Legacy 2015 Miami: Black Healthcare Issue | Page 2

2BB

AN INDEPENDENT SUPPLEMENT BY MIA MEDIA & COMMUNIC
CATIONS GROUP TO THE MIAMI HERALD

COMMISSIONER’S REPORT
By Commissioner Keon Hardemon

Keon Hardemon, Vice-Chairm
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City of Miami Commissio
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Violence is defined by the World Health
Organization as “The intentional use of
physical force or power, threatened or
actual, against oneself, another person, or a
group or community, that either results in or

Page: SpecialBB_2,
Edition: 1st

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2015

The Effect of Violence on Health

has a high likelihood of resulting in injury,
death, psychological harm, maldevelopment
or deprivation.” Poverty is a contributing
factor to violence and particularly affects
children and ethnic minority groups. Health
is broadly defined as a state of complete
physical, mental, and social well-being—not
merely the absence of disease and infirmity.
We must acknowledge the relationship
between violence, poverty and poor health
conditions in our community to begin to
holistically treat our ills.
One of the obvious effects of violence is
mortality. However, there are other effects
that play a significant role in the health of
our community. Some non-fatal effects
include stress, psychological deterioration,
loss of work, poor quality of life, physical
injuries and the cultural acceptance of
violent acts. All of these factors are socially
disruptive and cause the degradation of
communities and individuals alike.
Whenever one finds high rates of violence in
a community, you can be assured that there
will also be high rates of poverty, residential
mobility, unemployment, sickness and illicit
drug trading. Moreover, the loss of
productivity and expense of policing
violence in our communities is burdensome,

and everyone shares that expense.
In our community, violence is not
sporadic and random. It occurs habitually
and exposes the same population—
especially our children—to horrific events
each week of the year. These acts of
violence will forever mar any semblance of
childhood innocence in the eyes of our most
vulnerable population. There is no white
picket fence, family dog or outdoor
barbecues in the inner city where the
families live in constant fear of terrorist acts
by those who reside amongst them. There
was no domestic tranquility in the Wild Wild
West and there is none in our urban core.
Our community is mentally, physically and
morally decaying because of violence and
the lack of resources dedicated to address it.
Witnessing violent acts has a deleterious
effect upon the mental health and behavior
of individuals subjected to it. Data from a
national women’s study suggest that
women who are exposed directly to life
threating events are at risk for
post-traumatic stress disorder. Symptoms
may include flashbacks, nightmares, severe
anxiety and uncontrollable thoughts about
the event. The intensity of the condition
can lead to difficulty maintaining close

Pub. date: Monday, October 19
Section, zone: Features, State

relationships, feeling emotionally numb and
a sense of hopelessness about one’s future.
These are the women, broken and
disturbed—at no fault of their own—that
are raising our children. Thus, what good
can we hope to come from them without
serious intervention?
There is not a magic pill that will solve
the issues we face in our community.
However, each and every one of us—
especially our leadership can contribute to
bettering our communities by providing
resources that our neighbors can utilize to
have a direct effect on their quality of life.
Our communities desperately need
additional educational opportunities,
economic development and a concerted
effort to reduce poverty. In the City of
Miami, we have implemented, amongst
other strategies, an Anti-Poverty Initiative
with the aforementioned aims to creatively
support families living in our highest poverty
areas. We recognize the needs of our
community and will continue to find novel
and holistic ways to address them. With
your assistance, we can tackle this crippling
endemic.

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Last change at: 13:55:43 October 15