The National Negro Health Movement

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The National Negro Health Movement

• 1915 -1951

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Where there is no vision the people perish.-
Booker T. Washington
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Origins

• 45 percent of all deaths among Negroes were
  preventable
• There are 450,000 Negroes seriously ill all the
  time the annual cost of this illness is 75
  million dollars
• Sickness and death cause Negroes annually 100
  million dollars

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Because of these facts I have thought it
advisable to ask the Negro people of the whole
country to join in a movement which shall be
known as Health Improvement Week beginning
April 11 to April 17, inclusive, 1915. By means
of these organizations and agencies, all the
colored people can be reached and
influenced. They can be taught what to do to aid
in improving their health conditions.
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Origins continued

• Growing lay public health movement
• Increasing membership of National Medical
  Association
• Documentation of disparities in health status

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Philosophical Orientation

• A given community is either a healthy community
  with adequate facilities for prevention and care,
  or it needs to face its lacks and work out plans
  for necessary social, economic and physical
  changes to meet these problems.

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Structure of National Negro Health Week
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Sunday Mobilization Day

• Health sermons
• Health talks
• Churches
• Popular mass meetings
• Speakers
• Music

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Monday Home Health Day

• Home cleanup
• Parents meetings
• Consider proper sex education

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Tuesday Community Sanitation Day

• Water, food and milk supply
• Waste disposal
• Clean streets
• Paving
• Safe wells
• Sanitary privies

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Wednesday Special Campaign Day

• Survey of community needs
• Concentration on practical objectives
• Noon conference

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Thursday Adult Health Day

• Emphasis on annual health examination
• Opportunities for examination
• Health talks to mens and womens organizations

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Friday School Health and Safety Day

• Involve parents
• Health essays, songs, games, plays
• Health examinations
• School cleanup
• Health clubs
• Emphasize health,first education
• Emphasize safety, first living

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Saturday General Cleanup Day

• Cooperative, large scale cleanup activities
• Inspection of community campaign results
• Completion of unfinished activities
• Collect data and take pictures for reports and
  newspaper stories

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Sunday Reports and Follow-up Day

• Close campaign with enthusiastic meeting
• Talks
• Music
• Experiences

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Selection of Channels and Audience Reach

• Churches
• Schools
• Clinics and hospitals
• Radio broadcasts
• Newspapers
• Mass meetings of local civic groups

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Health Communication Materials

• The Health Week Bulletin
• The Health Week Poster
• The Health Week School Leaflet
• The Health Week Radio Broadcast
• The Health Week Sermon

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(No Transcript)
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Movement Objectives

• Consultation with state health officers on public
  health problems
• Contact with state and local Negro organizations
  to secure aid in furthering efforts for the
  protection and promotion of the health of the
  Negro

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Movement Objectives

• Stimulation of employment of Negro public health
  personnel by state and local health department
  and other agencies
• Consistent efforts to elevate the standards of
  training for Negro and recruit persons to public
  health work
• Special efforts to emphasize health work in Negro
  schools

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Movement Objectives

• Maintenance of a register of speakers qualified
  to give talks on public health subjects
• Establishment in the central office of the NNH
  Movement of a list of qualified Negro health
  workers for those agencies seeking to employ such
  persons
• The development of a depository of health
  information relating to the colored population

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Movement Objectives

• Analysis of the census data and vital statistics
  to determine the distribution of population and
  the nature and extent of health problems
• Promotion of the Health Week as a period for
  emphasis on general health status of the Negro
  population and the program for health improvement.

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Evaluation

• Objectives
• Cleanup activities
• Educational activities
• Practical - clinic visits, attendance, community
  health events
• Local prizes awarded
• Other accomplishments
• Field service
• Media coverage (articles, photos, etc.)

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(No Transcript)
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What was significant about the National Negro
Health Movement?
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• It was a movement from within the group for its
  own betterment.
• It helped to change the attitudes toward
  sickness, disease and death.
• It helped to create an appreciation and demand
  for better living conditions.
• It helped to change attitudes toward governmental
  organizations with respect to health and sanitary
  improvement.

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• City and state health departments and the Public
  Health Service utilized Black professionals to
  communicate regulations and programs of
  governmental agencies promoting general health
  improvement to the Black community.
• It represented one of the most effective means
  for direct or indirect cooperation of whites and
  Blacks devised at that time.

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• The Black community became one of the most active
  American groups in the national, in fact,
  worldwide movement for health improvement.
• When the National Negro Health Week was
  established in 1915, life expectancy for Blacks
  was about 35 years. For the period 1929 to 1931,
  life expectancy increased to 47 years for Black
  males and 49 years for Black females.

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• It addressed multiple levels of the
  socio-ecological model.
• It recognized the importance of collaborative
  efforts across government, non-profit agencies,
  and community institutions.
• It utilized community based and community
  development approaches to public health.
• It demonstrated sensitivity to the culture,
  assets and needs of the communities served.

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Model Health Communication Campaigns Demonstrate

• Supplementation of media activities with
  extensive collaboration of actual community
  activities
• Measurement of clear objectives with process
  evaluation activities

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Model Health Communication Campaigns Demonstrate

• Attention to multiple channels
• Culturally sensitive matching of channels and
  materials to target audience needs

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Community Based and Community Development
Programming

• Community Development
• The process of organizing and/or supporting
  community groups in their identification of
  important concerns and issues and their ability
  to plan and implement strategies to mitigate
  their concerns and resolve their issues.

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Community Based and Community Development
Programming

• Community Based
• The process of health professionals and/or health
  agencies defining the health problem, developing
  strategies to remedy the problem, involving local
  community members and groups to assist in solving
  the problem, working to transfer major
  responsibility for ongoing program to local
  community members and groups.