Volunteers Visit Barbershops to Trim Risk of Heart Disease
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Care for a blood pressure check with your buzzcut? That's the kind of deal sometimes being offered at this St. Louis barbershop. And it's prompted by a disturbing fact: Black men have one of the lowest life expectancies in the country, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
One reason is a lack of access to health care, a disadvantage that such groups as the Los Angeles-based Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program are trying to rectify. Working with local nursing student organizations, retired nurses and religious leaders, BBHOP founder Bill Releford aims to educate black men about cardiovascular disease -- the leading cause of death in the United States -- and to provide free health screenings across the country.
"We're synergizing existing resources [from the community] that are underutilized or not utilized at all," Releford says. This includes "barbershops [which] historically have been a place where African American men can gather without feeling threatened," he adds.
Volunteers screen men for diabetes, check their blood pressure and educate them about the risk of smoking and the health benefits of exercising and eating well. The program's goal this year is to hold screenings in 750 barbershops and reach 25,000 men in 50 cities. The campaign has already hit New Orleans, Chicago, St. Louis and Los Angeles, and it will reach the District in September.
-- Kathleen Hom
