The St. Louis Chapter of the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE) has a long game – they are trying to improve health equity in the region by helping to attract, support and retain black health professionals – but, in the short term, the group has a health disparities symposium it wants the community to attend.
The St. Louis Chapter of NAHSE will present its 5th annual Health Disparities Symposium, “Opioid Epidemic: A Community-Based Approach to Curtailing Supply & Demand,” 7:30-9 a.m. Friday, June 9 at BJC Learning Institute (Lower Level Auditorium), 8300 Eager Rd.
The keynote will be delivered by Theodore J. Cicero, professor of psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine. Panelists include Kendra Holmes, chief operating officer, Affinia Healthcare; Daniel Isom II, endowed professor of policing and the community at University of Missouri-St. Louis; state Rep. Cora Faith Walker (D-Ferguson); and Howard Weissman, executive director of NCADA, which works to reduce or prevent the harms of alcohol and other drug use through education, intervention and advocacy.
April Mickens Jolly, communications chair for the chapter (and program manager for Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s Comprehensive Stroke Center), said that opioid addiction may be getting more attention now that more white people are effected, but the health crisis still has a disparate impact by race.
“It’s an American problem, not relegated to certain demographics, but it does have a disparate impact depending on where you live and what resources are available to you,” Mickens Jolly said. “If you live in a neighborhood with no access to rehabilitation, or to care in general, who exactly would help you to overcome this battle?”
The symposium is free and open to the public, but the 60 members of the St. Louis Chapter of NAHSE could themselves confront the crisis from just about every angle.
“Our membership includes the leadership of hospitals, health centers, professors, vendors, consultants,” Mickens Jolly said. “If it touches health care, someone in NAHSE does that.”
Chapter President Carmel Hannah, who is manager for diversity and inclusion in Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s Center for Diversity and Cultural Competence, acknowledged that the chapter membership number of 60 is modest in itself. But she pointed out that the chapter was reinstated in 2011 (after being founded in 1993 and lapsing some time before 1998), is the fastest-growing chapter among 28 nationwide and was named the 2015 Chapter of the Year by the national association. The current national president is Anthony King, CEO and executive director of the Wellness Plan in Detroit.
The St. Louis Chapter was rechartered with seed funding from regional powerhouses in the health field – BJC HealthCare, Washington University School of Medicine, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children’s Hospital – “because they could see our vision and the need for our group to thrive,” Mickens Jolly said.
That mission, according to the national association, is “promoting the advancement and development of black health care leaders and elevating the quality of health care services rendered to minority and underserved communities.”
“Our mission is not limited to patient care,” Hannah said. “In any situation where anyone is seeking health resources, we want a seat at the table. Our question is always is: Do we have the right individuals in the room to communicate the needs the patient has and the challenges that person faces in receiving resources?”
To have “the right individuals in the room,” they need to be in the region. As black professionals transplanted to St. Louis, a region often criticized by transplants for its insularity and diffidence towards newcomers, Hannah and Mickens Jolly see their chapter as a network that can bring new executives to St. Louis and help keep them here.
“Whenever we hear an institution is having trouble finding diverse candidates, we want to know, ‘Who did you ask? Where are you looking?’” Mickens Jolly said. “NAHSE can fill a void. We can spread the word. We’d love to get to the day where we no longer hear, ‘We just can’t find a diverse pool of leadership candidates.’ We know we’re here. You just need to connect.”
Once a black health executive gets here – Rick Stevens, the relatively new president of Christian Hospital is one newcomer to the local NAHSE chapter – the NAHSE network can help to keep them here.
“We are a support system when leaders come here,” Hannah said. “We give them a safe place for conversations you can’t always have at work. We invite provocative questions. We want people to ask questions specifically as a health administrator who is a person of color. We want to keep people here.”
These two black professional transplants want to stay here now – which is not how they always have felt. Mickens Jolly is in her second stint in St. Louis, after not enjoying her first stay and leaving as fast as she could. She then followed her husband, whom she met as an undergraduate at Washington University, after he received an attractive position here.
“It’s really an exciting time to live here,” Mickens Jolly said. “It’s an exciting place to be. I feel like we can make some progress here. Collective action can change things. I didn’t feel that way when I was at Wash. U.”
“We’re making an investment in how we want the community to look,” Hannah said. “It might not look the way you want it to look, but we want the future to look different than it looks today.”
To register for the June 9 symposium, visit https://tinyurl.com/lur5m7f.
