Edmond Hardy said some of the men who sit in his barber chair see a doctor only twice in their lives -- once when they're born, a second time when they die.
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Dr. Christine Wankiiri-Hale, a recent graduate of Pitt's dental school, talks about dental care with Dwayne Brown, a Duquesne University student, while he gets his hair cut yesterday at The Natural Choice in Oakland. Doctors and public health workers with the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Minority Health went to local barbershops as part of an outreach to black customers who might not have seen a doctor in years. (Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette) |
That's because some can't afford to see a physician, while others don't know what they can do to prevent illnesses or where to get help when they need it, Hardy said.
The solution, he said yesterday between customers at Taz's Barber Shop in the Hill District, is education.
"If you don't have a Paul Revere coming around, letting people know something, forget about it," said Hardy, 35, of the North Side.
Doctors and public health workers with the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Minority Health were trying to sound that alert yesterday by spending time at Taz's and two other black barbershops in the East End. The local event was a twist on the national Take A Loved One to the Doctor Day, in which black Americans were asked to take someone they cared about for a checkup.
In Pittsburgh, it was the doctors who went to the people.
Stephen Thomas, director of the Center for Minority Health, said the outreach fit in with a broader goal.
"Part of the African American Health Promotion Campaign is to increase the likelihood that scientifically sound and socially appropriate health information will be delivered in trusted venues that are owned and operated by the black community," he said.
Dr. J. Richard Jennings, for example, set up an electronic blood pressure gauge yesterday in the back of Taz's. Jennings is conducting a study on how treatment of high blood pressure affects how the brain works, so he spent the afternoon providing blood pressure checks and then offering those with hypertension a chance for free care as part of a research study.
Jennings' appearance in the Hill District was the sort of win-win situation the Center for Minority Health is trying to promote between minority patients and university researchers: Patients who aren't getting needed care receive treatment, while researchers get the kind of participation by minority citizens in health studies that the federal government now requires.
"The fact that the venue is a barber shop, rather than an ER or clinical setting, I think increases the likelihood that people will say yes to the research," Thomas said.
Thomas is trying to rally the university and the black communities to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities by 2010. Barbers and beauticians are some of the community fixtures who are being trained to help.
"Barbers were the first surgeons, so they come from a long tradition that actually has a direct connection to medicine," Thomas said. "You sit in that chair, you get wrapped up and now you're in the hands of your barber.
"It's a social context where African-Americans discuss a wide range of issues, including male-female relations, issues around sex and sexuality and current events," he said. "And why do they talk about health? Because they're hurting."
Taking health professionals to the barber shop lets them in on these conversations and helps build trust, Thomas said. It also promotes the goal of spreading health information among minority residents, who get sick more often and suffer more from premature deaths, he said.
Jennings, for example, was drawn into a discussion of prostate cancer screening methods, which featured Hardy, the barber, commenting that doctors "put a finger up your butt." Jennings noted that while the "digital rectal exam" is sometimes called for, a simple blood sample is all that's needed for the initial prostate cancer screening.
Thomas' African-American Health Promotion Campaign is looking to train barbers, beauticians and others as "lay health advisers."
That means that one day Hardy could be the one providing health education in the barber shop.
Christopher Snowbeck can be reached at csnowbeck@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2625.
Correction/Clarification: (Published Sept. 26, 2002) The initial screening test for prostate cancer is a blood exam. An article about an outreach program from the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Minority Health in yesterday's editions incorrectly stated that the screening test requires only a urine sample.
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