September is World Alzheimer’s Month, so we thought it would be the perfect time to highlight some of our work related to Alzheimer’s disease! Take a look at the need, and how we approached developing content!
The need
We talked with community- and faith-based leaders across the country about health and research in the African American community. Overwhelmingly, we heard that they wanted culturally appropriate materials that:
Focus on health conditions that matter to African Americans
Feature African American scientists who lead or advocate for clinical trials
One of the health conditions identified was Alzheimer’s disease, which is twice as likely to affect older African American adults than older white adults.
Our approach to content creation
Using an audience-tested design and content structure, we recently developed 2 materials for RLJP:
Alzheimer’s disease in the African American community, which was reviewed by content experts, and answered questions such as:
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
Why does Alzheimer’s disease affect African Americans more than other groups?
How have clinical trials helped people with Alzheimer’s disease?
Black scientist series: Dr. Joyce Balls-Barry PhD, MPE, features Dr. Balls-Barry, a Black scientist who works to enhance and diversity research in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. HLM is fortunate enough to have her as our board president.
View and download the full materials:
The highlights
Some of the best things about this work are:
These materials were co-created with, by, and for African Americans!
These materials are a part of an ongoing series. To date, we’ve developed and tested 12 materials:
6 factsheets on various health conditions, including: Alzheimer’s, heart disease, maternal mortality, diabetes, hypertension, and end-stage kidney disease
4 factsheets featuring black scientists and health professionals
1 infographic on clinical trials
1 factsheet on trust and clinical trials in the African American community
After each focus group, we developed a community report that told participants what we heard and how we’re responding.
What do you think? What other health topics or black scientists would you like to see covered in this series?
About our partnership with Our Healthy Community
To help raise community voices, HLM in collaboration with Our Healthy Community (OHC), formed the Research Literacy and Justice Project (RLJP). OHC is an African American-led community engagement organization, who, like us, values co-creation and health equity! Through RLJP, we learn from community, co-create useful materials, and collaborate on educational content that aims to shape better health outcomes.
Conversations like the ones that sparked these materials are happening online as a part of OHCEngage. a platform developed by OHC for communities to collaborate, share resources, and discuss health equity to improve community health. To learn more about OHCEngage and join the conversations visit: ourhealthycommunity.com/OHCEngage
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