As administrators and managers of the public health industry, it is essential to be knowledgeable about healthcare inequities in order to better serve the population. Without proper education in the field of public health, many communities will continue to be severely affected.
To assure that everyone has the opportunity to attain their highest level of health, public health officials must address the social determinants of health (SDOH) and equity comprehensively.
Steps to Cultivate a Social Justice Perspective
For public health organizations and healthcare facilities to cultivate a social justice perspective, administrators need to reshape the way they serve their communities through these steps:
1. Moving past isolating individual factors
The goal of health disparities research is to uncover key drivers and craft policies and practices that can effectively and sustainably address them. Taking a broad perspective that acknowledges and explicitly grapples with this complexity is the best way to affect positive change.
2. Embracing complexity in health disparities
Complex systems science provides a way forward in addressing health disparities in research, policy and practice. Using complex systems approaches, researchers and policymakers explore interacting mechanisms and study levels of health disparities, pathways or leverage points, past or existing interventions and their observed effects in a given context and how they affect different communities.
3. Beyond health, toward social justice
Alongside commendable efforts to study the potential impact of large-scale changes in policy and practice, the field is also beginning to revisit long-standing conventions about theories, assumptions and methods that can affect our ability to understand and address the structures that perpetuate inequalities.
Disparities in Healthcare
According to the American Public Health Association (APHA), “more than 30% of direct medical costs faced by Black, Hispanic and Asian-American can be tied to health inequities.” Inequitable access to care and other health-promoting resources means that when these people seek care, they are often sicker than those without health inequities. Additionally, they incur higher medical costs on average.
In addition, studies have shown that clinicians tend to have more negative attitudes toward people of color. Unconscious racial bias among clinicians leads to poorer communication and lower quality of care.
We have seen these disparities recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated these patterns. One estimate indicates that despite comprising only 13% of the population, non-Hispanic Black people accounted for 34% of COVID-related deaths.
Disparities are not limited to the race or ethnicity of an individual but can also come from different factors based on where an individual lives and their socioeconomic status. For example, disparities occur across age, geography, language, gender, disability status and sexual identity and orientation. Research also suggests that a person can face health disparities at all stages of life: from birth through mid-life and among older adults. These experiences are not mutually exclusive and often build on one another.
Maximize Your Public Health Knowledge With an MPH Degree
One way to uplevel your commitment towards equity in public health is to further your career and earn your Master of Public Health (MPH) degree. Those who enroll in the MPH online program at William Paterson University will create a strong foundation to be an advocate for social justice within the workplace.
In as few as 14 months, students will be able to recognize the values and virtues of a social justice perspective for addressing health inequities locally, nationally and globally.
All students will be able to work towards alleviating the social, environmental and behavioral factors that lead to communal wellness challenges. For example, the Community Engagement, Equity and Justice in Public Health course covers the basic principles of critically evaluating the social determinants of health and examining how they contribute to health inequities. In the Public Health Leadership course, students will uncover how to develop their leadership and ethical decision-making skills related to cultural competency and ethical practices.
Each public health administrator should have the necessary knowledge to better serve their communities and work collaboratively with diverse individuals in the industry.
Learn more about William Paterson University’s Master of Public Health online program.
