Berman 1 – Maddow 0

I took a few spare moments this morning to watch a YouTube video of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow interviewing a fellow named Rick Berman, president of Berman and Company, a Washington DC public affairs firm. I didn’t pick this video randomly. I’ve been meaning to watch it for some time now because I know someone who works for Berman and Company, and I occasionally have a chance to chat with her about her work.

By way of background, Berman and Company is paid to represent the interests of various industries and their related products: tobacco, high fructose corn syrup, and alcohol, to name a few. As such, they conduct marketing campaigns against such things as increases in the minimum wage, health care reform, and smoking bans. You get the idea. By all accounts, they’re very good at what they do.

In the interview, Rachel Maddow accuses Mr. Berman of using an additional and unethical tactic: forming non-profit organizations (e.g., Center for Consumer Freedom, Center for Union Facts, and the American Beverage Institute) as front groups from which to lobby the interests of well-heeled industry donors. Rachel’s point is that the anonymity involved in donating to non-profit agencies allows big business and other special interests to remain at arms length in their support of Berman and Company’s edgier, no-holds-barred public opinion campaigns. In addressing this accusation, Mr. Berman correctly points out that non-profit agencies representing “the left” have the same right to withhold donor identities. There was much more to the interview, but suffice it to say Mr. Berman emerged relatively unscathed.



While I might be aghast at the company Mr. Berman keeps (i.e., the tobacco, alcohol and food industries, among others), I’m wondering why those of us working to improve the public’s health don’t have a similar public affairs machine. Berman’s group produces TV, magazine and newspaper ads, writes op-ed pieces, creates websites, testifies at hearings across the nation, conducts client training, and otherwise takes an aggressive approach towards influencing public opinion in a variety of areas. Where is the public opinion campaign to ensure healthy food access in poor neighborhoods, to expand culturally accessible health care, or to ensure that kids get sufficient physical activity and healthy food while at school? I would argue that we cannot afford not to have such support, and until we do, the public is apt to listen to whoever has the megaphone.

As a footnote to the Maddow interview, I did my own bit of research and discovered that Mr. Berman has not only created several non-profit organizations, but he serves as the President of each agency, and also contracts a significant portion of agency revenue to his own for-profit firm for “management fees”. This practice would seem to allow industry donors both to remain anonymous and to take receive tax breaks for non-profit donations that eventually make their way to a for-profit company. It’s also interesting that there doesn’t appear to be a conflict of interest in Mr. Berman and his various non-profit boards of directors agreeing to contract large sums of money to Mr. Berman’s own agency. I’m not an attorney, but there’s something not right there.

- Doug Hirano, MPH, APCA Executive Director

Community Forum on Mental Health – August 28, 2010

We’re still finalizing the details, but I thought it wise to announce an upcoming community forum on mental health being co-sponsored by APCA and Magellan of Arizona. This event will be held from 10 am to 1 pm on Saturday, August 28th. The location will be Phoenix Baptist Hospital, 2000 W. Bethany Home Road (South Building of the Wellness Center). The event targets both professionals and community members and will address mental health issues in the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities here in Maricopa County. While the speaker panel is still being developed, confirmed speakers include Dr. James Campbell and Dr. Young Lee. Results of community listening sessions coordinated by APCA and Magellan of Arizona will be presented. Lunch will be provided at no cost. For more information, contact Ms. Yen Nguyen, APCA Special Projects Coordinator, at (480) 626-3065 or yen@apcaaz.org.

- Doug Hirano, MPH, APCA Executive Director

Obesity: a growing problem among AAPI youth?

Last December, a Taiwanese researcher released data regarding overweight and obesity among children in Taiwan. These data suggest that the rate of overweight and obesity among Taiwanese children has surged from 6% a decade ago to 25% today -- a four-fold increase in just ten years. This 25% rate of overweight and obesity is not far off US levels of about 33%.

