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Healthcare

 

One of the most glaring examples of how the present is affected by the racial and other discriminations of the past is in today’s healthcare system.

 

Early efforts to describe how individuals’ health was determined by more than self-care or inherited characteristics centered on external factors such as air, food, and water quality. More recently, in the last several decades, broader social conditions have been identified including education, occupational safety, employment opportunities, housing availability, community location and design, and so on.

 

Examining these social determinants of health leads us to question the racialized setup and the resulting inequities we have all inherited. However, many healthcare institutions don’t

know where to start. All of us have been miseducated and/or overwhelmed about the root causes of today’s racial conflicts and health disparities. 

 

After the murder of George Floyd in 2020 most every healthcare institution came out with declarations of their vision for a world where everyone could reach optimal health no matter their race, gender, income, religion, ethnicity, education, geography, or sexual orientation. However, healthcare professionals, patients, and community members all grow more frustrated by the slow progress or even backlash toward health equity.

 

HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS AND INSTITUTIONS FACE:

 

  • a lingering outlook toward blaming individuals or community culture for poor health

 

  • lack of focus on health equity*

 

  • practitioners’ fears and frustrations in responding to community mistrust of healthcare institutions and professionals

 

  • Absence of clear analysis and language to describe the causes of health disparities or the steps toward meaningful change** 


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Medical Team

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However, TRAINING CAN:

 

  • Explain the root causes and impacts of health disparities

 

  • Give a roadmap for meaningful change via systems and evidence-based corrective actions to understand and dismantle policies and practices that may unintentionally create barriers to equity

 

  • Present guilt-free ways to examine personal bias, cultural illiteracy and insensitivities

 

  • Build trust and unify co-workers with common analysis, language, and purpose

 

  • Drill communication and other interpersonal skills to more effectively partner with the communities they serve in addition to people influencing societal institutions and agencies

 

  • Inspire and empower health professionals and staff to become Allies-in-Action, understanding their role, gifts, and impacts

“The seminars you delivered were extraordinarily
powerful and started to drive real change at CDPH
for the first time ever.”

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Sandi Brown, former Deputy Commissioner, Chief Racial Equity
Officer – Bureau of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access
Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH)

We have the opportunity to view health not as a commodity, something one has or doesn’t have by luck or sheer will, but as a common good. What can our society become and accomplish when its people are mentally, emotionally and physically healthy?

 

At O’Halloran Diversity Productions we believe it is essential to analyze the problems we face. However, our emphasis is always on what we can achieve. 

 

Please reach out to us no matter where you are in your healthcare equity journey. Together, we can take all you’ve already accomplished and move your successes to the next level.


 

* In a nationwide survey of U.S. practitioners in state health departments only 2% stated that they worked primarily on health equity (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5975259)

 

** While 57% of health agency employees in a recent study believed their organizations should be very involved in affecting health equity, a very small percentage reported that they were actively involved in affecting specific social determinants of health. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6519883)

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