‘We Stand Together’: Dr. Virginia Caine
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis is one of many communities across the country to name racism a public health crisis.
For quite a few Hoosiers, racism is making them sick.
In the WISH-TV series “We Stand Together,” News 8’s Katiera Winfrey sat down with Dr. Virginia Caine, director of the Marion County Public Health Department.
WINFREY: Recently it was determined that racism was a public health crisis. A lot of people might say how can that be a public health crisis. Can you expound on that?
CAINE: Well you know that health looks at populations as a whole. And that’s what it means by public health. And when you look at the impact of racism it has significant connotations related to the impact of health on an individual person. So racism can cause and present as violence. As we’ve seen across some states like Georgia and of course Minnesota with George Floyd. As a result of those deaths and negative impact on the body. But also prolonged exposure can cause a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety which can have huge implications for your blood pressure, anxiety depression…related to racism from a mental health standpoint. So it’s got great consequences in terms of it’s impact and how it manifests in so many different ways.
WINFREY: That’s interesting that you bring up the stress aspect. Some people may not realize just how much of a toll stress and depression can take physically on your body. Can you explain that sometimes that can turn into other types of problems?
CAINE: Let me just tell you this. You know I can be in a neighborhood and you have the kind of fear or run syndrome. But if I’m in a neighborhood or community and I’m very concerned about the violence as it relates to my body. We could be seeing post traumatic stress disorders. In a number of our members in this community not realizing the impact that a significant number persons undergo because they all live and the environment. And they don’t understand that environment or that culture. So they don’t understand the real implications of having steady stress on a daily basis. Not only the individual but the family as well.
WINFREY: And when you look at the protests as a whole some people look at that as well this is empowering to me but some people may see this and say all this kind of stresses me out what, how is this going to end up, what are people going to do. Is there another element.
CAINE: Also, definitely because just take what happen downtown. And look at our protest event unfortunately. We had a number of incidents. We had destruction of different entities downtown. For example I believe a CVS pharmacy got destroyed. We had a lot of seniors in that area they depend on their pharmacy to get their medication. They don’t always have the funding to take a cab to go to another pharmacy. So look how it impacted negatively from the economic standpoint. I have to figure out where I’m going to get money until the pharmacy is rebuilt. We had so many businesses there from an economic standpoint people need to work. They have to figure out how do I put food on the table for myself and for my family. But with the destruction of the property a lot of businesses had to close down temporarily. So there’s so many different factors that can be related to this protest. And in the healthcare profession for example, let me just say I’m seeing a patient and counseling a patient who may have diabetes. So you have to be very careful with what you eat. And I’m telling this patient you need to do these things and they come back in another visit and it’s clear from a nutritional standpoint they were not able to do that. And here I’m thinking it’s a non-compliant patient. If I was a provider because if I don’t understand the culture if I don’t understand their environment and what’s going on in their lives. I mean I realize that hey there is not a grocery store near them that has vegetables fruit that they can ascertain. As providers we have to have a better understanding of what’s going on with our patients.
WINFREY: I know when it was announced racism as a public health crisis there were plans in the works or steps to try to make some improvements. Are you all still working on those plans or have some of them already been developed?
CAINE: So no we are definitely working on those plans. But we are also trying to emphasize one of the things that I think is critical from racism standpoint is we have to improve the economy of everybody. We have to have this health equity. We’ve been too long in the state of Indiana minimum wage is $7.25 for over 25 years. Over 25 years a minimum wage of $7.25. So we should at least be making a living wage. What does that mean? I make enough money to put food on my table, pay my utilities, OK and have my rent. That’s a living wage. So it’s unfair that we have a significant number of our ethnic populations they may be in eight of the 10 lowest paying jobs. As a community we have a huge responsibility that if you’re working hard that you should be able to in an eight hour period be able to make a living wage. And so that I think is the key to good health and the second key to good health is great education.