Health equity conference explores moving from research to policy
on
June 30, 2016
Pathways to health equity: Levelling the playing field was held in Winnipeg from May 30-June 1, 2016. Organized by the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP), the event explored themes of gender, ethics, Indigenous health, and SDH, emerging topics around global/economic/community development and policy, as well as the methodological and theoretical considerations of health equity research. It stretched participants’ thinking around different ways of knowing and different types of evidence.
I had the opportunity to actively participate in the conference by presenting two of our recently released documents - Do public health discipline-specific competencies provide guidance for equity-focused practice? and Equity-integrated population health status reporting: Action framework. I was also happy to co-facilitate two roundtable sessions titled “Unravelling what works: Community perspectives” with my colleague Nathan Nickel from the MCHP, which brought non-governmental organizations (NGOs) together with researchers to discuss how community perspectives can be represented in a meaningful way through the evidence.
Apart from the work I did when I was there, I also was fortunate to absorb some of the wisdom around me. So, in the spirit of approaching health equity as the piecing together of a puzzle, here are some ‘knowledge nuggets’ from the conference that will hopefully fill in some of the missing pieces for you!
“Everything is medicine.”
Often we think of medicine as something that is prescribed to heal a particular problem. Wab Kinew shared this quote from a friend and talked about how food, culture, language, the things you bring into life, and the people you surround yourself with are medicine. Wab also said that “eating and activity are the symptoms underlying how well a community is doing culturally,” taking the focus off lifestyle behaviours and returning to the importance of culture in influencing health. I have spent some time reflecting on relationships, housing, environment, life experiences, and knowledge as medicine too. When we think of everything as medicine, and shift from focusing on individual lifestyle behaviours to improve population health, this sets the tone for addressing the broader influences on health.
“If a patient smokes, does it change clinical thinking? Should poverty do the same?”
Gary Bloch has been a vocal advocate for the role of physicians in treating poverty as part of clinical practice. He spoke about the important role primary care providers have in not only using clinical tools to address poverty, but also by working in partnership to address SDH. The interface between primary care providers and public health practice is challenging and varied; while the role of public health programs is not to do primary care interventions, the collaboration between public health and primary care can help improve the health of populations.
“Life is the sum of the challenges and realities you have experienced.”
Doug Jutte from the University of California at Berkeley reinforced how our environments shape the realities of our daily lives, the choices that we make, and the options available to us. Community development and the health sector are starting to recognize their commonalities, with community development putting more emphasis on people and the health sector increasingly recognizing the importance of places. Perhaps further exploring collaborations is an option, such as the positioning of “healthy communities” as a public health strategy, or hospitals playing a role in building healthy communities.
“Interventions might be relationship building and going back to the land.”
Catherine Cook from the Winnipeg Health Region explored the role of public health related to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It is often difficult for public health practitioners to know what their role is related to Indigenous health and health equity. As we increase our understanding of health inequalities and the social determinants of Aboriginal people’s health, this role is becoming imminently important to address. This idea relates back to something Wab Kinew had said earlier, that “the conversation in the Indigenous community is about reclaiming language and traditions, not socioeconomic outcomes.” We need to start where people are and with what is meaningful and important to them. Catherine also said that “people can’t be held accountable for not doing something if they don’t have the appropriate professional development available to them.” Perhaps Indigenous cultural safety training for public health professionals would be one way to support a shift in public health practice to better address Indigenous health inequities.
Towards the end of the conference, a random comment I overheard in conversation was “Why talk about health? Why don’t we just talk about equity and assume health will be the winner?” Excellent food for thought.
How do we bridge the relationship between researchers, practitioners, and the community to find pathways to health equity? We want to hear from you. Send me your thoughts and ideas, or start a conversation in Health Equity Clicks.