Since health equity is such a huge issue, health, and business executives from all over the country came together to create policy recommendations for improving health equity and social determinants, access to care and medical innovation. Reviewing their recommendations, I was stunned at two prevailing themes that were woven throughout all of them. One theme was to spend more money labeled as increasing our investment and the other theme was to hire more minorities with diverse experiences including race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
One cannot and must not limit access to emergency rooms, urgent care facilities, school-based health centers, or community clinics. Access to these facilities, by definition, is universal, open to all no matter race, ethnicity, age, culture, socioeconomic status, or gender identity. Never in my entire nursing career did I ever experience or hear of anyone being turned away from having access to health care through these facilities.
I was wondering how these recommendations are going to reduce health inequity. Social determinates of health are rooted in the Harvard Human Flourishing Domains which are happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships, and material and financial security. Recommendations to increase social determinates of health should include each of these domains.
To truly reduce inequities, we must ensure that all children, especially low income, and minority children, have access to education that will help them become successful. We must teach every child to read and do math on grade level, learn accurate history, love their country, acquire relationship and life skills, and graduate with a skill or a trade, as well as financial literacy to become upwardly mobile. We should nurture and support two parents in the home who are dedicated to being their child’s first Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services and their first Department of Corrections. We should do everything in our power to build positive relationships and healthy connections that will decrease social isolation and mental health issues such as depression and suicide. We should support and build community recreation centers, parks, sports fields and faith communities to nurture mind, body, and spirit. We should encourage and incentivize service to others through community clean up and beautification events. We should saturate communities with art, dance and music classes, cooking classes and classes that develop friendships with shared hobbies and interests. We should keep our local officials accountable to keep communities safe. We should teach children to create a life plan that includes doing life in an order called the “Success Sequence.” First graduate from school, then get a job, then marry before having children. Individuals who follow the Success Sequence rarely enter the cycle of poverty.
We should encourage self-care concerning food, rest, exercise, meditation or prayer, stress, anger, and time management. Finally, we can encourage all people to live in gratitude and possibility rather than victimhood. These recommendations just might be innovative enough to increase equity among all people groups. joneen@myrelationshipcenter.org