HealthChangers Podcast: Hair Cuts and Heart Health, Engaging Barbers as Advocates for Community Health
In this episode of HealthChangers, they visit a barbershop that’s helping African American men focus on heart health and keep their blood pressure under control. This innovative program is called “Cuts and Checks,” and there are similar initiatives in at least eight cities across the country.
First, we’ll hear from some of the people involved in getting the Cuts and Checks program up and running. They’re with North by Northeast, the only primary care clinic in Oregon devoted to African American/Black health. We’ll hear from North by Northeast Co-Founder Doctor Jill Ginsberg as well as Sharetta Butcher, a community health care worker who oversees the Cuts and Checks program. We’ll also hear from Doctor Kenji Taylor, a physician who helped start a similar program in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our interview was conducted by Kilaa Slaughter-Scott, a Cambia employee and board member of North by Northeast.
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Of course, health care initiatives like the Cuts and Checks program can only work with the full partnership of community leaders. Follow along as we meet one of the people who’s been key to making the program work. Jamaal Lane is the owner of Champions Barbershop and Champions Barbering Institute. We spoke with Jamaal in his northeast Portland barbershop. Our conversation took place last year, before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
On a future episode of HealthChangers, they’ll revisit Champions as well as North by Northeast to talk about how the pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color and how calls for long overdue racial justice, over the past year, have helped shine a light on injustices in our health care system.
This article was originally published on the Cambia Health Solutions website and is republished here with permission.
About The Show
On the HealthChangers podcast, presented by Cambia Health Solutions, we share real stories of health care transformation, from those who are experiencing it and those helping to make health care more personalized. We aim to step back and see real people’s stories at a personal level. We dive deep into specific health care topics, from the problems that health innovators are solving, to personal consumer stories and new technologies, and everything in between. In 2018 and 2019, HealthChangers was recognized as a finalist for best podcast in PR News’ Platinum Awards, in 2019 HealthChangers was recognized as a finalist for Brand Journalism and Audio Storytelling in PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards. Follow the Podcast at #HealthChangers.
