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Student APhA Minority Health and Pharmacy
Student
APhA
Minority Health and Pharmacy
Pharmacists and pharmacy students must examine more closely the contributions that the pharmacy profession must make to the resolution of minority health problems. The definition of the pharmacist's role in improved health care delivery systems like HMOs still remains an important task if we are to improve health care to minorities. These topics were a big issue in the Minority Affairs Committee Report in Houston at the 1972 SAPhA Yearly Meeting. At this meeting the Minority Health Task Force was conceived. The 1972 meeting precipitated many further discussions at pharmacy student meetings and rap sessions, and many important points have been revealed. Public awareness of the necessity to provide the Third World populace with improved health care is not nearly so widespread as it should be. The Third World, or minority, population is inclusive of Black, Chicano, Native American and Puerto Rican peoples. Adequate health care is not to indicate only the medical component of treatment but also infers a very necessary social aspect which is too often disregarded in considering a total approach to health care. Proper health care has been widely disregarded by the very people who need an organized effort most. Liberation and political awareness are necessary for the Third World, but unless the minorities are secure in a social and medical sense, there can be no Third World political power. The abuse of minorities by personnel and facilities, inherent in the present American system of health care, have discouraged many disadvantaged people from seeking the sociomedical attention sorely needed for their survival. The considerations of the wide variances in cultural expressions, health problems peculiar to a special group (notably, blacks), and different dietary habits among these groups are only recently gaining any of the attention they deserve from the entire community. Looking, for example, at a list of some commonly observed disease conditions in the black population, the figures of incidence are again all too often staggering. Some of these conditions include hypertension, heart diseases, orthopedic disorders, premature births and obstetrical-gynecological mortali ties. Efforts to ascertain the areas needing improvement in delivering minority health care often center around the quality and quantity of Third World health practitioners. To wit, a demonstration of this was embodied in a statement made in the August 1973 issue of Urban Health- "The health of black people is and will be directly and indirectly related to the proportion in leadership in the health occupations and in medical services. Because there are so pitifully few, and 96
Journal of the AMERICAN PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION
because the few are all too often mal-assigned, black people suffer and die of diseases and conditions which are both treatable and preventable." Many such thoughts were discussed at a meeting of interested pharmacy' students at the 1972 SAPhA Yearly Meeting. The Minority Health Task Force organized at this meeting is now completing its second year of operation. The reasons for which it was organized provide the basis upon which it continues. The SAPhA Minority Health Task Force claims as its primary goal the active involvement of minority students in providing total health care for minority communities. This is achieved by offering technical advice and a small amount of funding for implementation of minority health projects. Task Force guidelines contain suggestions for projects' emphasis, some of which are comprehensive health care clinics, hypertension screening clinics, sickle-cell screening clinics, drug abuse, venereal disease, contraceptive education programs or information centers, immunization centers and diabetic screening clinics. Another function of the Minority Health Task Force is seeking innovative means to recruit minority members into the health sciences, especially pharmacy. The need for a mammoth effort to support and ensure the education of a significantly larger number of minority pharmacists, educators, scientists and administrators is directly associated with the survival of minority pharmacists in America. Such an effort must develop programs of graduate level study. To not do so will certainly place the nation's colleges in an indefensible position with respect to providing the absolutely necessary role models for minority pharmacy students at the undergraduate professional level. The initial source of funding for the Minority Health Task Force efforts is a grant of $2,500 from Smith Kline and French Laboratories. As it has done in the past, SK&F has been instrumental in supporting efforts to encourage pharmacists' direct participation in the community. Presently, the SAPhA Minority Health Task Force consists of three pharmacy students and this author who now serves as chairman pro tem. The pharmacy students involved are Barbara Cross, Texas Southern University; Greg Chenier, Xavier University, and Karen Jenkins, University of Oklahoma. Cedric H. Jones President-Elect, SAPhA
APhA
Minority Health and Pharmacy
Pharmacists and pharmacy students must examine more closely the contributions that the pharmacy profession must make to the resolution of minority health problems. The definition of the pharmacist's role in improved health care delivery systems like HMOs still remains an important task if we are to improve health care to minorities. These topics were a big issue in the Minority Affairs Committee Report in Houston at the 1972 SAPhA Yearly Meeting. At this meeting the Minority Health Task Force was conceived. The 1972 meeting precipitated many further discussions at pharmacy student meetings and rap sessions, and many important points have been revealed. Public awareness of the necessity to provide the Third World populace with improved health care is not nearly so widespread as it should be. The Third World, or minority, population is inclusive of Black, Chicano, Native American and Puerto Rican peoples. Adequate health care is not to indicate only the medical component of treatment but also infers a very necessary social aspect which is too often disregarded in considering a total approach to health care. Proper health care has been widely disregarded by the very people who need an organized effort most. Liberation and political awareness are necessary for the Third World, but unless the minorities are secure in a social and medical sense, there can be no Third World political power. The abuse of minorities by personnel and facilities, inherent in the present American system of health care, have discouraged many disadvantaged people from seeking the sociomedical attention sorely needed for their survival. The considerations of the wide variances in cultural expressions, health problems peculiar to a special group (notably, blacks), and different dietary habits among these groups are only recently gaining any of the attention they deserve from the entire community. Looking, for example, at a list of some commonly observed disease conditions in the black population, the figures of incidence are again all too often staggering. Some of these conditions include hypertension, heart diseases, orthopedic disorders, premature births and obstetrical-gynecological mortali ties. Efforts to ascertain the areas needing improvement in delivering minority health care often center around the quality and quantity of Third World health practitioners. To wit, a demonstration of this was embodied in a statement made in the August 1973 issue of Urban Health- "The health of black people is and will be directly and indirectly related to the proportion in leadership in the health occupations and in medical services. Because there are so pitifully few, and 96
Journal of the AMERICAN PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION
because the few are all too often mal-assigned, black people suffer and die of diseases and conditions which are both treatable and preventable." Many such thoughts were discussed at a meeting of interested pharmacy' students at the 1972 SAPhA Yearly Meeting. The Minority Health Task Force organized at this meeting is now completing its second year of operation. The reasons for which it was organized provide the basis upon which it continues. The SAPhA Minority Health Task Force claims as its primary goal the active involvement of minority students in providing total health care for minority communities. This is achieved by offering technical advice and a small amount of funding for implementation of minority health projects. Task Force guidelines contain suggestions for projects' emphasis, some of which are comprehensive health care clinics, hypertension screening clinics, sickle-cell screening clinics, drug abuse, venereal disease, contraceptive education programs or information centers, immunization centers and diabetic screening clinics. Another function of the Minority Health Task Force is seeking innovative means to recruit minority members into the health sciences, especially pharmacy. The need for a mammoth effort to support and ensure the education of a significantly larger number of minority pharmacists, educators, scientists and administrators is directly associated with the survival of minority pharmacists in America. Such an effort must develop programs of graduate level study. To not do so will certainly place the nation's colleges in an indefensible position with respect to providing the absolutely necessary role models for minority pharmacy students at the undergraduate professional level. The initial source of funding for the Minority Health Task Force efforts is a grant of $2,500 from Smith Kline and French Laboratories. As it has done in the past, SK&F has been instrumental in supporting efforts to encourage pharmacists' direct participation in the community. Presently, the SAPhA Minority Health Task Force consists of three pharmacy students and this author who now serves as chairman pro tem. The pharmacy students involved are Barbara Cross, Texas Southern University; Greg Chenier, Xavier University, and Karen Jenkins, University of Oklahoma. Cedric H. Jones President-Elect, SAPhA