Spotlight on Community Outreach and Engagement:
Leon Bethune, Director of Community Initiatives Bureau at Boston Public Health Commission and CCEE CAB member, on Advancing Public Health and Cancer Equity in Boston
Published 08/27/2024
Leon Bethune, Director of Community Initiatives Bureau, and Interim Director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness at the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), serves as a Community Advisory Board Member for the Center for the Cancer Equity and Engagement at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. In our new Community Outreach and Engagement spotlight feature, Leon answers three questions about his work at BPHC and discusses opportunities for partnership with DF/HCC.
Three Questions for Leon
Can you tell us a little about your background and role at the Boston Public Health Commission?
I am the Director of the Community Initiatives Bureau (CIB) and Interim Director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness at the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC). I lead an incredible team, managing three divisions and programs with a budget of $5 million. Our work encompasses the Chronic Disease Division, Healthy Homes and Community Support Division, Environmental and Occupational Health Division, the Mayor’s Health Line, and the South End Fitness Center.
The Boston Public Health Commission’s mission statement is to work in partnership with communities to protect and promote the health and well-being of all Boston residents, especially those impacted by racism and systemic inequities. At CIB, we tackle BPHC’s priorities head-on and focus on eliminating racial and health disparities and revitalizing communities by reducing exposure to toxins, enhancing the built environment, preventing chronic diseases, and advocating for sound public health policies.
What are the major challenges currently facing the Boston community in terms of cancer prevention and control, and what initiatives are underway to address these challenges?
BPHC’s Health of Boston 2023 Report highlighted major differences in life expectancy among neighborhoods, including a 23-year difference between those who live in a part of Back Bay compared to those who live two miles away near Nubian Square in Roxbury. Cancer, particularly cancers of the breast, cervix, colon, prostate, and lungs, is among the three leading causes of premature mortality in Boston, along with cardiometabolic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and other related disorders, and unintentional drug overdoses.
BPHC recently announced our Live Long and Well agenda, which is a collaborative, multisector approach focusing on drivers of poor health that exist outside the walls of health care institutions, like poverty and economic inequality.
We already facilitate the Boston Community Health Collaborative, which convenes City departments, public health, healthcare, and community-based organizations, and Boston residents. Boston Community Health Collaborative developed a community health improvement plan that identified economic mobility and inclusion as a critical strategy to improve health. The City of Boston, BPHC, Boston Community Health Collaborative, and Atrius Health Equity Foundation have formed the first multi-sector partnership in the Live Long and Well agenda.
Also, our Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Division launched a communications campaign to raise awareness about colon cancer and expand access to screening through use of FIT and FIT-DNA testing for average risk residents in lieu of colonoscopy. This highly localized campaign is funded by the non-profit Colon Cancer Coalition’s Get Your Rear In Gear Program and features prominent community ‘Champions’ to drive call-to-action. The campaign focuses on English and Haitian-Creole-speaking Black residents and Spanish-speaking residents in Boston.
How can Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the Boston Public Health commission work together to advance cancer prevention and treatment efforts and promote cancer equity?
BPHC’s relationship with Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center is already strong through DFCI’s involvement with Boston Community Health Collaborative. Also, DF/HCC partnered with our Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Division in June for the 7th time at the Annual Healing Powers event to celebrate cancer survivorship. Opportunities for further collaboration could include partnering with DF/HCC to address objectives stated in the Community Health Needs Assessment Implementation Plan 2022-2025. These issues, including addressing the cancer burden, reducing barriers to cancer prevention, early detection and treatment, advancing survivorship, addressing social determinants of health, and leveraging community strengths — could provide many platforms to uniquely and effectively engage Boston residents with a co-branded approach that leverages the strengths of both BPHC and DF/HCC.