How A Minneapolis Clinic Is Narrowing Racial Gaps In Health

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NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center in north Minneapolis started as part of a 14-city pilot program funded by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. It’s the only one of those health and social services clinics still in business.

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Stella Whitney-West has been CEO of NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center for the last 16 years. «Our staff is reflective of our community that we serve, she says.

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Police in riot gear crowded the sidewalks of north Minneapolis’ Plymouth Avenue in the summer of 1967 after protests by some residents over the community’s lack of access to adequate housing, education and health care turned violent.

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NorthPoint’s founding mission was to increase access to health care and social services. Over the years, this approach helped the clinic increase the neighborhood’s rates of child vaccinations and screenings for things like cancer, depression and dental care needs.

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Rashida Jackson first came to NorthPoint as a patient in childhood, and is now community board member. The clinic, she says, is a beloved part of the community.

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On Plymouth Avenue this year, artists painted a Black Lives Matter mural.

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On Plymouth Avenue this year, artists painted a Black Lives Matter mural.

Nina Robinson for NPR

Irene Fernando, one of the co-authors of the county’s declaration, says just as NorthPoint has done in the health realm, the county wants other government agencies to rethink policy — by looking at how race affects outcomes in education, employment and criminal justice.

«NorthPoint listens to the community, says Fernando, who also serves on NorthPoint’s board. «Earlier than other entities, NorthPoint was reporting on race; earlier than other entities, NorthPoint was willing to do free testing for COVID. So thinking about improving access to health care «is in how NorthPoint operates, she says.

One reason its approach differs from those of other health centers is that it is a community health clinic, not a hospital, says Ed Ehlinger, former Minnesota health commissioner, who has written about racism in health.

That means, he says, its mandate is to improve public health in the community; it’s not under the same commercial pressures many private hospitals are up against.

Ehlinger compares NorthPoint to medical centers in countries that have universal public health care. «They focus on community-oriented primary care and have much better outcomes and lower health care costs, he says. «So even though there aren’t as many of those neighborhood health centers left, I see them as the model that we should look to replicate, in moving forward.

At a time when few patients trust their health care providers, NorthPoint has bucked that trend.

LaVonne Moore, a midwife and lactation consultant with the center, says that’s in part because NorthPoint recruits its leaders and doctors from the community it serves.

Moore, who lives nearby, says that interconnection between residents and staff fosters enduring, trusted relationships with patients and a level of care that is highly unusual today.

«I’m a provider, she says. «I have dropped medicines for COVID-19 patients at their door: I just leave it at the door, go back in the car, make sure they know what’s out there, and they come to the door and pick it up.

That trust is critical, especially given the gravity of problems that north Minneapolis faces these days: Nearly two-thirds of Latino patients who test for the coronavirus at NorthPoint are testing positive. While that’s an alarmingly high rate, CEO Whitney-West says it’s also a positive sign. A significant number of those patients are undocumented immigrants, she notes, and the findings suggest they trust NorthPoint enough to get tested at the center.

And from a public health standpoint, that’s a win, she says, because you need to know where the virus is in order to stop its spread.