According to a 2024 report from the Louisville Center for Health Equity, Black Louisvillians have higher rates of heart disease, cancer and stroke than their white neighbors. And men in Louisville have a shorter average life expectancy than women, by almost six years.
Earlier this year, LPM’s Michelle Tyrene Johnson talked to Kamari Wooten, executive director of the Chestnut Street Family YMCA, about his work to improve health outcomes for Black men in Louisville, and how to make health a year-round consideration.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Michelle Tyrene Johnson: You run the Chestnut Street YMCA. What kind of insight have you gathered on how Black men take care of themselves, or aren't taking care of themselves, from you having that job?
Kamari Wooten: You know, I'm blessed to have the opportunity. I took over that position 18 months ago, and we implemented a lot of different changes and put in a lot of different programs from a mental health standpoint, because that's another thing that we don't focus on in the Black community, let alone Black men. So that position has allowed me to really be able to connect with boots on the ground, hand to hand, whether it's me just literally walking to go get some Indy’s and seeing different people in the community, inviting them to come over to my YMCA branch to see some of the resources we have in place to help families.
But another thing that I'm very intentional with: I have a blood pressure machine in my branch. Any Black male who walk in there, I mean my staff would tell you, two to five minutes in the conversation, I'm like, hey, come here. I want you to do something for me. And I literally sit them down and have them take a blood pressure [test] so they can see. It's one thing to say, I feel good. Oh, I'm okay. I just went to the doctor two months ago, and things of that nature. I hear all these different stories. And when they sit down, sometimes I see numbers that say 185 over 90. That's a ticking bomb for a heart attack or a stroke. And we normalize it, you know, like, oh, I feel fine. Oh, my blood pressure always this high. That's not a normal blood pressure.
MTJ: The National Library of Medicine says black men are more likely than other segments of the population to have undiagnosed or poorly managed chronic conditions like diabetes, cancers, heart disease, and they're more likely to delay seeking medical care. Why do you think that is
KW: That's a few things. I think that's rooted in our trust in the healthcare industry as Black people, not even just Black men, that's one piece. I think another barrier is access, you know, having insurance, co-pays. I remember being young one time and I got a crazy doctor's bill for going to a doctor, and then when something else happened, that time, I'm like, oh, no, I'm not going to the doctor. I was scared of the bill I may receive, not getting my health taken care of, but the financial piece of it.
MTJ: There's approximately a 15-year gap in the average life expectancy between someone who lives in certain West End neighborhoods, which are predominantly Black, and certain East End neighborhoods, primarily white. That's a wider gap than not just the state, but the country. What do you think contributes to that?
KW: Oh, that's a lot of things. One of the main things, I mean, we're really dying from preventable diseases, to be very honest with you. And it all starts with, literally, just going to get a checkup. You know, if you can catch things early [rather] than late. It’s really systematic as well. Those kind of things play a role with food assets in the West End, you know, it's considered a food desert. And that's something that we're doing at the YMCA. We're about to do a teaching kitchen on our sixth floor, and we're going to start letting families come in and learn how to cook low cost, healthier meals.
