What are health disparities?
Health disparities are the "preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations." (CDC. 2020. Health Disparities)
Health Disparities, Diversity, and Inclusion Context, Controversies, and Solutions by
Despite the many Public Health successes over the last century, health disparity continues to exist in in American society. This introductory text addresses this topic head on, exploring steps that must be taken to prepare for the rapidly changing demographics in American society, including immigration reform (emerging majorities), and evidenced based information substantiating the fact that diversity matters in terms of the provision of health care. Diversity is examined in terms of patient satisfaction and quality outcomes with an emphasis on racial, ethnic, gender, and linguistic diversity. The book highlights steps that key stakeholders, including federal, state, and private health care and public health entities, should take to ensure that representatives from emerging majority groups are involved with and serve as leaders in terms of the provision of health care at every level. The discussion of diversity is contrasted with the concept of cultural competency and how both go hand in hand in terms of the ultimate goal of closing the health status gap in the United States.
Just health : treating structural racism to heal America by
The author of the bestselling Just Medicine reveals how racial inequality undermines public health and how we can change itWith the rise of the Movement for Black Lives and the feverish calls for Medicare for All, the public spotlight on racial inequality and access to healthcare has never been brighter. The rise of COVID-19 and its disproportionate effects on people of color has especially made clear how the color of one’s skin is directly related to the quality of care (or lack thereof) a person receives, and the disastrous health outcomes Americans suffer as a result of racism and an unjust healthcare system.Timely and accessible, Just Health examines how deep structural racism embedded in the fabric of American society leads to worse health outcomes and lower life expectancy for people of color. By presenting evidence of discrimination in housing, education, employment, and the criminal justice system, Dayna Bowen Matthew shows how racial inequality pervades American society and the multitude of ways that this undermines the health of minority populations. The author provides a clear path forward for overcoming these massive barriers to health and ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to be healthy. She encourages health providers to take a leading role in the fight to dismantle the structural inequities their patients face. A compelling and essential read, Just Health helps us to understand how racial inequality damages the health of our minority communities and explains what we can do to fight back.
Necessary Conversations: understanding racism as a barrier to achieving health equity by
Necessary Conversations: Understanding Racism as a Barrier to Achieving Health Equity reflects the conviction that a true prioritization of health in our communities is impossible without a commitment to racial equity. Drawing on the pivotal social events of 2020 in America, it extends a powerfulcall to action based on a growing body of evidence that racism is the underlying cause of so many poor health outcomes. Contributors across health, education, law, and media further the longstanding work of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to create a "Culture of Health" by engaging in authenticdiscussions about the systems and structures that harm people of color and offering provocative ideas and strategies to inspire action.Necessary Conversations ultimately highlights the importance of building leadership and partnerships through those who are most affected in the community. It considers what it would take to overhaul institutions that treat people differently on the basis of race and recognizes that we all must shareresources and join together to support the advancement of health and racial equity.
Why Are Health Disparities Everyone's Problem? by
How can we all work together to eliminate the avoidable injustices that plague our health care system and society? Health is determined by far more than a person''s choices and behaviors. Social and political conditions, economic forces, physical environments, institutional policies, health care system features, social relationships, risk behaviors, and genetic predispositions all contribute to physical and mental well-being. In America and around the world, many of these factors are derived from a lingering history of unequal opportunities and unjust treatment for people of color and other vulnerable communities. But they aren''t the only ones who suffer because of these disparities--everyone is impacted by the factors that degrade health for the least advantaged among us. In Why Are Health Disparities Everyone''s Problem? Dr. Lisa Cooper shows how we can work together to eliminate the injustices that plague our health care system and society. The book follows Cooper''s journey from her childhood in Liberia, West Africa, to her thirty-year career working first as a clinician and then as a health equity researcher at Johns Hopkins University. Drawing on her experiences, it explores how differences in communication and the quality of relationships affect health outcomes. Through her work as the founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, it details the actions and policies needed to reduce and eliminate the conditions that are harming us all. Cooper reveals with compelling detail how health disparities are crippling our health care system and society, driving up health care costs, leading to adverse health outcomes and ultimately an enormous burden of human suffering. Why Are Health Disparities Everyone''s Problem? demonstrates the ways in which everyone''s health is interconnected, both within communities and across the globe. Cooper calls for a new kind of herd immunity, when a sufficiently high proportion of people, across race and social class, become immune to harmful social conditions through "vaccination" with solidarity among groups and opportunities created by institutional and societal practices and policies. By acknowledging and acting upon that interconnectedness, she believes everyone can help to create a healthier world. Features * Raises readers'' health care inequities literacy through an approachable narrative with specific examples * Introduces the concept of "herd immunity" as it applies to building communal awareness of systemic injustices * Features sections that underscore key takeaways * Includes contributions from the world''s leading minds through their research findings and quotations * Guides readers on what can be done at an individual level as a patient, public health professional, and community member * Includes inspiring stories of effective health equity studies and practices around the world, from Ghana''s ADHINCRA Project addressing hypertension control to Baltimore''s BRIDGE Study for depression in African Americans and the Maryland and Pennsylvania-based RICH LIFE Project for hypertension, diabetes, and other medical conditions Johns Hopkins Wavelengths In classrooms, field stations, and laboratories in Baltimore and around the world, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professors of Johns Hopkins University are opening the boundaries of our understanding of many of the world''s most complex challenges. The Johns Hopkins Wavelengths book series brings readers inside their stories, illustrating how their pioneering discoveries benefit people in their neighborhoods and across the globe in artificial intelligence, cancer research, food systems'' environmental impacts, health equity, science diplomacy, and other critical arenas of study. Through these compelling narratives, their insights will spark conversations from dorm rooms to dining rooms to boardrooms.
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