Dear Community:

Happy Halloween! As our superheroes and ghosts head out tonight, I’m thinking of the real heroes among us: caregivers. To support you, we’ve added two new one-day Saturday sessions in November for our Caregiver Support Series. These sessions offer practical tools, stress relief, and connection; details and registration are below.

Next week, don’t miss our Nutrition Train the Trainer: Holiday Workshop on Nov. 6, a hands-on session to help families navigate festive food with health in mind.

And finally, I urge you to read and share The State of the Black Overdose Epidemic in America, a landmark national report underscoring the devastating, disproportionate toll of opioid overdoses on Black communities. We stand with the Council on Black Health and other partners advancing prevention, treatment access, and recovery.

Thank you for caring for one another. Together, we can turn awareness into action. Wishing you all a safe Halloween and a blessed week ahead.

Renee Mahaffey Harris

President & CEO

ARE YOU CARING FOR A LOVED ONE 60 YEARS OR OLDER?

New 1-Day Saturday Sessions Added for Caregiver Support Series

Caring for a loved one is both rewarding and challenging. Most people cannot truly understand these challenges. Our series allows you to be in community and learn from other Caregivers like you, and give you tools to fulfill your responsibilities even better.

Click the One-Day Saturday Session Best for Your Schedule

Spaces Also Still Available in Our November Monday Series

Call us at (513)585-9879 for more information.

Holiday Eating, Reimagined: Nutrition Train the Trainer Holiday Workshop Planned for Nov. 6

Love your holiday favorites but not the guilt? Our nutrition training and healthy cooking workshop is here to show you the way! Discover how to indulge in your cherished holiday meals in a healthier manner. This class is your secret ingredient to a healthier holiday season. Link in our bio to register! Spots limited.

Research cuts may widen racial disparities for common blood cancer, multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma is a cancer that develops in bone marrow plasma cells, crowding out healthy blood cells and damaging the bones. It is one of the most common blood cancers — and the most diagnosed among African Americans. The mortality rate from multiple myeloma also is higher among African American patients than white people, with a number of studies showing that, in addition to disease biology, societal factors such as socioeconomic status and lack of access to health insurance or medical services delay timely diagnoses.

Black and Hispanic patients are also less likely to receive the newest therapies, according to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, and, when they do, they are more likely to do so later in the course of their disease than white patients. An analysis published in 2022 of racial and ethnic disparities in multiple myeloma drug approval trials submitted to the Food and Drug Administration concluded that Black patients made up only 4% of participants despite being roughly 20% of those living with the disease.

Racial health disparities could widen as states grapple with Trump cuts, experts warn

Racial health disparities may widen as states, universities and nonprofits grapple with federal funding cuts to programs that were aimed at filling gaps in care, public health experts say. As part of its federal restructuring and crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, the Trump administration has been shuttering federal offices and rescinding grants dedicated to addressing worse health care access and outcomes for racial minorities.

The shake-up has caused some state agencies and nonprofits to pause programs and some groups and universities to apply for foundation grants instead. Hundreds of grants have been terminated for state, local and territorial health departments as well as nonprofits and universities, many of which addressed health equity across rural, low-income and communities of color.

How health disparities affect children

by Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

In 1995, I stood at the edge of a map most policymakers ignored: Appalachian Ohio. The Surgeon General’s 2002 report, “Closing the Gap: A National Blueprint to Improve the Health of Persons with Mental Retardation,” would later cite our work as a model for rural specialty outreach. But long before that recognition, we were ledgering care into counties where children with developmental disabilities had no clear path to diagnosis, let alone treatment. The Ohio Rural Developmental and Behavioral Clinic Initiative wasn’t just a program; it was a tactical response to a system that left rural families stranded. We didn’t wait for reform. We built it.

The initiative was born from a statewide needs assessment conducted by the Ohio Department of Health. The findings were stark: rural counties had fewer resources, fragmented systems, and families overwhelmed by uncoordinated care. In response, we launched two pilot clinics in underserved counties, each staffed by interdisciplinary teams: developmental for children under six, behavioral for school-age youth. These teams didn’t parachute in. They partnered with local public health nurses who served as liaisons, conducting home visits, gathering records, and ensuring that families remained central to both diagnosis and treatment. We didn’t just evaluate children; we evaluated the system. In the program’s first two years, we reviewed 120 clinical charts and interviewed families. The results were telling: 98 percent of families who pursued services after evaluation successfully obtained them. The chief barrier wasn’t bureaucracy; it was family hesitation, often rooted in stigma or fatigue. But when families engaged, the system worked. Diagnoses were clarified. Services were accessed. Hope was restored.

