Episode 56: Health Disparities in Populations with Neurologically-based Communication Disorders with Alaina Davis PhD, CCC-SLP, CBIST
Millions of people are affected by health disparities secondary to racial and cultural inequalities (Payne, 2014). With the changing demographics, speech-language pathologists must anticipate significantly diverse caseloads which will include persons who are impacted by health disparities. Dr. Alaina Davis and Leigh Ann Porter will describe health disparities as related to neurologically-based communication disorders and provide background on why disparities exist. In addition, the listeners will be provided with resources and methods that can be employed in clinical practice to support increased outcomes for patients and clients of color who have neurologically-based communication disorders and may be impacted by health disparities.
Topics covered:
The ‘What’ and ‘Where’ of health disparities in neurogenic disorders.
Definition of “health disparity,” current/recent statistics in the U.S., and populations affected by health disparities.
Factors contributing to the existence of health disparities.
An examination of the health disparities in African-Americans and Mexican-Americans.
Tools for SLPs to address the effects of health disparities.
The Healthcare Chaplaincy - online tool for improving cultural and spiritual sensitivity in healthcare providers.
Resources mentioned in the episode:
Websites
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s treasure trove of Cultural Competency Resources.
The Cleveland Clinic’s Diversity Toolkit: a PDF of incredibleness. Highlights terminology, communication styles, preferred rituals/expressions of spirituality, end of life care, and additional links to more resources. Like wow. Good stuff.
U.S. National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus: Access to the basics, additional resources, and research regarding health disparties across all types of health issues for groups in the U.S.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities: oodles of great stuff here - including free educational handouts created for minority populations (also provided in Spanish).
The Healthcare Chaplaincy Network: take courses on cultural and spiritual sensitivity
Dr. Davis’ Articles and Book Chapters
Davis, A. S., Wright-Harp, W., Lucker, J., Payne, J. C., & Campbell, A. (2016). Cultural familiarity of figurative expressions from three music genres in African American adults. Contemporary Issues in Communication Sciences and Disorders, 43, 238-254.
Ellis, C., Magwood, G., & White, B. (2017). Racial differences in patient-reported poststroke disability in older adults. Geriatrics, 2, 16; DOI:10.3390/geriatrics2020016.
Ellis, C. (2009). Does race/ethnicity really matter in adult neurogenics? American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18, 310-314.
Payne, J. C. (2014). Health Disparities. In J. C. Payne, Adult neurogenic communication disorders: An ethnobiographical approach. (pp. 3-40). San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing. ISBN13: 978-1-59756-503-5.
Payne, J. C. (2014). Delivering culturally competent services to adults with neurogenic cognitive-language disorders. In J. C. Payne, Adult neurogenic communication disorders: An ethnobiographical approach. (pp. 41-58). San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing. ISBN13: 978-1-59756-503-5.
Proctor, A., Rivers, K., (2016). Healthcare disparities after traumatic brain injury (TBI): Towards unbiased assessment of communication impairments. Journal of the National Black Association of Speech-Language-Hearing, 11(1), 23-24.
Sharby, N., Martire, K., & Iversen, M. D. (2015). Decreasing health disparities for people with disabilities through improved communication Strategies and Awareness. Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12, 3301–3316.
Related Articles
Johnson NX, Marquine MJ, Flores I, et al. Racial Differences in Neurocognitive Outcomes Post-Stroke: The Impact of Healthcare Variables. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2017;23(8):640–652. doi:10.1017/S1355617717000480
RACIAL AND ETHNIC DISPARITIES IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: A LITERATURE REVIEW (2014) created for the US Department of Health & Human Services
Addressing Risk Factors for Neurocognitive Decline and Alzheimer’s Disease Among African Americans in the Era of Health Disparities (2011) - open access chapter from a book: “The Clinical Spectrum of Alzheimer's Disease -The Charge Toward Comprehensive Diagnostic and Therapeutic Strategies.”
Ellison-Loschmann L, Pearce N. Improving access to health care among New Zealand's Maori population. Am J Public Health. 2006;96(4):612–617. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2005.070680
Ted Alcorn (2011) New Zealand’s bold strategy for reducing health disparities. There is a table in this brief article that illustrates the disparity in life expectancy between Maori and non-Maori of New Zealand from 1951 to 2005.
Dr. Alaina Davis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Howard University. She is also a Medical Speech-Language Pathologist with over 10 years of experience and a Certified Brain Injury Specialist Trainer. Dr. Davis’ research focuses on sports-related concussions and cognitive-communicative disorders among adolescents and young adults. Her work also addresses health disparities among persons with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who have neurologically-based communication disorders. More specifically, her work has addressed culturally appropriate and relevant methods to determine differences from disorders in African American adults. She is published in professional journals and has co-authored chapters on traumatic brain injury.
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