Off the Charts: Examining the Health Equity Emergency

Statistics show that women and communities of color are less likely to receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation after cardiac arrest. Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah is the emergency medical services director at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and co-founder of Akoma United, an organization with the mission to save lives, especially in communities of color, and goal to empower everyday people to use CPR. She shares why it's important and reminds us that there’s no liability when doing CPR.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to chronic-pain management. Each person’s story is unique and requires individualized care that often includes non-opioid therapies. Sara Hall, a clinical nurse specialist in pain management at Regions Hospital, shares how a 2020 grant helped her team develop a yoga program that’s more accessible for Spanish-speaking patients with chronic pain.

Stephanie Zahrbock suddenly lost all sensation and the ability to move or feel anything below her belly button in 2016 when a lesion was discovered on her spine. The former runner shares how her world changed and how solutions to her challenges can benefit everyone.

It’s important to understand that equity, the quality of being fair and impartial, means we don’t all start from the same place. Equity in the workplace starts with commitment and alignment. Rhonda Cox, vice president of people and culture for Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation, shares why equity’s important to her and what inspired her to want to shape, create and influence workplace culture to be more inclusive and equitable for colleagues.

Growing Through Grief is a school-based grief support and crisis management program supported by the Park Nicollet Foundation that provides children with peer support groups, individual counseling, and death-related crisis response after they’ve experienced the loss of a loved one. Nicole Barnes, Growing Through Grief program manager, and Judy Brown, Minneapolis Public Schools mental health manager, outline the prevalence of childhood bereavement and share the C.A.R.E.S. (community, awareness, resiliency, empathy and strength) support group model. The episode will highlight how the partnership between health care and education systems brings additional resources to schools that share education and renewal practices with students that bring hope and healing.