PBS documentary opens VCU’s students’ eyes on Health Disparities

This is a story I did for my Online Journalism class at VCU. It is a story on how VCU is planning to educate students on health disparities through PBS's Unnatural Causes documentary series. A trailer of this series can be viewed below.



Racial and ethnic health disparities are a popular topic on Virginia Commonwealth University’s medical campus. As a result of this VCU faculty members Yolanda Jackson and Shannon Jones have planned to further educate students through PBS’s “Unnatural Causes” documentary series.

The film series will be shown throughout the summer at Hunton Student Center on the MCV Campus and deals with the topic of racial and health disparities which are currently a problem in the Richmond area. The film also introduces new ways of thinking about how patients can get ill and become vulnerable to illnesses simply by experiencing stress, and negative racial and ethnic experiences (racism, sexism, etc.)

Jackson, an Interim Assistant Director for VCU’s Medical Campus Programs, brought the documentary series to students in order to “make them aware of different circumstances and illnesses.”

Jones, who works at Tompkins-McCaw Library, added that through the film “students will be aware of the issues around health disparities when engaging with patients and” will be able “to keep in mind that there are resources available to learn about health disparities” outside of the film that is being shown to them.

Larry Adelman and Llewellyn M. Smith are the producers and creators of the documentary series that is being shown on campus. Adelman states that one of the main reasons why they created this film was that they were amazed at the research they found which stated that “our lived experiences (racism, social, job related, etc.) could get under the skin and disrupt our biology in terms of germs and viruses.” He discovered that “the big killers in American is not guns, it is a lifetime of wear and tear on the body that leaves the body more venerable to diseases.” He concluded that his partner and he “were mind blown that none of this work got to the heads of the policy makers. Health doesn't solely rely on personal choice” like many health officials lead us to believe.

Jackson believes that it will depend on what students bring to the films in terms of their own experiences as far as determining whether or not they will gain something from it. Jones believes that medical students and other VCU students should be able to gain something from viewing the films because of the mere fact that “All of us are health care consumers. Richmond has significant number of health disparity patients.”

In addition to what Jackson said, Wally Smith M.D., chair of VCU’s Division of Quality Health Care, once stated that “More than 800,000 people lost their lives due to racial and ethnic health disparities in the past 10 years.” This is a problem because “America is becoming increasingly diverse and” minorities will quickly become the majority in the years to come.

In order to further educate students about health disparities VCU has made available other resources which can be found at VCU’s Health Disparity Center or online through Irene Lubker’s, a librarian, health disparity resource guide online. A copy of the documentary series will also be available at the library.

Through this film and other resources students will have the opportunity to learn something that Adelman learned while creating the film. “What becomes clear is social policy and equality policy is health policy. There is more to it than just gene research,” Adelman said. To help with the health problems in America one must also “invest in schools, rewarding jobs, clean and happier neighborhoods, and equality.”