Learning Exchange with UK Communities for Health

Bronx Health REACH was selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to participate in an exchange with representatives from the United Kingdom’s Communities for Health program. The Communities for Health program intends to increase the role of local government in supporting health improvement and reducing health inequalities. Bronx Health REACH hosted visitors from the city of Nottingham, including the director of the health and well being partnership of the Nottingham City Council and a Nottingham city councilwoman, on November 16^th and 17^th.

As a community coalition dedicated to the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities, Bronx Health REACH targets individuals through programs to promote healthy lifestyle change, as well as works with policymakers and stakeholders to effect policy change. Bronx Health REACH staff put together presentations to highlight programs that work with faith-based organizations, community groups, health care providers, elected officials, and others to improve health outcomes in the Bronx. We also invited our partners to speak about their work with the coalition and how they believe that Bronx Health REACH has impacted the health of the community. On the second day of the visit, we brought our visitors to the south Bronx and had them participate in a number of events. These included a “Can I Still Be Puerto Rican and Eat Healthy?” event at the MARC Academy and Family Center and the annual Thanksgiving dinner put on by the culinary committee at Walker Memorial Baptist Church for Bronx Health REACH’s Faith-Based Outreach Initiative. This annual event showcases the healthy dishes that have come about because of the nutrition training provided by Bronx Health REACH.

Throughout the learning exchange, we had a number of interesting conversations about the state of health care in the U.S. in comparison to the system in England. Because most citizens in the UK have public health insurance through the National Health Service, the UK visitors were struck by the differences in quality of care between publicly and privately insured patients in the U.S. They also repeatedly mentioned how shocked they were by the level of poverty in the south Bronx and, after hearing about the segregated system of care in New York, said they would go back to the UK with a renewed commitment to avert any efforts by the conservative leaning coalition government to introduce any aspect of a U.S. type health care system.

Time and time again the visitors voiced their awe at how much communities, through the efforts of Bronx Health REACH and others, have undertaken to meet their health challenges from the ground up. At the same time, they also voiced their consternation at the lack of a systemic effort to address health inequities, be it at the city, state, or the national levels. However impressed our visitors were with the work that Bronx Health REACH is doing to improve health in the south Bronx area, their lasting impressions of the broken health care system in the U.S. and the pervasive inequity in our country are profound. It shocked them that the richest country in the world could have such glaring poverty and inequity.

For those of us that work in this field, these realizations are nothing new, but it’s an eye-opener when outsiders so easily see the problems in our system. The learning exchange allowed Bronx Health REACH to showcase our efforts around nutrition, fitness, and health inequity in the community, but it also provided an opportunity to think critically about how health in our country stacks up against others. Unfortunately, we learned that we don’t stack up too well. In order for health to improve in underserved communities in a lasting way, policy and systems change must be at the forefront of our efforts. We all have a part to play to improve health outcomes and the Bronx Health REACH coalition will continue to drive change in its community to achieve health equity.