Black mothers and pregnant parents have the highest maternal mortality rate in the United States — at least three times higher than white women. In addition, Black babies die at higher rates than any other racial and ethnic group. Team members at Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Black Health Initiative (BHI) are working to change these statistics, one family and healthcare provider at a time.
While Children’s Colorado only delivers babies who have rare and complex medical needs, we know we play an important role in training our providers, and those in our community, to provide culturally responsive care to Black families throughout their lives.
In 2021, the BHI partnered with the Center for Advancing Professional Excellence (CAPE) at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Campus to create the BHI-CAPE Simulation Training. This effort pairs healthcare providers with community advocates to take part in a simulated medical event based on the real-life experience of a Black patient.
The goal is to provide culturally responsive clinical and behavioral health training for providers to address the disparities that Black patients experience in healthcare settings. As a result, providers say the training helped them recognize ways to improve their practice to better serve diverse communities.
We also created a program called Mothers Advocating for Mothers to help Black parents who felt unseen and unheard in healthcare settings. This program creates community and teaches moms and parents self-advocacy and community advocacy. Some of the mothers who participated in this program even became community advocates for the BHI-Cape Simulation Training.
Learn more about the impact of the Black Health Initiative and our efforts to increase health equity within our community: https://www.childrenscolorado.org/community/community-health/black-health-initiative/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dhei
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Website: http://www.childrenscolorado.org
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