East Point's "Miss Morehouse" Works to Build Trust as Community Health Worker
Morehouse School of Medicine community health worker Zakiyah Morris makes it a point to be visible in East Point, Georgia, where her job is to connect people with resources to improve their well-being.
Zakiyah Morris
MSM Community Health Worker
By Rebecca Grapevine, Healthbeat Atlanta
Zakiyah Morris had no idea what a community health worker does when she applied for the job two years ago. But the 26-year-old East Point resident has since become the face of public health in the city just south of Atlanta.
Morris works for a Morehouse School of Medicine project focused on improving health equity in East Point, which has a population of about 38,000. She's so closely associated with the program that residents call her "Miss Morehouse."
Morris makes it a point to be visible in the community, setting up tables at events to ask people about their health challenges and pointing them to resources that can help. By forging personal connections as a neighbor, she works to help build trust with the Morehouse School of Medicine research project.
"I'm like the glue that is sticking between community and the health care system," she said.
Part of that work entails helping people understand the myriad factors that contribute to health – access to nutritious food, safe housing, and equitable access to care.
About one-fifth of East Point residents live in poverty, and the majority Black city faces a history of structural racism, poor health outcomes, and a lack of access to healthy food.
The Morehouse School of Medicine project has also used photos of life in East Point to improve public health.
Morris' work has inspired her to climb higher in the field: She is studying for a Master of Public Health degree at Georgia State University. In a recent interview, Morris spoke with Healthbeat about her work.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What do you do as a community health worker? How did you get started?
A community health worker is basically a liaison between the community and any research project and healthcare system that is utilizing us. My job is to go in and teach them what health equity is, educate them on this project, hear their feedback of what they feel is going on in their community, and I take that back to my team, and we work around that to try to change policy in East Point to incorporate engagement activities that highlight some of those problems.
I got into this job on a leap of faith. I did not know what a community health worker was. I did not know what health equity was. I didn't know much about public health. A neighbor of mine recommended me for the job.
What do you want the world to know about community health workers?
Community health workers make the world go around. I'm like the glue that is sticking between community and the health care system. Because a lot of residents don't trust their doctors. They don't trust what their doctors are saying, what their doctors are doing, and they don't get a lot of resources from their doctors. My job is to get them the resources they need, how they need it, in the amount that they need it in.
It is making sure that they know if you're having trouble with any housing, you can go here. If you need any healthy foods, you can go there. Even if you need diapers for your child, you can go here. I am the resource hub.
How does a lack of trust play a role in the community, and have you found good strategies to combat a lack of health information in your day-to-day work?
A lot of residents seem to have a bad encounter with a doctor, a nurse or somebody at the front desk. It's all about your tone. It's about how you say it. It's not about what you say.
A lot of people feel disrespected in the doctor's office, and it typically comes from they didn't have a good encounter with the nurse, or the lady at the front desk gave them an attitude, or they try to change their appointment, and they couldn't. Now they have to wait another two to three months.
I find that when I'm in the community, sometimes people did not trust me either. They were just looking at me like, "How do you know?"
I often tell people that this is my community as well. I live here. I've been here. I'm 26 now. I've been here since I was eight years old. I see the everyday struggles. I know the things that you are going through, because I go through those same things, and that helps mend that trust between me and community members, because they realize, like, "Yeah, you get it."
What can health care workers do to better engage the community?
Show up to everything. Show up to the smallest things, to the biggest things … People need to see my face. People need to associate me with Morehouse [School of Medicine]. They need to associate me with the project.
Make sure that you communicate back to the community the progress that you're making with whatever you're doing…. A lot of residents feel like they're left out of the loop. Going back to communicate and show them what you have done, you did what you said you're going to do, you are making them aware of what's been happening, so they can feel like they're part of something, like they are part of this community, they're part of your project, they're part of your research.
That makes people feel very special. It makes people feel heard, it makes people feel needed, and it gives them that security, that community can still thrive together.
Are there some resources available that many people don't know about?
Morehouse Healthcare opened a clinic in East Point. I'm not sure a lot of residents know that, but that's my primary care doctor, and I love them to death…. They have a lot of resources when it comes to accessing food. They talk about housing. They address social determinants of health within your appointments. That's something that residents need, because a lot of residents don't see where they live as a health factor, or they don't see that not getting enough sleep is also contributing to your health. That's a first stop for resources within trying to be healthier and have a better lifestyle.
What do you think some of the biggest public health challenges are in East Point?
We do not have access to a lot of healthy foods. East Point is surrounded by a lot of food deserts, and we have a couple of grocery stores. But some of the grocery stores, like Publix, are expensive, and it's on the other side of East Point.
That's really a challenge for us, accessing good, healthy foods and then educating people on how to cook those healthy foods. A lot of people don't know what to do with vegetables because they don't eat vegetables. They don't grocery shop for things of that nature, because produce is expensive, and they can afford to get packaged food, rather than something that costs $2 or $3 that will spoil, and they don't know how to cook it.
Are there other challenges that you think about?
Hypertension and diabetes. If we're looking at the City Health Dashboard – it's a tool that is used to analyze the health of a community. Once you look at that, it is all in one certain area. It's a lot of senior residents that have hypertension and diabetes, and we're trying to assess, how do you address that with older residents? Because a lot of older residents are stuck in their ways. They don't want to change. They don't see a point in it. How can we help them to expand their life?
We have a housing issue. We have all of these things that are affecting our health in our everyday life. If you don't go outside East Point, you wouldn't know that you're going through something until you go to Buckhead, and you see how they have [abundant] grocery stores. They have clinics everywhere. They have access to everything.
But once you come back down south, we're a health care desert, we're a food desert, we don't have a lot of housing for people that are on the streets. Our train stations are being plagued with homeless. How can we help? How can we assist? How can we build up our end of [Interstate] 285, the south side, to mimic the north side? We don't have a lot of resources for that.
How do you de-stress? How do you keep everything in balance for yourself?
I love going on trail walks. Just looking at nature, getting that fresh air, getting that vitamin D, being able to ground yourself into nature has been very fulfilling, and it clears your mind. It gives you that "ahh" moment. It's hard to think out there in the woods when you see little duckies walking past you, or you're looking into a lake or something.
I am a big self-care woman. I love to pour into my cup, because I feel like if I am at zero, I can't give my full and my all as a community health worker.