Village of Healing, nestled inside a busy strip mall between a bank and a rental center, may cause people to walk right past it without a second thought.
But inside the small space is the first and only Black-led and -operated medical center with all Black providers in Euclid and the surrounding area, according to its CEO and Medical Director Dàna Langford.
Opened in February of 2022, Village of Healing located at 22344 Lakeshore Blvd., offers gynecology services, obstetric and mental health care services.
![Amber Black, FNP-BC Family Nurse Practitioner [left] jokes with Public Relations Officer Danielle Banks in a hallway of the Village of Healing Center. (Frank Mecham- The News-Herald.)](https://neojimcrow.art/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/TNH-L-VISIONOFHEALING-0213-04-jpg.webp)
“The Village of Healing Center has achieved a 100% full-term birth rate for the last quarter of 2023,” the center stated in a news release. “100% of babies born during October-December that received care at the Village of Healing Center were all born after 37 weeks.”
While that might not seem significant, Village of Healing is doing significantly better compared to Cleveland which has one of the highest rates of preterm birth for Black women at 14.1%, according to Bloomberg City Lab.
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health, one of the benefits of having a pregnancy reach full term, defined as being between 37 and 41 weeks, is that the baby’s brain is more fully developed.
The Department of Health also says that stressors that could induce an early pregnancy include poverty, stressful life situations and other dynamics which Black women often face at a higher rate compared to white women, according to a Qualitative Assessment of Gender- and Race-Related Stress Among Black Women, published in 2022.
Village of Healing has its Mother-to-Mother Mentorship program to try and reduce those stresses. They partner an expectant mother with one who faced a maternal mental health complication in the past, so that the patient can feel more open to talk about what they are experiencing and gain a network of support.
According to Langford, the reason for reaching the achievement was the focus on patient and provider interactions.
“The biggest thing this is showing is that the Village of Healing has the solution to our infant mortality crisis,” Langford said. “What we are seeing is what the studies already told us, is that when your provider looks like you, the disparities decrease, the outcomes are better. And patient satisfaction is increased as well.
“This continues to show through evidence-based practices that when you have Black providers taking care of Black patients that you will see the disparity in infant mortality decreases so having 100% full-term birthrate through our last quarter of 2023 continues to show that this is the solution.”
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges only 6% of active physicians are Black. Langford said that she wants to make the playing field a little more even for patients who have been overlooked before.
“Our healthcare team consists of all Black women so when you walk in the door of the Village of Healing as a Black woman you can instantly put your guard down,” Langford said. “You don’t feel like you need to fight for yourself or have to advocate for yourself immediately. You know that you are walking into a space where you know it was intentionally and unapologetically created for you.”
It was hard in the beginning for Langford to get the message out that there were alternative care options available. She said that the center in the past six months has had 414 patients, which is almost the number of patients they had in their first year of operation.
Langford says she’s confident that the word is spreading about the center and the care that they can provide.
“I think Cleveland is a pretty much a generational committed city,” Langford said. “We have three of the largest healthcare systems right in our backyard so a lot of times we see that people feel like they have to access University Hospitals, Cleveland Clinic or Metro. So, we are trying to change the narrative to say that this service is available and that you can get better care.
“Right now, it’s been a struggle, we are trying to figure it out, but I think the city is opening up to us. Our numbers are already increasing,” she added.
When Village of Healing Center started Langford said that part of the struggle was recruiting Black providers. She said that due to the low rates of such providers she wants to bring awareness to why there are fewer Black students going into the profession.
She said that Black doctors, nurses and mental health care workers need to be seen more often in schools and in the community so that young children can see that they can go into that field as well. She said that she got into the profession because she was tired of not seeing someone who looked like her beyond the secretary.