9 Simple Solutions to Achieve Health Equity: A Guide for Healthcare Professionals and Patients
We are excited to share an excerpt from MSSNY member Dr. Mauvareen Beverley’s insightful and impactful book, “9 Simple Solutions to Achieve Health Equity: A Guide for Healthcare Professionals and Patients.” In this work, Dr. Beverley provides practical, boots-on-the-ground solutions to improve healthcare outcomes for diverse patient populations. Drawing from her experiences speaking to over 1000 patients, she offers innovative approaches like “The Bridge Team” and highlights the importance of cultural competence and patient engagement. Below, you will find Dr. Beverley’s own words, detailing her journey and the essence of her book.
9 Simple Solutions to Achieve Health Equity: A Guide for Healthcare Professionals and Patients is my attempt to share boots-on-the-ground simple solutions as a result of what I refer to as a stop-in-my-tracks moment that came from speaking to over 1000 patients from various races and ethnicities. These interactions led to both simple solutions and an outside-the-box innovative approach, such as “The Bridge Team,” whose role was to improve the health outcomes of the most vulnerable population by achieving health equity within healthcare settings.
I try to frame a roadmap in stages so that anyone can implement it effectively. I provide stories and examples of scenarios to make them relevant and applicable. I share some of the complex challenges we see within healthcare, resulting from the perception versus the reality of experiences, information, and true perspectives of the population served. The resulting false perceptions and missed communication lead to misunderstanding, contributing to poor health outcomes.
I share the need to recognize that there are simple solutions to prevent escalation to the need for complex solutions if we choose to accept and address them in a non-judgmental, humane, and empathetic manner. This book is intended to educate all healthcare professionals, practitioners, and patients. It is important to understand that a patient is more than just an individual with a disease condition. The individual who happens to be a patient may also be a mother, a father, a grandparent, a devoted church member, a minister, or an accomplished teacher in their community. I also focus on the importance of patient engagement and cultural competence for English-speaking, limited English-speaking, and non-English-speaking populations. Equally important is the fact that the English-speaking Black patient population is not excluded from the need for cultural competence. It is important to ensure that the doctors, as well as the entire clinical or care management team, appreciate patients as individuals, with values and beliefs shaped by their culture or lived experiences.
Finally, I provide some important historical highlights of the health crisis of the Black population. It is unconscionable when one considers the atrocities that they have endured over the course of history for the Black American population, inclusive of the elderly and patients with Sickle Cell Disease, to continue to experience overall less access to quality care, with worse health outcomes.
“It is more important to know the person who has the disease than the disease who has the person.” -Hippocrates
Save the date! We are thrilled to invite you to join Dr. Mauvareen Beverley, author of “9 Simple Solutions to Achieve Health Equity,” for an intimate and engaging book signing event on July 15th, 2024. The event will be held at the New Rochelle Public Library in the Ossie Davis Theatre from 6:00 PM to 7:45 PM. Stay tuned for the link to purchase your copy of the book, and mark your calendars for this special opportunity to meet Dr. Beverley and be part of an important conversation. Don’t miss it!
