How Political Rhetoric Affects Immigrants’ Ability to Access Health Care
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“The Community Is Terrified”: How Political Rhetoric Affects Immigrants’ Ability to Access Health Care

Undocumented immigrants struggle when they need to access medical care. “Undocumented immigrants don’t have access to insurance; they can’t buy insurance through the marketplace,” says Mayra Casas Jackson, Executive Director of the Immigrant and Refugee Law Center (IRLC). They are not eligible for Medicaid either. That means they must pay out of pocket for every…

Self-Care and Racial Trauma, Community Health Worker, Cincinnati, Ohio
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Self-care and racial trauma: A tool for healing

Racial trauma can be caused in so many ways. Racism can be overt or covert. It might take the form of an explosive event or a small comment. People of color also constantly experience microaggressions—tiny hostile communications. Racism is traumatic whether it’s baked into the system or perpetrated by an individual. It’s traumatic when it’s…

Rent increasing, causing negative impact on health
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Rents keep climbing, affecting health negatively

The practice of redlining, or racial segregation and discriminatory practices in the real estate industry, started to be exercised about a hundred years ago.  In many U.S. cities, certain neighborhoods were identified as “hazardous” based on the racial makeup of their inhabitants. Then, lending institutions used this information to deny home loans to people from…

Community Health Worker's provide access to health care.
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Cathy Boston: Encouraging the greatness within

Cathy Boston’s background in Human Resources has allowed her to develop expertise in empowering people “to become their best selves.” She tells the story of how her business, STATEMENTS by Cathy Boston, LLC, came about.  In her previous position, she was responsible for internal training and development. “I was asked to do stress management training…

Denisha Porter, All-In Cincinnati Coalition
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Denisha Porter: All-in with racial equity

“I get to lead a bunch of wonderful people around policy and systems change,” says Denisha Porter of her position as Director of the All-In Cincinnati Coalition. Driving solutions is her goal, and she always keeps an ear open to suggestions from and needs within the community. All-In Cincinnati works to dismantle racial inequities with…

Improving Health Equity
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Judith Warren: Health care equity then and now

When Health Care Access Now (HCAN) was started in 2009, the health care landscape in Cincinnati was even more divided than it is now.  Prior to HCAN’s formation, Judith Warren led the 20-county Regional Primary Care Access Initiative (RPCAI), an initiative sponsored by Interact for Health (formerly Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati). RPCAI united executives…

Dr. Kamaria Tyehimba, Talbert House, Cincinnati, Ohio
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Dr. Kamaria Tyehimba: Dismantling racial bias in addiction services

When the topic of addiction comes up, the opioid epidemic is currently top of mind for most people. How do you think about those who are addicted to prescription pain relievers, heroin, or fentanyl? Does race affect whether you label the addict as a victim or a villain? It shouldn’t. Dr. Kamaria Tyehimba, who oversees…

Talbert House, Cincinnati, OH
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Larry Lindeman: Touching hundreds of lives

Larry Lindeman trained as a child and family therapist. Realizing his aptitude for process engineering, he moved into a management role and has been able to increase financially sustainable programming at outpatient offices for Talbert House as the Director of Outpatient Behavior Health Services in Hamilton County. “In my initial work, I was helping an…

Identifying implicit bias will improve health outcomes
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Two phrases that show implicit bias in mental health services

Everyone – even those with the best intentions – holds implicit biases towards others. This happens because your brain takes shortcuts and makes snap judgments based on what’s familiar to you, particularly when you’re in high-stakes situations. A lot of mental health providers have considered their own implicit biases and moved toward correcting them. But…