Empower women to take charge and control of their health

National Women’s Health Week is an annual observance led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health, with the goal of empowering women to make their health a priority. It took place May 8-14, 2016.

“All too often health issues of women are, overlooked or dismissed. And far too often women themselves put their health on the backburner in order to care for others in the family,” stated multicultural healthcare marketing expert Sheila Thorne, CEO and founder of Multicultural Healthcare Marketing Group, LLC. “During this week the focus is on empowering women to take charge and control of their health.”

National Women’s Health Week highlights health issues that concern women as well as to encourage better health care practices. There are still major health concerns for women, according to data from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the biggest killer of women in the nation is heart disease. Mental health and breast cancer are also major concerns.

Even with the advances made by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), still more than three million low-income women in the United States fall into a coverage gap and are uninsured, according to the National Women’s Law Center. And due to health care gap, black women do not enjoy the full benefits of biomedical research and suffer more from chronic disease and premature death, even among the middle class and insured. 

There are health care issues that affect Black women more than white women. For example, the death rate from breast cancer for African-American women is 50 percent higher than for white women. Being involved in clinical research could help close such gaps.

“It’s just not enough to recognize National Women’s Health Week, what it deserves is action, improvement, especially when it comes to women of color,” noted Thorne. “Finding cures and treatments depend on clinical trials, and all too often women of color are left out of the equation. This has to stop.”

Thorne has been working in communities of color across the country on closing the health care gap for nearly 25 years. While she applauds the progress to date, she urges that more progress needs to be made.

“This week, we recommit to ensuring equal access to high-quality care for women and to building a more prosperous, healthy future,” declared President Barack Obama. “Ensuring women can live full and healthy lives is vital, and central to that mission is improving the quality, affordability, and accessibility of health care for women.  Because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), insurance companies can no longer charge women more than men or use pre-existing conditions — including pregnancy — to deny them the care they need.”

For more information, visit http://www.womenshealth.gov/nwhw/about/.