Worcester charts a course to better health

By Alli Knothe TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — How does Worcester plan to become the healthiest city in New England in the next six years? By, among other things, tackling systematic racism and classism.

In a 100-page report to be released Wednesday by the Worcester Division of Public Health and its affiliates, officials have pinned down dozens of short-term and long-term strategies to reach its goal.

Although there are five main areas of focus, including primary care and wellness, violence and injury prevention, healthy eating and active living, as well as behavioral health, the final category of the Greater Worcester Region Community Health Improvement Plan underlies all the others.


That category — health equality and health disparities — aims to "improve population health by systematically eliminating institutional racism and the pathology of oppression and discrimination."

It's a lofty goal, to say the least.

"We recognize there are greater disparities among the white population versus people of color in our community," said Derek Brindisi, director of public health for the city of Worcester and the Central Massachusetts Regional Public Health Alliance.

For 1,700 people polled for the study, the most important health problems facing the area involve behavioral and mental health as well as addiction. None listed racism or classism.

Mr. Brindisi said the issue became a clear focus in planning sessions with 90 area organizations in the development stages of the plan.

The problem is not about individual racism here, but rather about how to foster overall public health for residents of certain communities.

The city's report cites a 2011 Surgeon General report that explains "low-income and minority neighborhoods are less likely to have access to recreational facilities and full-service grocery stores and more likely to have higher concentrations of retail outlets for tobacco, alcohol and fast foods," which lead to an increase risk of health problems.

Young people raised in those areas are also more likely to be exposed to pollution and suffer from asthma, become a victim of violence, become addicted to alcohol and cigarettes, and become obese.

Despite "low-cost, highly effective" preventive treatment, coronary heart disease and stroke are the largest factors in the gap in life expectancy between white and black people, the federal report said.

"Public health is connected to all aspects of our life," said District 4 City Councilor Sarai Rivera, chairman of the council's public health subcommittee.

Taking steps toward its goal this year, the city's Division of Public Health and its affiliates plan to:

•Have the four other groups (behavioral health, healthy eating, active living, etc.) find ways to reduce health disparities in those areas.

•Build relationships with at least 100 leaders who live or have lived in low-income communities with the potential to bring awareness of the issue in their communities.

•Host another Undoing Racism training in the spring or early summer for institutional and community leaders

•Develop another training specifically for grass-roots leaders to be held in the fall

In its first year, the program has supported the growth of community gardens and played a part in expanding mobile farmers markets, as well as several other programs.

It also signed on three convenience stores so far in Worcester and Millbury to carry four new types of produce, with a handful of additional stores in the pipeline to sign on later in the year. The Division of Public Health with its partners, the UMass Memorial Medical Center and Common Pathways, will hold an event at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Levi Lincoln room on the third floor of Worcester City Hall to report its first-year progress as well as future goals.

Contact Alli Knothe at allison.knothe@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @KnotheA

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