The BMTT focuses its efforts in the area of health care on the following objectives. Our objectives may be revised as we expand our knowledge base and continue to analyze current policies and programs.

* To address disparate health care issues by advocating for effective policies, conducting and supporting research, helping to create health care solutions, and helping to institute best practice health care models in disadvantaged communities.
* To partner with institutions that target the Black community and complement our programming by establishing strategic alliances with them.
* To measure our progress by documenting and reporting our successes and failures using quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

To accomplish our objectives, we coordinate the activities of health-related organizations and take a leadership role to ensure strategic planning, resource allocation, and project management.

Additionally, we improve the mental and physical health of Black communities through collaboration with existing local, county, state and national initiatives that support the researched best practices of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institute of Health, and the Office of Minority Health. We fully support and seek to participate in the efforts to close the widening gap of health disparities among Black communities in this country by aligning ourselves with the researched-based initiatives of Healthy People 2010 and 2012.

There are myriad factors that have been correlated to poor health outcomes. Many times the solutions that are proposed to reduce them have focused on lifestyle behaviors. For instance, many programs focus on preventative measures like educational campaigns. This has especially been the case during conservative-led leadership in Washington, DC. Indeed educational campaigns are inexpensive, but they have been ineffective at reducing health disparities. There must be other factors other than lifestyle behaviors that affect one's health status. In fact, Health and Neighbourhood Renewal, Department of Health, England, echoes are sentiments:

The root causes of ill health are so varied that they cannot be dealt with by focusing on illness alone, or by defining health simply as the absence of illness. Evidence shows that the causes of ill health and health inequalities are influenced by factors such as poverty, education, housing, transport, crime and employment. When people think about health, they tend to think about illness and access to specific [health care] facilities, such as the local doctor's [office] or the nearest hospital. While these services are important, they are just a part of the range of things that influence health. Improving health will mean addressing the wider determinants of health as well as 'lifestyle factors', such as diet, exercise, smoking, and misusing alcohol and drugs.

We provide some resources, videos, and articles in the left content pane to help the reader explore and address the myriad factors that affect health outcomes.