Dr Helen Octavia DIckens
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Helen O. Dickens: Women's Health Pioneer with Philadelphia ...
Helen O. Dickens: Women’s Health Pioneer with Philadelphia Connections
February 21, 2024
"In celebration: Helen O. Dickens, Medical Pioneer.
JEVS Care at Home.
#BlackHistoryMonth
As we celebrate Black History Month, JEVS Care at Home (JCAH) honors Dr. Helen Octavia Dickens.
Dr. Dickens blazed a trail for other black women in medicine, and her work led to many advances in women's healthcare, especially young mothers.
Helping Mothers in Philadelphia
Dr. Dickens was born in 1909.
Her mother was a domestic servant, and her father had been a slave.
Dr. Dickens was an excellent student, and her desire to help improve the lives of others led her to enroll in medical school at the University of Illinois.
She graduated in 1933, the only black woman in her class.
She worked for a time in Chicago and developed a special interest in Obstetrics and Gynecology, the branch of medicine that is devoted to the care of pregnant women.
In 1935, she moved to Philadelphia to work in a clinic that served one of the city’s low-income black communities."
Helen O. Dickens: A Figure Who Was Anything But Hidden
Helen O. Dickens: A Figure Who Was Anything But Hidden
February 22, 2017, | by Katie Delach
"It was what I wanted to do, and I didn’t see why I couldn’t do it. You just had to do what you had to do to get the job done,” Helen O. Dickens told the Philadelphia Tribune in 1990 of her life’s dream of becoming a doctor. And for Dickens, that was pretty much all there ever was to it. Reading her biography, skimming her catalog of awards, memberships, and honors, and thumbing through her tome of research, now packed into 27 boxes in the University of Pennsylvania archives, it’s undeniable that Dickens was a leader in the advancement of both African-Americans and women in medicine. But for Dickens, who was never comfortable being called a trailblazer, it was only ever about achieving her dream. Along the way, however, she left an indelible imprint on her community and played a vital role in transforming women’s health care."
Helen Octavia Dickens | Philadelphia Women's History Month ...
Helen Octavia Dickens
Physician / Sexual Health Advocate
1909-2001
"Dr. Helen Octavia Dickens was encouraged by her parents—former slaves—from a young age to focus on her education.
She gained admittance to the University of Illinois medical school and was the only African-American student in her class.
After treating impoverished urban areas lacking medical care, Dr. Dickens gained a master of science degree from Penn, completed her residency, and was certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
It was in this city that she became the first African-American fellow at the American College of Surgeons. She served as a director of the Mercy Douglass Hospital Ob/Gyn Department and also taught at Penn—by 1985 she was named professor emeritus."
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