t e x e rc is e . P a re n ts can h e lp by m o d e l ing th e s e b e h a v io rs an d e x e r c is in g an d e a tin g r ig h t th e m s e lv e s . E n c o u ra g e h e a lth ie r sn a c k s from the U S D A ’s F ood G u id e P y ram id fo r w hen c h ild re n get hom e from sc h o o l, keep the ju n k food out o f the h o u se or at least lim it it to o c c a sio n a l tre a ts. “ T e a c h in g c h ild r e n th e im p o rta n c e o f g o o d n u tr itio n and e x e r c is e e a r ly on w ill h e lp th e m c h o o s e th e r ig h t p a th to a h e a lth y lif e s ty le w h en th e y b e c o m e a d u lts ,” sa id G o rh a m . tr Third Annual BLACK ACHIEVERS RECOGNITION BANQUET Gloria Cabine Bank M a n a g e r, Wells Fargo W ednesday , M ay 1 3 , 1 9 9 8 5 : 3 0 pm - S ocial 6 : 4 5 pm - D inner Kedrich Jackson Protect M anager. Hewlett Packard Master of Ceremonies Ken Boddie Guest Speaker: Daniel 0. Bemstine Melvin D. Oden-Orr Beverly Edmondson A ttorney a t Law Lane-Powell-Spears-Lubersky Sales, Recruiting & HR Manager, Nike News Anchor KOIN-TV President Portland State University Manuel Houston Owens C orning Store M a n a g e r, Fred M eyer D oubletree H otel at the C olumbia R iver 1 4 0 1 N . H ayden I sland D rive Please RSVP TODA Y at 221-5333 T IVe build strong kids, Michelle Hurdle V ice Presldent/Area M a n a g e r Bank o f A m e rica V strong families, ® strong communities. YMCA Chastity Pratt Reporter The O reg o n ia n J)