The researcher, Dr. Chu Nian-feng of Shuang Ho Hospital near Taipei, speculates that Westernized diets and sedentary lifestyles are to blame for the epidemic. He noted that typical meals for Taiwanese children now approach 1,000 calories, as compared to 400 calories ten years ago. In addition, he states, “They watch TV, play video games, and sit in front of computers. How can they not become overweight?”

These data lead to one important question: Is a similar epidemic of childhood obesity occurring among Asian American children here in the United States?

Unfortunately, there is insufficient data to definitively answer this question. However, pieces of the puzzle do exist. For instance, 2005 data from a nationally representative sample of four-year-old children and found that Asian American children had an obesity rate of 12.8% -- significantly less than the national average of 18.4%. The rate among Asian American children was significantly lower than all other racial/ethnic groups, except non-Hispanic white children.

A separate study examined 2006 and 2007 rates of obesity among Asian American children (5th, 7th and 9th grades) attending public school in Los Angeles County. These data indicated a 12.1% rate of obesity among Asian American students – as compared to a rate of 22.9% among all students. (Data also indicated fairly significant variation by ethnic subgroup, with a range of 8.4% to 17.5% among Asian subgroups.)

Both studies would seem to indicate that current obesity rates among Asian American youth are significantly lower than general population rates. This is good news.

Unfortunately, there are some warning signs. Some study data suggest that the obesity rate is continuing to rise among Asian American youth while having leveled off among other racial/ethnic groups. In addition, according to the California Department of Public Health, 43% of Asian American teens consume fast food on a daily basis compared to 35% of white teens, and only one out of three Asian American children eats the recommended daily portion of fruits and vegetables. In addition to their poor eating habits, Asian American children may not be as physically active as their peers. Based on the U.S. Department of Education, only 39% of 10th grade Asian boys participated in after-school sports, the lowest participation rate of any ethnic group. Similarly, only 34% of 10th grade Asian girls participated in sports, second only to Hispanic girls at 32%.

Rather than wait for the perhaps inevitable increase in obesity rates among AAPI children, it is imperative that those of us working in Asian American health act quickly to get in front of an impending epidemic. APCA currently does not have any programming in the area of childhood obesity, but we remain vigilant regarding available resources and continue to monitor the peer-reviewed literature for evidence-based approaches.

- Doug Hirano, MPH, APCA Executive Director

No time for HIV/AIDS complacency

I have only had a chance to glance through the new National HIV/AIDS Strategy, but I can tell you it could not have come any sooner. Interest in HIV/AIDS, which has become a largely treatable disease, has waned in this country over the last decade. With 56,000 new infections annually, and 1.1 million individuals currently infected, now is not the time for declaring victory on this front.

The document was created with broad input and addresses four main areas for concerted action: reducing new infections, increasing access to care and improving health outcomes for people living with HIV, reducing HIV-related health disparities and health inequities, and achieving a more coordinated national response to the HIV epidemic.

For me, I like the vision for the plan: “The United States will become a place where new HIV infections are rare, and when they do occur, every person, regardless of age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, or socio-economic circumstance will have unfettered access to high-quality, life-extending care, free from stigma and discrimination."

I look forward to the day that a similar national plan is developed for the hepatitis epidemic in this country. But for now, we need to remain vigilant on multiple health fronts. HIV/AIDS is an infection with a profound impact on this country and the world. Effective action is absolutely critical.

- Doug Hirano, MPH, APCA Executive Director

Addressing Disabilities Among AAPIs

One is five Americans suffers from a disability. For those of us working in the public health arena, we sometimes neglect to factor issues surrounding disability into our equation of overall wellness and health. Disabilities directly impact our ability to work with communities on other health issues, such as tobacco use, physical activity, and breast cancer screening. I’m glad that my friend, Jean Lin, and her colleagues with Asians and Pacific Islanders with Disabilities of California are actively providing leadership, education and advocacy related to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders with disabilities. They are sponsoring a conference in Long Beach, California on October 29 -30 that no doubt will be well worth attending.

