Creating health equity means ensuring that everyone has access to high-quality care. It also involves removing barriers preventing people from receiving the necessary care.
Health equity is not the product of biology or chance; it results from human-made systems and structures. These include social determinants of health, such as poverty, racism, discrimination, and ableism.
Address the root causes of health inequities
Several factors can contribute to ways to improve health equity, including the environment in which people live and work. These factors are known as the determinants of health. They include housing, employment, education, food, and social and economic status.
Structural inequities arise when internal and external structures and policies shape people’s lives and norms that allocate power and resources across lines of race, gender, class, sexual orientation, gender expression, and other dimensions of individual and group identity (Box 3-1 for an overview). These inequities can have a wide range of impacts on health outcomes.
For example, racial and socioeconomic segregation affects people’s lives in different communities by restricting access to healthy food, safe places to walk, and good schools (APA Task Force on Socioeconomic Status, 2007). It also limits public awareness of health issues that affect minorities, reduces public health investment, and creates barriers to the availability of medical care for minorities.
Additionally, incarceration has long been a significant contributor to health inequities. The past 40-50 years have seen a massive expansion of incarceration in the United States, negatively affecting racial and ethnic minority groups.
Addressing the underlying causes of health inequities will allow us to improve and maintain health equity. This requires a multi-sectoral approach to health and wellness by schools, health systems, communities, and others. This approach will help us reach the triple aim of improving the quality of care, reducing the cost of care, and improving population health.
Educate the public about health inequities.
Health inequities affect all populations, and they can lead to poor outcomes. Healthcare organizations can address these issues by implementing systems change that addresses the root causes of health inequities.
The CDC defines health equity as “the attainment of health and well-being by all people, free from discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, social class, sexual orientation, disability or age.” Achieving health equity is a visionary goal that requires a collaborative effort.
A significant way to achieve health equity is through education. Public health professionals must educate the public about health inequities and their impact on the population.
Educating the public about health inequities involves highlighting the roots of injustices. Various factors, such as racism and discriminatory laws, can cause disparities.
The social and economic environment of a community can also cause inequities. This can include housing, transportation, education, employment, and neighborhood conditions.
It is essential to educate the public about health inequities so that they can recognize and respond to them. This will help improve the quality of health care, reduce costs, and increase the longevity of patients.
To maintain health equity, healthcare organizations must make it a leadership-driven priority and implement initiatives that address the root causes of health inequities. In addition, healthcare leaders must train staff to understand how to treat patients equitably.
Create a culture of change.
One of the best ways to maintain health equity is by focusing on creating a healthy company culture. A healthy culture can help your organization stand out from competitors and foster employee loyalty and commitment.
If you want to create a positive change in your culture, it’s essential to get buy-in from employees before any steps are taken. You can do this by choosing values and principles your employees will support and communicating them to everyone in your company.
In addition, you can make sure that your goals are measurable and achievable. These objectives can help you track the progress of your cultural transformation and make changes as needed.
While you’re changing your company’s culture, it’s essential to give people time to adjust. So often, a succession of messages or meetings can leave people confused and uneasy.
To create a culture of change that lasts, you’ll need to establish a group of passionate, highly engaged individuals who can lead the change. This should include a wide range of people with different backgrounds and experiences, including managers, team members, and employees.
While it can be challenging to convince your workforce of the importance of a culture change, if you’re successful, employees will be able to see the benefits and become more supportive of the initiative. To achieve this goal, you’ll need to communicate the reasons for the change and set a clear vision of the future culture.
Encourage collaboration
Often, health inequities stem from discriminatory practices and systems of power that create disparities and inequality within and between communities. These factors negatively impact people’s living conditions and health, which impede progress toward realizing the right to health for all.
Increasing collaboration and promoting shared decision-making between communities, businesses, and the healthcare system are critical to maintaining health equity. This can include encouraging employees to donate their time, resources, and skills to community-based initiatives or other local efforts to help the underserved.
Effective collaboration requires clear, thoughtful communication between team members. This can be accomplished by fostering an inclusive environment where all team members can speak their minds and share opinions openly.
It also requires the ability to adapt when things go awry. This can be difficult for some teams, but it’s an essential skill that will make collaboration more successful.
In addition, enhancing communication between health providers and the community helps bridge gaps that separate patients from vital community resources and reduces frustration and delay in getting tests done.
