Buffalo shooting highlights mental health

Buffalo, New York
CNN
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The day after Buffalo suffered its worst mass shooting in history, a team of emergency volunteers and mental health counselors arrived, providing emotional support and distributing food.

The response was strong and fast, but there was one big problem.

“They weren’t comfortable taking center stage because what the community saw was a large white group,” said Kelly Wofford, Erie County’s director of health equity.

A white gun had deliberately opened fire. Mostly Black neighborhood’s only grocery store, a Topps supermarket, on a busy Saturday in May. Of the 13 people shot, 11 were black, including 10 fatalities.

“In other tragedies like hurricanes or floods, anyone offering resources is welcome, but this was different. This tragedy had a face and hatred for certain people,” Thomas Beauford Jr. said. President and CEO of the Buffalo Urban League, one of the community organizations on the scene the day of the shooting.

“They completely rejected it,” says Beauford, “and their immediate response to the advisors was, ‘We need to see advisors who look like us.’

As of Monday, the problem has been fixed. Wofford, who grew up down the street from Topps, tapped her network to make sure there were more black mentors on the site, who happened to be black. Handing out leaflets He greeted people at the aid station about the services on the road and black people.

“We made sure the affected community felt comfortable seeking the services they needed,” Wofford said.

Her response efforts — and the focus the May 14 shooting brought to the community’s disparities — highlight the newly formed role of Erie County. Office of Health Equity Playing in the community means: Ensuring health services They are equally distributed among disadvantaged and marginalized populations.

In Erie County, there is a stark disparity between the health outcomes of white residents and residents of color, which has become more pronounced as of Covid-19. It affected black and brown communities in equal measure There, as well as throughout the country.

Even before the epidemic, the life expectancy of black Buffalo residents was 12 years shorter than that of white residents. For a report published by the Buffalo Center for Health Equity In 2015, the most recent data Available.

The Erie County Office of Health Equity was launched to help address those disparities. established By county law in JanuaryAnd the funding was made possible by the main federal pandemic relief package known as the America’s Rescue Plan, which distributes money to states, counties and cities across the country.

Erie County has allocated $1 million of the nearly $179 million from America’s Savings Plan for the creation of the Office of Health Equity. He is using the rest of the money. on different needsEconomic support for small businesses, including restoration of water treatment infrastructure and operations and costs initially cut due to the pandemic.

Prior to the establishment of the office, when health equity issues were identified, the Act formalized its efforts and provided funding to ensure that it would work to address lasting solutions. Under Wofford’s leadership, the office has a staff of nine, including two epidemiologists.

“The Office of Health Equity — which would not have existed without the funding we received from America’s Rescue Plan — immediately became a critical partner in the response to the Topps shooting on May 14. The coordinator between on-the-ground and third-party agencies and the county to deliver these services to the community,” said Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. .

Poloncarz added, “It was like no other experience,” and “I’m so grateful we had the Office of Health Equity in place because without it, it would have made our job much more difficult.”

Addressing health disparities is something communities across the country are grappling with, and while the pandemic has brought illness and death to millions of people, it’s also helped add some momentum.

State and local health justice offices are not as numerous as water departments, for example; But they’re having a bit of time – in part because the money pouring in from the federal government was meant to help communities recover.

“The outbreak has highlighted the huge disparities in our ability to keep people healthy by race and ethnicity,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

The group hasn’t tracked how many formal equity offices have opened, but the number is growing, Freeman said. he said. Philadelphia Earlier this year, it hired its first racial equity chief.

In the past, some communities lacked the political will or resources to formalize their health equity efforts, he said.

The mass killing of black people by the police, especially the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, has affected many communities. Declaring racism as a public health crisisLaying the groundwork for some of the offices that are now opening. In April 2021, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared racism a serious public health threat.

Solving health problems takes time and requires solving the problem Determinants of social health. These are factors that affect a person’s health and are not under their control, such as clean water and healthy food, and other factors that can affect the health of where they live, work and play.

“You’re really trying to create the same opportunity for health for everyone in the community, no matter what their economic status is, no matter where they are, no matter what their job opportunities are,” Freeman said. he said.

In the middle of July Top grocery store has reopened. Mixed response from the community.

Without a supermarket, those without cars may lack access to nutritious food. For others, re-entering the store was emotionally difficult.

Buffalo Urban League crisis counselor Migdalia Lozada spent one August morning providing support to buyers. When Lozada walked into the store for the first time after the accident, a woman held her hand as tears fell down her arm.

The Buffalo Urban League Community Resource Center, located two blocks from Topps, continues to serve the affected neighborhood. People can immediately go into space and talk to a disaster advisor. Some people are regulars who come almost every day. Others are triggered by an event such as shooting elsewhere or moving in A Court case against the shooting suspect.

“We try to give the person some space to open up in a safe and confidential place,” Lozada said.

After the Buffalo City League’s crisis counselors served the community for months, its leaders sought a physical location near the Topps store after the shooting. The group found a vacant lot on the street that had once been a neighborhood bar called Pixie’s and opened a resource center. In the days after the accident. The building deliberately looks and feels more like a local watering hole than a health facility.

The center serves as a place to connect people with other resources to address a variety of health issues, such as employment, housing, and education.

The Buffalo Urban League plans to work closely with the county, particularly with the new Office of Health Equity, to help move long-term change forward.

The province Bureau is working on training people at first level. Mental health first aid A national program, the county can deploy counselors in the community – such as Bible studies and community centers – to reach out to people. According to a recent nationwide survey, the share of US adults who Treatment for mental health has grown. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, people of color have less access to mental health services.

The office is conducting a survey, in part to find out what problems members of the public want to see addressed – whether it’s diabetes or high blood pressure; for example.

“When you look at the social issues of health, there’s an inequity in everybody, so you can choose whatever you want,” Wofford said.