I'm just getting back from Los Angeles where I assisted my associate and owner of jazzmyne PR, Makeda, in coordinating media for the Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program (BBHOP). Led by Dr. Bill Releford, the BBHOP provides free diabetes and blood pressure screening in Barbershops across the country. The program’s goal is to address healthcare disparities and cardiovascular disease in African American men. Dr. Releford decided that innovative outreach to black men is critical because they are disproportionately affected by diabetes and hypertension more than any other ethnic group.
The day started out at the The New Millenium Sports Beauty & Barber Salon on Crenshaw in the Leimert Park area. In addition to volunteer doctors on hand for a discussion and to perform screenings, a number of celebrities stopped by to encourage men to get screened. There was a two-hour panel discussion broadcast live by KJLH addressing health issues impacting African American men.
I was shocked to witness the amount of men coming in off the street in need of a free screening. There were men with and without health insurance that had not been screened. Click here for a video news story of the event.
After spending the morning at the New Millenium Barbershop, the doctors and celebrities went on a bus tour to visit some of the 100 barbershops performing health screenings.
The experience on Saturday certainly made me recognize the critical need for our hard working black men to get screened for life or death health issues.
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