New York City’s Racial Justice Commission (RJC) hosted a virtual panel entitled, “Overcoming Racial Disparities in Health and Mental Health” earlier this summer to discuss health and persistent racial disparities in health and mental health.

 

The event, held on July 20, was hosted by commission chair, Jennifer Jones Austin, and was divided into two, hour-long panels, each made up of three expert panelists. The first panel comprised LaRay Brown, CEO of the Brookdale Hospital Medical Center and president and CEO of One Brooklyn Public Health System, Guillermo Chacon, president of the Latino Commission on AIDS, and Claire Green-Forde Ph.D., executive director of the New York chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

 

Brown kicked off the discussion by acknowledging that the COVID-19 pandemic had disproportionately affected people of color, especially in terms of hospitalizations and deaths, a point raised in previous fora, as reported. The Brookdale Hospital CEO went on to discuss the role that health care systems play in perpetuating health care inequality, and added that there was an opportunity which those working in health care now had to address such disparities.

 

“What I’m pleased to say is that more and more healthcare organizations within the state, in the country, are actually viewing equity as mission critical, and also viewing their response and / or just even understanding how racism and structural inequity exists in how they deliver care, and not just as a research project or as an academic exercise, but really with a real commitment and actions to change their approach to how they deliver care,” said Brown.

 

Chacon spoke next, adding to Brown’s point that the COVID-19 pandemic had actually exacerbated many health epidemics New York City had already been facing. “I just want to add that I think if we want to really address racism, we need to deal with poverty as the element that will perpetuate, and will not allow folks also to really reach their potential,” he said. “The second piece I believe is justice,” Chacon added.

 

He went on to discuss why racial and cultural diversity matter, explaining that the messenger matters and that it was important for people to connect to the message to grasp it. Chacon presented the idea of taking advantage of the opportunity to engage with New York City’s workforce and to train employees to combat structural racism, saying that people needed to work together to fight issues of racism, homophobia, transphobia etc.

 

Green-Forde spoke next about her personal struggles within the healthcare system as a woman of color, and as an immigrant. She said it was important to make the healthcare system, along with all other systems under which the City operates, accessible for people of all colors and backgrounds.

 

“We have a system where we are aware and have long been aware of the issues and have ignored them,” she said. “So my questions are: are we capitalizing on a moment that will fizzle away, like all of the others before? Or, will we actually use this time to truly work to root out racism and structural violence because racism is violence?”

 

The three panelists then engaged in discussion with members of the commission who asked them various questions about their presentations. Brown spoke more about healthcare plans and the financial aspects of health and mental health equality, while Green-Forde reiterated the importance of helping people navigate the existing health system.

 

The second panel was made up of Wayne Ho, president and CEO of Chinese American Planning Council, Nathaniel Fields, chief executive officer of the Urban Resource Institute, and Joo Han, deputy director of the Asian American Federation.

 

Ho was the first panelist to speak, focusing on how health and mental health can be better addressed for the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. According to Ho, the AAPI community makes up 15 percent of the population of New York City, and is the fastest growing racial group in the city. He said it was important to acknowledge data justice, language justice and budget justice for this population.

 

“If we want to budget justice, we need to make sure we are investing in communities themselves and not investing in over policing. … Let’s make sure that we, in the human services and nonprofit world, are bringing the communities [that] are impacted the most to the table,” said Ho.

 

Fields presented next and talked about domestic violence and its disproportionate effect on people of color. He discussed ways the nonprofit sector could step up and work on that issue, and others that disproportionately impact Black and / or indigenous people of color (BIPOC).

 

“I do think that from being a nonprofit provider, and looking at the sector at large, we can actually invest in our nonprofit community by doing some of the things I suggested, again, looking at the RFP [request for proposal] process, looking at the contract value, ensuring that we’re around the table as we start to engage in this process,” said Fields.

 

Han was the final presenter on the second panel, speaking specifically about challenges that the Asian American community in New York City faced. According to Han, Asian Americans are the least likely racial group to seek help for depressive symptoms. She also said 25 percent of the population lives in poverty, making it the poorest community in New York City.

 

“As we look to ensuring racial justice for Asian community and other communities of color, you must ensure that access to culturally competent mental health care is a fundamental right for all New Yorkers but, especially, our most vulnerable community members must recognize that communities of color, like the Asian community, is facing a crisis within a crisis,” said Han.

 

Following the presentations, RJC members once again asked the panelists questions, sparking further conversation about the role of the nonprofit sector, and ways New York City’s current systems function and could be changed for the better. The full panel discussion is available on RJC’s Youtube channel.

 

According to New York City government’s website, RJC is the first commission of its kind in the United States. It focuses on dismantling structural and institutional racism across New York City and the Commission plans to hold more, similar panel discussions in the future, covering the role of racism in a variety of settings.