Social Isolation May Shorten Lives among Older People, Men, and Less Educated

Social connections are essential to both physical and mental well-being, yet social isolation remains a silent and neglected issue as it continues to grow among populations worldwide. A new study led by a School of Public Health researcher explored the effects of social isolation on mortality risk among older adults in Japan and found that isolation was linked to earlier deaths among individuals who were in their late 70s or older, men, and had nine or fewer years of formal education.

Published in The Lancet Regional Health, the study found that this association was even stronger among people who had lower education but higher income, particularly women. The results also indicate that eliminating social isolation among populations could decrease education and income-related health disparities in total survival time by as many as 37 days, on average. The study is the first to examine how social isolation and mortality risk differ among certain groups based on age, education, and gender, and it is also the first study to examine these differences inductively through machine learning methods.

Millions of Americans are set to lose food assistance—sign the petition to keep SNAP running!

Right now, 42 million Americans across the country are bracing for something they should never have to fear: the Trump administration ripping access to food out from under them. The Trump administration is refusing to keep essential food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) running during the government shutdown—preventing millions of families from putting meals on the table. SNAP recipients could be forced to skip meals and decide whether to use limited budgets to "buy groceries, pay rent, fill prescriptions or turn on the heat."

Council on Black Health Contributes to Report about the Black Overdose Epidemic in America

by Melicia Whitt-Glover

Since Spring 2025, the Council on Black Health has been engaging with Elmcor to elevate awareness of the opioid/overdose epidemic in Black communities. Late last week, Elmcor released The State of the Black Overdose Epidemic in America. This landmark national report highlights the devastating and disproportionate impact that opioid overdose deaths have on Black communities, particularly among adults over 50. 

The Council was invited to serve as a national partner in this conversation. Our participation added consideration of social determinants of health and systemic inequities as drivers of these outcomes. It also provided an opportunity to elevate the Council's mission, work, and approach around reimagining systems and environments that impact health in Black communities through collective action, policy change, and storytelling.  

To review the report’s full executive summary, please visit The State of the Opioid Overdose Epidemic in Black America. Video and audio from the previously held briefing is available here. I believe this information will be useful for understanding how the Council is collaborating with partners to collectively reimagine how we talk about and achieve optimal health in Black communities.

A Summary of Guidance on Addressing Racial and Ethnic Health Equity in Systematic Reviews and Evidence-Based Guidelines

Racial and ethnic health equity is the absence of unfair and avoidable or remediable differences in health and well-being among persons belonging to different racial and ethnic groups. This article summarizes current guidance and identifies practices for systematic reviewers and guideline groups to develop clinical practice guidelines that mitigate such inequities. Current guidance recommends that systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines ensure a wider perspective; identify, prioritize, and develop equity-focused topics and questions; and apply specific methods and processes to answer equity-focused questions. Ensuring a wider perspective involves incorporating persons with lived experiences and other relevant nonclinical expertise into review and guideline teams as well as engagement of patients and members of affected populations in the review and guideline process. 

Negative perceptions of the health system and racial inequities in PSA screening

Background

Black individuals in the U.S. experience significantly higher prostate cancer mortality and are more likely to be diagnosed at younger ages with aggressive disease. This disparity may be influenced by negative healthcare perceptions and racial discordance between patients and providers, impacting lower rates of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening. We hypothesized that these factors would be associated with reduced PSA screening uptake, particularly among Black men.

Results

Higher HePI scores were significantly associated with lower PSA screening rates (p < 0.01). Interaction models indicated that Black men with higher HePI scores were disproportionately less likely to undergo screening. Racial discordance with providers was independently associated with reduced screening likelihood (~10.2 percentage points; p < 0.01). Models including interaction terms (age, race, and discordance) showed that older Black men with high HePI scores and discordant providers were least likely to be screened.

Conclusions

PSA screening disparities are shaped by negative healthcare perceptions and racial discordance, particularly among older Black men. Addressing these barriers through culturally tailored education, improved workforce diversity, and strengthened provider–patient relationships may help close screening gaps. These findings highlight the relevance of healthcare system perceptions in understanding screening disparities and may inform future strategies to identify at-risk individuals.