When my father, Al, became ill in his early 60s, my mother, Grace, became his caregiver for 10 years so he could remain home until he died.
Fifteen years later, she became ill and needed custodial care at the age of 80 and I did not want her to go to a nursing home. I was able to bring 90-year-old Bernardine Franciscan Sister Mary Reginald Zajac to be her live-in caregiver until my mother died nine years later.
Most families are not as lucky or able to bring someone to live in with a loved one.
“Our country needs more home care than ever before,” Ai-jen Poo, president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, said.
Speaking at the first Time Magazine 100 Health Leadership Forum in New York City on Tuesday, Poo was referring especially to childcare and care for senior citizens. Some 10,000 adults are classified as senior citizens every day and 10,000 babies are also born daily.
Poo was one of 14 health experts appearing at the forum “featuring conversations with leaders taking action toward a world with sustainable and accessible healthcare solutions,” according to the event’s description. The two-hour program explored topics like health inequity, worldwide poverty, young girls’ and women’s global health, and how medical technology can improve diagnoses and treatment. These concerns rise to the level of medical ethics and have moral implications, which religions often advocate to remedy.
The average U.S. home care worker takes home about $22,000, said Poo, and 80 percent of the workers are women of color. There are over 100 million people involved in home care.
Dr. Uché Blackstock, a Harvard Medical School graduate and chief executive officer of Advancing Health Equity, said her medical training was turned on its head when she worked in a Brooklyn hospital.
“Why are patients so sick?” she would ask herself, she recalled. She realized that getting poorer patients to jump through hoops is more a deterrent to preventive health care. There needs to be a simpler way to treat poor and minority residents. “Social and economic policies affect their lives,” she added.
Adrelia Allen, executive director of Clinical Trial Patient Diversity at Merck, was among the panelists at the Time 100 Health Leadership Forum in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (Patrick MacLeod photo)Patrick MacLeod
Adrelia Allen, executive director of Clinical Trial Patient Diversity at Merck, the major sponsor of the forum, emphasized the need for clinical trials to bring in a diverse sampling of patients as there is a correlation between one’s ZIP code and adverse health or better healthcare.
But despite these health deficits for people born and raised here or established for a long time, it is more tragic for migrants who recently moved here regardless of their status.
While they’re earning wages and paying taxes, “they’re not benefitting and it’s incredibly dangerous for them,” Kim Nolte, CEO of the Migrant Clinicians Network, told me. She was one of the 100 Health Honorees and I by chance sat next to her. The Lincoln Park, New Jersey, native resides in Atlanta now. Last year, she told Time her organization helped more than 1,700 migrants access health care by “triaging at shelters, scheduling appointments, and following up with asylum seekers.”
She, like me, is dismayed at the violent rhetoric about migrants coursing through this presidential campaign and noted that most migrants work in farming, construction and hospitality. Their jobs are dangerous “with trauma in health issues,” she said, giving examples of being faced with toxins, pesticides, extreme weather and dangerous equipment. Often, they are afraid to access health care fearing backlash from federal agents or public safety personnel.
Pope Francis has made care for migrants a main advocacy of his papacy. And his encyclical, “Laudato Si,” raised environmental issues as care for the earth for all people.
Climate change and its effects on health was another issue discussed. Warming, for example, presents a worldwide problem of a rise in skin cancers.
This led to the surprise highlight of the evening. Before the last panel, a short video introduced the 200 guests to Heman Bekele, Time’s 2024 Kid of the Year. Last October, the 3M company and Discovery Education selected Heman, a rising 10th-grader at Woodson High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, as the winner of its Young Scientist Challenge, which came with a $25,000 prize.
Heman has invented a soap that could one day treat and even prevent multiple forms of skin cancer. Last summer, he interned in a lab at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, hoping to develop his patent.
There were oohs and aahs from the audience. I turned to Nolte and said I would love to meet him. Then Sam Jacobs, Time’s editor in chief, came to the row in front of me and introduced everyone to Heman, there with his dad, Wondwossen. The Ethiopian family moved to the U.S. 11 years ago on a special visa since the father worked in the U.S. Embassy there.
Heman is articulate, handsome and humbly confident. He told me later that his main college choice is Cornell or M.I.T. There was a line of health executives waiting to speak with this 15-year-old.
The one panelist I recognized was Dr. David Agus, an oncologist who contributes to “CBS Mornings.” He spoke about the need for technology, like the Oura ring he was wearing, to work its way more into evaluation and treatment. Oura, a sponsor of the forum, measures about a dozen metrics like heart rate, blood oxygen levels and body temperature.
Former White House Senior Director and Special Assistant to the President of the United States Dr. Raj Panjabi said it is good that health matters are being raised from both parties in this election campaign. Long-COVID, vaccines and unsafe abortions worldwide make health a hot topic.
The Rev. Alexander Santora is the pastor of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph, 400 Willow Ave., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Email: padrealex@yahoo.com; X: @padrehoboken.
