How Public Health Departments can Exhibit Trustworthiness to Communities Dealing with Historical Trauma

Johns Hopkins, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has been conducting community conversations with Native American, African American and Latinx community members to understand vaccination decision-making. Through this work, they know that cultural and historical factors are influencing decisions about whether or not to take the vaccine and their view of the developers and purveyors of the vaccine. To better understand the roots and the dynamics of these feelings, local facilitators from each of the demographics participated in a session to explore this topic further.  

Here, in a conversation facilitated by Nadine Tafoya, Dr. Brian Turner, Maria Del Pilar Montes, and Dr. Billie Jo Kipp share their thoughts on how public health departments should demonstrate trustworthiness to communities feeling the effects of historical trauma.

Brian L. Turner, Ph.D., is a native of New Orleans and serves as a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Director of the African American Diaspora Studies Program at Xavier University of Louisiana.  

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Maria Del Pilar Montes is a native Houstonian, currently serving as the director of boards and commissions for the City of Houston. She holds an MBA from the University of Houston-Downtown and serves on numerous boards.

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Billie Jo Kipp, Ph.D. is a Native American psychologist who has actively engaged in research and clinical service to tribes for over 20 years.

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Nadine Tafoya is a member of the Mescalero Apache Tribe of New Mexico. She is an elder, a mother, and a grandmother. Nadine has spent her career as a clinical social worker addressing health disparities among Native Americans and other communities of color.