Sourced from: Cleveland19
Originally written by: Steven Hernandez
EUCLID, Ohio (WOIO) – The Village of Healing Center is on a mission to close the health care gap for both Black women and infants in Cuyahoga County.
“My community needs someone to step in and stop just talking and actually bring action,” said co-founder of the center on Lakeshore Boulevard, Dàna Langford.
Langford explains that healthcare for Black patients can be a challenge.
“Nationwide Black women are three to four more times likely to die due to child birthing complications in pregnancy, and in the first year post-partum,” she said. “For every one white baby that dies, four Black babies die in Cuyahoga County.”
Her urge to take action is exactly what motivated her and Tenisha Gaines to open the center, along with a slew of services like prenatal and postpartum care and gynecology.
Now, the center is also expanding into primary care.
Nurse practitioner Amber Black explains care for these patients goes beyond the services themselves—it’s also about identity.
“We come to the doctor and we come to a facility…and there’s a lot of patient blaming. When in reality we just need someone to listen so we can start the diagnostic process,” she said. “Patients come in to my office and they automatically feel like they can trust me with some vulnerable information… When our patients come in, they can also be unapologetically them.”
The services and expansion of care at Village of Hope are making an impact, but the clinic’s leaders are not ready to say mission accomplished just yet.
Langford and others visualize a constant fight for everyone, as everyone deserves the right to feel healthy.
“As long as Black babies die in this county, as long as Black women have to worry about making it to full term,” she said. “It’s not mission accomplished at all.”
