City Advances Black Barbershop Health Initiative

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2012

For more information, contact:
Nancy Woolery, Health Projects Manager, Community & Family Resources Dept., 349.3851, wooleryn@bloomington.in.gov.
Greg Tourner, Chair, Commission on the Status of Black Males, 332.9000, tourner@sbcglobal.net.

City Advances Black Barbershop Health Initiative

Bloomington, IN - The City of Bloomington Commission on the Status of Black Males is pleased to announce that Bloomington is one of 10 cities that will participate in the Indiana Black Barbershop Health Initiative from 9 a.m. to noon on April 28 at Razor's Image, 223 Pete Ellis Drive. Free health screenings, including blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol and HIV testing, will be provided. Health counseling, body mass index information and nutrition education also will be available. Participants interested in obtaining a cholesterol test must fast for 8 to 12 hours prior to the expected test time.

The initiative was founded in 2006 to spread awareness of and address medically the specific health care needs of black males. Cultural and socioeconomic factors put black men at a higher risk for hypertension, congestive heart failure, prostate cancer and diabetes than women or white men. The initiative attempts to reverse this trend specifically by increasing the number of black men having their blood pressure, blood cholesterol and blood glucose levels checked.

In 2009 men also accounted for 70 percent of estimated new HIV infections in the black community. The estimated rate of new HIV infections in black men was more than six-and-a-half times as high as the rate in white men, and two-and-a-half times as high as the rate in Latino men or black women.

Sponsors of the initiative include the City of Bloomington Commission on the Status of Black Males, the Indiana Commission on the Social Status of Black Males, the City of Bloomington Community and Family Resources Department, IU Health Bloomington Hospital, Monroe Hospital, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Nu Alpha Alpha Chapter and Centerstone. All races and genders are encouraged to participate.

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