[solemn music]
- Nathan: In the summer of 2004,
Aaron Perry watched an Ironman competition in Madison
and it changed his life.
- I remember looking and watching
and I thought, you know,
"I wish I wasn't diabetic," 'cause I wanted to do it.
- Nathan: Perry has diabetes,
something that he shares with about 13% of Black Americans.
In fact, Black Americans are 60% more likely
to be diagnosed with diabetes than white Americans.
Black men are nearly twice as likely to die from diabetes
than white men, and are two and a half times
more likely to be hospitalized.
But diabetes isn't the only health issue facing Black men.
- You know, we face 'em from A to Z.
We're everywhere in that, you know, hypertension,
diabetes, heart disease, stroke.
We're starting to see a lot of lung cancer
and prostate cancer.
- Nathan: Black men also have the
second-lowest life expectancy of any group in America,
at about 67 years.
To take back control of his own health,
Perry found a running group to help him train
for the grueling race, which includes a 2.4-mile swim,
112-mile bicycle ride, and a marathon 26-mile run.
- Aaron: And one of my mentors, Dino Lucas,
said to me, he said, "Aaron, join our running club.
We'll get you to the finish line."
- Nathan: By the time race day had come,
Perry felt better than ever.
- I remember thinking as I'm getting ready
to get in the water, "Aaron, you have taken yourself
"from poor control of your diabetes
"and within 360-plus days, you've transformed yourself
into one of the fittest athletes in the world."
- Nathan: Just over 16 and a half hours later,
Perry became the first African-American diabetic
to complete an Ironman.
After the race,
he started to get questions from diabetics around the world
asking for health advice.
That's when Perry started to get serious
about his peers' health
and founded the Rebalanced-Life Wellness Association.
- When I started doing this work here
in Madison and Dane County,
the average age of death was 51 years of age for Black men,
and if that's not a crisis, I don't know what it is.
- Nathan: Around 2009, Perry had the idea
to put free health clinics in Black barbershops
to catch men for a quick screening as they came
and went for their cuts.
- Aaron: I did the research and back in the early 1900s,
the barbershop was everything.
The barbershop was where the pharmacist was at.
That was where the doctor was at,
and so I looked at that and I thought,
"How can we bring that full circle?"
- Nathan: Perry says cancellation rates
for barbershop appointments is less than 1%,
a far cry from the high cancellation rates
clinics see from Black men.
- The fact that we're not treated the same
when we go to the doctor,
we don't receive the same level of care.
- Nathan: Reggie Jackson educates people about diversity.
He says that Black men can be reluctant to see a doctor
because of experiences where medical professionals
didn't take their concerns seriously.
- A lot of doctors assume that, well,
if I give this Black person a specific protocol to follow
because of this condition they have, well,
they're not gonna follow it anyway,
so I'm not gonna even put them into that space.
- Nathan: A barbershop, on the other hand.
- Aaron: All of these guys, they trust their barbers.
They trust them with their life,
they trust them with their kids' lives.
- Nathan: So he started writing grants
to the state government,
asking for seed money to jumpstart the idea,
but that idea took time to catch on.
- Keep in mind, I'm a former cop.
I came into the barbershop saying,
"I want to help you get healthy."
You know, that was not well-received.
It took me quite a few years.
- Nathan: Then in 2016,
after being denied another round of state grants,
SSM Health decided to give Perry's idea a shot.
The first barbershop to get a clinic:
JP Hair Design in Madison.
His idea was simple.
In the extra office space JP had available,
Perry would set up and catch men as they finished their haircut.
Guys could get blood pressure screenings, flu shots,
diabetes, glucose, and cholesterol testing,
all for free.
- Aaron: So we literally have changed the culture
in the barbershops on how the conversations go.
It's no longer sports and politics;
it's health, sports, and politics.
- Nathan: Perry now has clinics
in four Madison-area barbershops,
which he says reaches about 30% of the Black men
in Dane County.
- Erin Hall: The initiative that we're working on
is to try to bring health care to as many people as possible.
- Nathan: Erin Hall owns Resilient Hair Designs
and says he's dedicated to Perry's vision for health care.
- It's bringing health care back into the community.
We're taking it away from the clinic and hospital walls,
and we're bringing it back into the community where it belongs.
- Nathan: Along with the barbershops,
Perry started his own health center next to JP Hair Design
that can do more for patients than a small clinic could.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
Appreciate it.
- Nathan: The clinic's trained nurses
work with men to get them healthy.
- What we tell them right up front, as of today,
whatever's going on with you, we're gonna stabilize you.
You will not get worse.
You're going to get better from this point on.
If it's a concern with housing, we wanna help them have housing.
If a concern with, you know, whether it's you know,
relationships, we are gonna have them connected
with a mental health counselor.
- Nathan: Even with the clinics and barbershops
and his standalone health center,
Perry wants to take his idea further.
The next step, opening a clinic
in Madison's Second Baptist Church.
- Aaron: The culture with the Black community, you know,
we are naturally, you know, a faith-based people, you know,
and the majority go to church.
- Nathan: The clinic opens in the fall of 2023
to serve the community on Sundays,
though Perry says more days may be added as needed.
- We want these neighborhoods to be health villages.
We want them to be places
where low income and uninsured people
can still have access to care,
and by bringing this back into the community
such as churches, barbershops, and free clinics,
that is what we're hoping to achieve.
- Nathan: By combining all three,
Perry is launching what he calls Brother Care Health,
a health care model designed to operate
in underserved neighborhoods.
- When you walk out your front door,
you should be able to walk out your front door
and see health in your community.
- Nathan: While Perry is working on seeing health
in Dane County communities,
he says he's given advice to people all over the country,
including places like Maryland, California,
and Washington, D.C.
- This model has been replicated
all across the United States, you know,
and it started right here, so we're proud of that.
- Nathan: For Here & Now, I'm Nathan Denzin.