Health Equity

Addiction Should Be Treated, Not Penalized

Posted on by NIMHD
Addiction Should Be Treated, Not Penalized
Addiction Should Be Treated, Not Penalized

NOTE:  NIMHD Insights is reposting this op-ed piece with permission from the Health Affairs Blog. It is written by the Director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Dr. Nora D. Volkow, and is available in Spanish on the NIDA website.

By Nora D. Volkow, M.D.
Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse

Photo of Dr. Nora Volkow

Dr. Nora D. Volkow

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the large racial health disparities in the United States. Black Americans have experienced worse outcomes during the pandemic, continue to die at a greater rate than White Americans, and also suffer disproportionately from a wide range of other acute and chronic illnesses. These disparities are particularly stark in the field of substance use and substance use disorders, where entrenched punitive approaches have exacerbated stigma and made it hard to implement appropriate medical care. Abundant data show that Black people and other communities of color have been disproportionately harmed by decades of addressing drug use as a crime rather than as a matter of public health.

We have known for decades that addiction is a medical condition—a treatable brain disorder—not a character flaw or a form of social deviance. Yet, despite the overwhelming evidence supporting that position, drug addiction continues to be criminalized. The U.S. must take a public health approach to drug addiction now, in the interest of both population well-being and health equity. Continue reading “Addiction Should Be Treated, Not Penalized” →

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NIMHD Director Statement in Support of NIH Efforts to Address Structural Racism

Posted on by nsorhaindo
NIH Ending Structural Racism initiative
unite_webBadgeWithURL_portrait

By Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D.
Director, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

NIH Ending Structural Racism initiativeOn March 1, NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., announced the launch of UNITE, a new NIH initiative aimed at bringing an end to structural racism in biomedical research. In his statement, Dr. Collins recalled the agency’s longstanding support of programs to expand the diversity of the scientific workforce, but he acknowledged shortfalls in NIH’s efforts to bring “…diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and skillsets to complex scientific problems.” As the Director of NIMHD, I enthusiastically endorse this newly stated goal for NIH to address, manage and eliminate systemic racism and discrimination embedded in policies and practices in the biomedical research enterprise. Since its beginnings as an Office more than three decades ago, NIMHD has promoted and supported the recruitment and training of a diverse workforce as part of its mission in research and training. We will continue that work while contributing our knowledge, experience, training programs, and tools to our collective goal of ending structural racism and discrimination, by building a biomedical workforce that reflects the populations we serve at all levels of authority within NIH and in our grantee institutions.

Continue reading “NIMHD Director Statement in Support of NIH Efforts to Address Structural Racism” →

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In Search of Equity: Rethinking Race and Racism in Science and Medicine

Posted on by NIMHD
Boulwared - Lab Coat

Black History Month  

In Search of Equity: Rethinking Race and Racism in Science and Medicine

By L. Ebony Boulware, M.D., M.P.H.
Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine
Director, Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Duke University School of Medicine

Photo of Dr. L. Ebony Boulware in a labcoat

Dr. L. Ebony Boulware

Recent events compel us to reckon, yet again, with the ongoing legacy of systemic racism in the U.S. The merciless murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black individuals through police violence reflect an epidemic of brutality that manifests ongoing and profound racially mediated structural social inequities in the U.S. Compounding this, the recent higher COVID-19 death rates among Black and Hispanic communities have made it clear that race-based structural inequities are directly tied to poor health and further threaten the lives of Black and other minoritized individuals.1 These intersecting realities have brought many in the fields of science and medicine to consider how race and racism are harmfully operationalized through many aspects of our collective experiences. Continue reading “In Search of Equity: Rethinking Race and Racism in Science and Medicine” →

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Help NIMHD Share Visions of Health Equity

Posted on by NIMHD
NIMHD Art Challenge -- Graphic

By Gina Roussos, Ph.D.
Health Policy Analyst, Office of the Director
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Are you looking for a fun, engaging, and meaningful activity to keep the quarantine blues at bay? Look no further! The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) invites you and your loved ones to participate in the Envisioning Health Equity Art Challenge—a competition inviting teens (16-18 years) and adults to create images (paintings, drawings, photos, digital art, etc.) that represent NIMHD’s vision: an America in which all populations will have an equal opportunity to live long, healthy, and productive lives.

During these challenging times, this art competition gives us all the opportunity to take a break from the present for a moment and instead imagine a marvelous, hopefully not-too-distant future in which health disparities based on race and ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status, and sexual and gender identity are but distant memories. Continue reading “Help NIMHD Share Visions of Health Equity” →

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Racism and the Health of Every American

Posted on by nsorhaindo
NIMHD Director's statement on racism and the health of every American
NIMHD Director's Statement

By Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D.
Director, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

The past few weeks have been an extremely difficult time in the United States. George Floyd’s death was so painful to witness. Even more painful is the knowledge that he was only one in a long, long line of African American men and women who have been killed by police in America. It is a relentless, terrible history, and his death was yet another reminder of injustice in our lives. It is the same injustice that American Indians suffered in colonial times and the 19th century, losing their lands and being victimized by war. It is the same injustice that led to mass deportation of Mexican Americans—people born in the United States—in the 1930s. It is the same injustice that led to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. This is our history.

I have watched the protests—at times coupled with violence but mostly peaceful—and been heartened by the Americans of all races who have continued to show up, day after day, to say that Black lives matter and structural racism must end. This is a society that is proud to say that all are created equal, with liberty and justice for all, but the history of injustice is clear. People are not standing for it anymore. Continue reading “Racism and the Health of Every American” →

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