Guest Column - It's time to Ask: Why Not?
By Kevin Karpowicz
Editor's Note: The Schenectady Foundation has maintained an emphasis on grants that support improvements in maternal and child health and child development. For our Community Voice guest column, we asked Dr. Kevin Karpowicz to comment on the state of child health in our community. Dr. Karpowicz, MD is a pediatrician in Schenectady NY who serves as Chief Medical Officer at Hometown Health Centers. His practice has focused primarily on serving families in distressed neighborhoods. Dr. Karpowicz has received numerous awards for his work to create partnerships for child health and healthy births. He led the start-up of the Healthy Schenectady Families program and serves on the leadership team of Schenectady’s Promise: The Alliance for Youth.
It’s Time to Ask: "Why Not?"
A local pediatrician makes case for vastly improved health care access and communication
In March of 1968 Robert F. Kennedy spoke of the "other America" - where children were starving and where hope was lost - and that this "other America" was simply unacceptable. We needed to make a change in how we treated our fellow human beings. Nearly 40 years later we still have the other America.
A recent study has shown that the life expectancy for an urban African American male is 20 years less than the longest living group in America. Health disparities place the young adult living in American cities at a risk of dying equivalent to some developing countries in the world. Why? The stress of living in poor economic conditions coupled with other aspects of urban life: crime, environmental degradation and inadequate education lead to the easier path of gratification through tobacco, alcohol or drugs or risk-taking thrills.
The health disparities were not caused by lack of access to health care, but due to a higher incidence of those same conditions that are killing us all: smoking related illnesses, obesity, diabetes and heart disease. These are life style patterns that begin early and are taking an increasing toll among the urban poor.
We have failed to recognize that unhealthy behavior patterns are undertaken for a reason. High calorie and high fat foods are cheaper and readily accessible in an urban corner grocery store - as are tobacco and alcohol. Given the stress of every day life, which provides little in the way of satisfaction, the lure of a 25 cent snack food may be the best pleasure of the day. Our messages on nutrition and activity have been vague, conflicting and complicated - just go to the government website www.mypyramid.gov and view it from the perspective of someone with a poor education. Another resource intended to help people become healthier is dramatically off-target in reaching those most in need of assistance.
We continue to ask why, but we also need to ask: “Why not?”
Why not begin an affirmative action on health? We need to make certain of full access to health care, and that all people -- young and old -- have continuous health insurance coverage.
But we need to go beyond access. We need to begin early in life to establish the positive lifespan trajectory: where babies are breastfed, loved, and read to; where children are valued and emotional development is understood in day care and preschool; where schools and the community and families work together to instill a hopeful future in all of our children.
We can begin by making the messages simple and clear and reinforced wherever our children live and learn and play: eating 5 servings of a fruit or vegetable daily and engaging in at least one hour of physical activity daily and limiting television to one hour a day. These simple rules, plus limiting high calorie foods such as soda, snack foods and most fast foods will go a long way toward a healthier future for our children - and adults as well. Our health care dollars can be much more wisely spent on such an affirmative action health program that works on disseminating and reinforcing the simple health messages.
Why not work together to create a supportive community that offers a hopeful and healthy future for each one of us? Why not close the gap between what we know and what we do? Health disparities need not exist. By supporting affordable and accessible health care for everyone, and by appropriately promoting and embracing healthy lifestyles and behaviors, we can begin to reverse the tide of health problems that disproportionately affect our most vulnerable citizens.
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author in this column do not necessarily represent the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of The Schenectady Foundation.
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Interested in learning more?
Here are links to health-related information sites, including projects that are happening right now in Schenectady County to address child health and development issues.