For our part, we’ve just begun to address disability issues among local AAPIs. For instance, earlier this year, our staff member, Ms. Emma Ditsworth, conducted a training entitled “Living Well with Disabilities” at the Chinese Senior Center. This series of workshops utilizes an evidence-based curriculum that focuses on providing the information and skills to assist disabled individuals in optimizing their health and wellness. To our knowledge, Emma conducted the first ever Chinese-language version of this workshop. For more information about this workshop, feel free to contact Emma at (480) 452-5771 or at emma@apcaaz.org
(She’s currently on vacation, so make a note to contact her after she’s back in early August).

- Doug Hirano, MPH, APCA Executive Director

Prevention Specialist Update

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my impending trip to the CDC in Atlanta to interview a potential “Prevention Specialist” to join APCA for the next two years. Well, I am back and pleased to say that I had a nice chat with one of the candidates interested in working with APCA. She is bright, energetic and has a lot of relevant work experience as related to the projects we had outlined for the position. Now, it’s a bit of a numbers game and a waiting game. There were 60 or so agencies represented at the interviews – each competing for one of the 25 Prevention Specialists. Most of these organizations were state or county health departments, and a few were universities. Of the very few non-profit agencies represented, I suspect APCA was the smallest in terms of staff numbers and the most grass roots.

Each Specialist now ranks their top few organizations, and each organization ranks their top Specialist. This information is fed into a computer, and matches are then recommended. We’ll hear in mid-August about the results. Stay tuned!

-Doug Hirano, MPH, APCA Executive Director

Assessing New Partnerships

As a staff, we spent some time recently talking about partnerships. This is germane because individuals and agencies occasionally approach us with an interest in working collaboratively to reach the local Asian American/Pacific Islander community. Suggested collaborative work includes but is not limited to health fairs, workshops, and outreach efforts. These requests are generally more than welcome, given that the local AAPI community tends to under-utilize a wide variety of health and human services. Having said that, we have limited resources upon which to spend a significant amount of time working outside our current grant and contract obligations.

Given these resource limitations, we thought that developing a list of criteria to assess the relative value of potential partnerships might make sense. Here’s what we came up with (not necessarily in any particular order):

· Resource intensiveness – how much time and effort will be taken in working collaboratively with a new partner?

· Mission/project alignment – are the interests of the partner in line with our existing goals and objectives?

· Scientific validity – is the area of interest an area of health disparity for AAPIs? Is there an evidence-base supporting the proposed efforts?

· Nurturing a future relationship – is the interested partner an entity that we want to work more extensively with in the future? Does this new relationship potentially leverage other resources and relationships?

· Capacity development – does this new partnership/relationship build our agency capacity or the community’s capacity?

· Innovation – does a new partnership – particularly with non-traditional partners – represent an opportunity to test new ways and areas in which to collaborate?


These then are some of our staff thoughts relating to partnership development. We will still review future partnership opportunities on a case-by-case basis, but it helps for us to have a framework for thinking about the value (for all involved) of new partnerships.

-Doug Hirano, MPH, APCA Executive Director

CDC's Science Clips

Thanks to Will Humble, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services for the following reference. For anyone with more than a passing interest in public health, his blog is worth checking out.

Will’s most recent blog post references the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s publication called Science Clips. This weekly report provides a summary of CDC-authored publications and key scientific articles in featured topic areas (e.g., “communicable diseases” and “maternal and child health”). It’s “one stop shopping” for individuals interested in keeping up-to-date on health research. The links will direct you to the related abstracts as listed in PubMed – a compendium of the peer-reviewed scientific research. Unfortunately, access to the full articles is largely limited to those with electronic subscriptions to the specific journals in question. Still, through access to the abstracts, it’s a simple means to stay current on all things public health.