Success Stories
Mario Browne, Project Director-University of Pittsburgh Center for Minority Health (CMH) had a program profiled by the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities
Mario Browne, Project Director-University of Pittsburgh Center for Minority Health (CMH) had a program profiled by the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, with support from a grant from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD), are aggressively taking advantage of community empowered centers for African Americans - barbershops - to attack a scourge among black men, prostate cancer. “We hoped to use the culture of trust built between barbers and their customers to address many of the sensitive issues surrounding prostate cancer,” said Mario Brown.
Begun in 2005, the initiative, called H.A.I.R. – Health Advocates In Reach - is a unique partnership between 10 African American barber shops and more than 100 health professionals and students from the University of Pittsburgh’s schools of Medicine, Public Health, Nursing, Dentistry and Pharmacy; the American Cancer Society and the Nursing school at Duquesne University.
Using trusted community based institutions as vehicles for health education and health promotion interventions is rooted in social network and social support theory. Studies show that culturally relevant health messages that incorporate social norms and values are most effective if respected community members such as barbers and beauticians deliver them. Researchers at the Center for Minority Health wanted to test the relevance of this theory in their work to eliminate health disparities.
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