Black History Month Black Health Forum
February 2, 2023
Mount Vernon Public Library
VitaHealth Nutrition and PlantBasePower.org, a 501c3 organization, will host its first Black History Month Black Health Forum on February 2, 2023, at the Mount Vernon Public Library.
VitaHealth Nutrition: Vita Health Nutrition promotes holistic living through diet, exercise, spirituality, and mental clarity to heal the entire body and create a balance in your physical, mental, and spiritual auras.
PlantBasePower.org: Plantbasepower.org is a non-profit, non-corporate, and not compromised on the mission to fight obesity, hunger, and the need to promote a healthy lifestyle in communities of color. With a dedicated staff and support, we rely on donations to continue the fight to save our communities.
Objective
The Black History Month Black Health Forum (TBHF) aims to help preserve and promote the need for physical and mental health preservation in communities of color.
Black Americans seem to be the hardest hit when it comes to obesity. Black women have the highest rates of obesity compared with other ethnic groups in the United States. About four of five Black American women are categorized as overweight or obese.
A community with weight disparities is a community that ultimately has health disparities. Black Americans not only experience higher prevalence rates of these health problems, but they’re also more likely to die from them.
Black adults are twice as likely as white adults to have a stroke, twice as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, and 3 and 1.5 times as likely to have high blood pressure. Black Americans are 2.3 times as likely to die from diabetes complications. Although black women are 10% less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, they’re almost 40% more likely to die.
In 2015, researchers released data showing more suicides among African American children ages 5 to 11 than among Caucasian children. This was the first national study to show higher suicide rates for African Americans than for Caucasians in any age group.
While most studies show that African American men are more likely to die by suicide while African American women are more likely to attempt suicide, recent research has observed that Caribbean black men in the US have the highest attempt rate in the African American community.
TBHF recognizes that communities of color lead in all categories of chronic illnesses, and now there is a clarion call to address the mental health disparities in our community. TBHF is laser-focused and concerned with the preservation and promotion of physical and mental health in our communities with organized social action,
TBHF sees the need to have yearly forums; to give our community the necessary information and tools to make the required lifestyle changes to live a life of health and wellness.
We will offer information booths, Books and serve healthy food alternatives. The forums will be categorized into three topics:
Topics for the health forum are:
- Men’s Health
- Women’s Health
- Family Health/ Mental Health
Each panel will consist of local and national Medical Professionals, Health and Wellness Practitioners, and Life Coaches. Each panel will be no longer than 45-60 min, with a 15 min break between to allow participants to taste some of the provided healthy snacks or go to the bathroom. The goal is to give participants a broad spectrum of information on Black health and wellness.
The TBHF goal is to host this forum every year until chronic illness and health disparities are irradicated from communities of color in Westchester County.
