Overall, racial discrimination is a problem that needs to be addressed in all areas of healthcare. The healthcare system distrust is a large and complex problem due to racial residential segregation. Racial residential segregation is defined as how evenly racial groups are distributed across an area. It is a problem among all races and not exclusive to the African American community. There are multiple areas across the United States that are dominantly white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and so on. There are multiple ways to combat racial residential segregation. One way would be to move into an area that has a higher percentage of your race that has healthcare nearby. Another way to solve this issue would be to move into an area that has a population that is close to being evenly spread. The healthcare system distrust seems to stem from the issue of people living in area that does not have much of their own racial population. Also, being surrounded with other races more frequently would also cause people to trust other races easier. However, moving is not always a realistic option and it can be costly. If you are discriminated against, you can file a civil rights complaint online and email it to OCRComplaint@hhs.gov (OCR). A final solution would be to live in any area regardless of whether or not the population of your race is evenly spread if there is healthcare that can reached by transportation. Doing this would allow people to trust other races better in the area they live in. It would also give them the option to travel to an area where the population is mostly made up of their race which help would help with the healthcare distrust issue.
In the physical therapy community, racial discrimination (in particular against African Americans) could be solved in the same ways as the healthcare system in general. However, since it is more focused it can be solved easier. One way to solve discrimination in the physical therapy community would be to have background on all evaluators that way there is less chance of bias. This could be done by having the evaluators fill out a detailed questionnaire about where they have lived and their experiences to make sure there is less chance of bias. The questionnaire would also include how much experience a person has had with evaluating. An interview with people in the physical therapy community could also be another way to determine whether an evaluator is biased. Another way would be to have an evaluator of the same race. According to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) only 3.4 percent of African Americans earn their Doctor of Physical Therapy (Staff). Since the physical therapy community has a very low percentage of African Americans, this could encourage more African Americans to pursue physical therapy which in turn would bring more diversity and trust to the physical therapy community.
Physical Therapy Discourse Community 