storytelling to build medical trust

Amplifying the voices of Black and brown people about bias in the health care system. Activating health care providers to do better, and drive change.

How it works

The project brings health care providers and community members together for a three-part process:

Step 1: Acknowledge and understand the toll that racism within the medical establishment has taken on BIPOC through restorative justice circles — **Step 1:**
Acknowledge and understand the toll racism within health care has taken on communities of color through restorative justice circles

Step 2:Surface and publish stories of how that racism has affected the way BIPOC view vaccination through a story collecting project — **Step 2:**
Surface and publish stories of how that racism has affected the way Black and brown people view health care through a story collecting project

Step 3:Develop a public awareness campaign and educational materials by BIPOC promoting greater understanding around medical distrust — **Step 3:**
Develop educational materials for health providers around medical distrust- and critically, community-driven solutions.

In this series of videos by EmVision Productions, two patients share their experiences with bias in the health care system, and one provider reflects on how the system needs to change.

“I do believe that if I were a white woman, my questions, my concerns, everything would have been taken more seriously. And I do think the road to discovery would have been a shorter one.”

In this video, Rochelle Levy-Christopher describes how her experience as a Black woman in the health care system impacted her fertility journey.

“I got rushed to the hospital, and i was there before a few other people, and they was of a different race- They was white. And the receptionist kept saying (to them), ‘The doctor will see you now.’ And I said, ‘Well, what about me?’”

In this video, Kent Whitlock shares how he was passed over and mistreated by health professionals- and how that led him down the path to prison.

“I know that as a white woman, when I walk into a room, I am presenting as a white physician. What does that mean? How do I account for that?”

In this video, Katherine Gergen Barnett reflects on her experiences as a doctor, and the role that the medical establishment has historically played in the mistreatment of Black and brown communities.

About this project

There is a long history in America of Black and brown people being dismissed, exploited and otherwise mistreated by the medical establishment. So it is unsurprising that distrust runs deep: Compared to non-Hispanic white patients, non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic participants were 73% and 49% more likely to report mistrust in health professionals, respectively.

This distrust is one of the drivers for low vaccination rates in communities of color; more broadly, distrust can lead to worse outcomes for patients, deepening the already stark health inequities in our country.

There are plenty of statistics on this issue, but not enough personal stories. This project, then, aims to amplify the experiences of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), and to surface community-driven solutions. We believe that these stories will strengthen understanding between health providers and their BIPOC patients, leading to better care and better health outcomes.

“More Than A Vaccine: Storytelling to Build Medical Trust” is funded by Boston University and NIH’s Community Engagement Alliance, and led collaboratively by Everyday Boston, Boston Medical Center, the B.L.A.C Project, Transformational Prison Project, We Got Us, and EmVision Productions.