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Toledo Lucas County Minority Health Commission Receives
State Grant
Fletcher Word
The Ohio Commission on Minority Health has awarded a
five-year grant of $500,000 to rev up the now-defunct
Toledo-Lucas County Commission on Minority Health, Mayor
Carty Finkbeiner announced last Thursday at a news
conference.
Those annual grants of $100,000 must be matched by local
dollars which will require on-going fund-raising activities,
said the mayor.
Using a hypothetical example of a white child and a black
child born in 2008 at the same time, Finkbeiner noted the
health disparities that currently exist. “The Caucasian
child is expected to live eight to 11 years longer than the
African-American youngster born at the same time,” he said.
“We need to level the playing filed and give youngsters
equal opportunities to stay healthy,” the mayor added. “The
Commission on Minority Health went out of business for a few
years but it is back in action.” Finkbeiner was referring to
the fact that his successor and predecessor, Mayor Jack
Ford, cut city funding to the group.
The mayor was surrounded at the news conference by members
of the Commission such as Mary Gregory, Schylar Meadows and
Daisy Smith. Louis Guardiola is the interim coordinator for
the local office.
The goal of the Commission will be to target six health
conditions in order to reduce disparities among minority
residents: infant mortality, heart disease, cancer
(particularly colorectal cancer), diabetes, HIV/AIDS, mental
health and emotional well being.
The targets evolved based upon the community’s needs, said
Finkbeiner citing the following statistics:
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African-Americans and Hispanics were more likely than
whites to rate their health as fair or poor;
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African-Americans were more likely than whites and
Hispanics to die from heart disease and stroke;
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Eighty-one percent of African-Americans and 69 percent
of Hispanics were overweight or obese;
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The HIV rate among African-American females was the
highest in Lucas County and while African-Americans make
up 17.7 percent of the Lucas County population, they
comprised 40 percent of the HIV/AIDS cases.
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