FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM FEBRUARY 24, 2022 • THE QUEENS COURIER 29
HIGHER ED TODAY
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The theme for Black History
Month this year is “Black Health and
Wellness,” a focus that calls attention
to our country’s urgent need to redress
its long history of racial health
disparities. The pandemic has only
highlighted these inequities: African
Americans have endured higher
rates of serious illness and death from
COVID-19 than other groups, along
with a high incidence of mental-health
struggles. CUNY and its colleges, embedded
in the city’s neighborhoods,
are committed to elevate health care
for Black communities.
Mental health is frequently overlooked
in considerations of health disparities,
but it is one that the CUNY
Graduate School of Public Health
and Health Policy will be addressing
with an expansive new program.
The school’s Center for Innovation in
Mental Health was recently awarded
nearly $5 million from the National
Institutes of Health, with additional
support from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, to expand the capacity
of mental-health services in Harlem
.T
he Harlem Strong Community
Mental Health Collaborative will utilize
a novel approach to connect residents
to the help they need, engaging
dozens of community organizations
to recruit and train people whose jobs
bring them in daily contact with people
who may be struggling with mental
health issues. These include staff
members in public housing offices
and after-school programs, case managers
and others who work for community
based and religious organizations
including one of the program’s
key partners, the Harlem Congregation
for Community Improvement.
The program will provide basic
training to some 200 participants,
enabling them to help people they
encounter cope with problems and,
if necessary, get them connected to
professional services. CUNY SPH students
from diverse backgrounds will
also be trained and deployed to serve
as care navigators with organizations
throughout Harlem.
A second new initiative aimed at
addressing health care inequities is
underway at Hunter College, part of a
new consortium focused on the high
incidence of Black and Latinx people
who have multiple chronic diseases
including cancer and cardiovascular
disease. With funding from the National
Institute for Minority Health
Disparities, Hunter is partnering
with Columbia University Irving
Medical Center, Weill Cornell Medical
Center and the Physician Affiliate
Group of New York on a collaborative
center that will break down traditional
research silos to address multiple
chronic conditions.
Students will Become Advocates
Medgar Evers College made its
own timely advance that very much
honors the theme of this year’s Black
History Month. The Predominantly
Black Institution (PBI) secured University
approval last month to launch
a Bachelor of Science program in community
health education.
The program is being created in
response to the growing awareness
of health disparities in communities
such as Central Brooklyn, where
Medgar Evers is located. It will provide
internships and other experiential
learning opportunities and help
prepare students to become health advocates
in their own historically underserved
communities.
The CUNY School of Medicine was
founded in 2016 with exactly that mission,
and it continues to gain recognition
for being the rare medical school
whose student population approaches
the demographic diversity of the communities
it seeks to serve.
Nearly 40 percent of our medical
students are Black — five times the
national and New York State averages.
Those students graduate with
the preparation they need to serve in
urban communities where they are
desperately needed, and that is exactly
what many of them do.
Communities of color are more
likely to access health care networks
if more health care providers
are members of those communities.
That’s a principle of representation
that applies throughout society, and
I take it to heart. My administration
is working hard to increase the diversity
of our University leadership, to
more closely reflect the population of
the students and city we serve. I have
appointed four college presidents who
are African American, including Dr.
Patricia Ramsey at Medgar Evers, the
first Black woman to lead the school.
Today, seven CUNY colleges are led
by presidents who are Black — more
than at any time in the University’s
history.
I’m proud of CUNY’s historical
commitment to equity and access, and
the ways those commitments connect
us to the important work of improving
health outcomes for Black Americans.
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