Guest speaker Renaisa Anthony speaks up about how to work on health equity in present-day Detroit and worldwide. The speaker is a public health practitioner and medical doctor in training. People she went to school with had HIV and aids. She noticed that people she knew also were pregnant with two kids and were struggling to feed their children. When she would go back home she would notice the price of fresh produce was not only hard to find but very expensive. This statement was something very commonly discussed this semester, health disparities in underprivileged communities. The shocking truth that various people are not denying health products because they dislike it, but can be due to the fact that it’s scarce and expensive. Learned in medical school that African Americans and Latinos are more susceptible to diabetes, high blood pressure, and many more diseases that can drastically affect the life expectancy of a person. Which is common information that is used to project what age we are expected to live up to based on cultural values and sex.
The values that are social determinants of health based on the speaker is race/ethnicity, culture (norms and currency), education, socioeconomic status/ income, neighborhoods, and occupation. These social determinants of health are reviewed and re-enforced but are listed in different hierarchical values for different people based on importance. For some race and ethnicity is the most important, in which my opinion I believe it is because race and ethnicity are commonly used to discriminate and project a person’s life expectancy. The solution suggested by the speaker or recipe for health equity is research, education, collaboration, initiative, public health/ policy, and empathy to empower. In order to empower change, the speaker suggests momentum. As defined by her she states momentum is moments… monumental moments that move you forward.

Guest speaker Dr. Josy Hahn gave an informative lecture on racial equity and social determinants of health. Dr. Hahn engaged in a group discussion on what were examples of equality and equity. The image of equality showed very little community resources and engagement for local communities. Furthermore, the image of equity showed various outputs for community engagement certain examples were access to hospitals and basic commodities. The main points used to identify the root problems of inequities in communities are policies that have created unbalanced power and privilege, Historical practices of exclusion and geographic concentration. Another important aspect of the presentation was the social determinants of health and how they vary by place and race. Social determinants of health differ in terms of places with higher or lower community engagement. In communities with greater resources a social determinant of health might be education as for in a community with low resources might have issues from an economic stand point.

One shocking fact mentioned in the meeting was the segregation that takes place in New York City. Based on the provided map of NYC the areas with a high poverty rate is also an area where a large population of people of color reside. The figure sums up one of the many root causes of inequities for which in this case would be exclusion and discrimination. Another key demographic would be the percentage of children under 18 who are in poverty. There was a higher percentage of black non Latinx, Latinx and Native American who suffered from poverty in comparison to white non- Latinx and Asian. In addition, the same groups had high poverty levels also had high incarcerations for males. The data collected sums up the many issues that are occurring within communities yet the same 3 races show higher numbers. Thus, raises the question on how to reduce these number so that we do not continue to fall under these social categories

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The TED talk discusses the breakdown of what health justice is and ways people may view certain diseases or conditions. One point discussed was the average deaths of children are approximately 7 million every year. The deaths of these children are caused by unbalanced diets, not having access to medications, etc. The immediate response to many as stated in the video is that many assume that the reason why these children are passing away is due to the lack of supplies. Many organizations, as well as the public state supplies, would fix the ongoing issues related to the death of a group of people in an area. Yet other factors are needed to fix health disparities in underprivileged locations. In order to create health justice solutions certain factors, greater than donations and items are needed to make a change. The way people interpret health justice is the first priority. Instead of viewing health or health care as an item or a service instead it should be viewed as a method of freedom. The video states that if health is viewed as a form of freedom than many more people would not be without it. Due to the simple fact that many people throughout history fight and have succeeded to be free thus, it would be a central issue when people change their view on what health justice is.

Another point mentioned in the video is that various races are subjected to having certain medical conditions. As for people located in North Omaha have a high rate of diabetes. Many people are subjected as a product of their own bad decisions such as unhealthy diets. Although people don’t view their health as an issue within the environment. In certain locations, people don’t have access to parks, bicycles, recreational centers, food, healthy food, and education. Once these people have the opportunity to have all that are restricting their freedom and are still making bad decisions then one can make the claim that the person with diabetes is caused by a series of bad decisions. One clear point that was made was how people perceive health and how we can change the way we think of certain communities as well as common claims to certain races.

Reference:

The program soul fire farm is a donation based program that supplies underprivileged communities with healthy food options. Locally grown food is delivered to communities allowing for certain people to be one step closer to food equity. Based on the provided information of the video there are approximately 3 times more likely people to die from poor diets then from violence related encounters. In addition, learning disabilities could be caused as a result of a poor diet. Thus, bad eating habits result in negative outcomes. Maintaining a tight community allows for food inequalities to become deceased. Equal food opportunities are not the only subject on the agenda, education plays an important role in making healthy decisions as well as informing children on what an average diet might entail.

The soul fire farm allows for volunteers to engage in change within a community allowing people to have access to better diets and making a difference to change a community. The program does a great job in uniting communities on difficult topics such as food inequity and racial injustices. Teaching younger generation’s good habits in sustainable farming creates productive young individuals with insight on how a community should have access to healthy options that are not fast food. Food inequity can be linked to racism within a sector. Based on the statistics provided by the organization approximately 1/10 hungry families are Black and Latino. This came to a surprise to me that food can be used as a tactic to create racial barriers within underprivileged communities. The program allows people to learn about injustices as well as act upon it to make change happen. Soul fire farm is surprisingly not funded by any major organization. From 2011 through 2017 the number of participants has increased significantly thus, the program is flourishing and teaching participants healthy food options, activism training, as well as farming training. All in all the organization is tackling multiple initiatives that prevent communities to be racially targeted and have sustainable healthy foods.

The article creating integrated strategies for increasing access to healthy affordable food in urban communities discusses the effects of introducing healthier food options for children in preschool programs. The Idea was projected to be a five-year program that would ultimately improve the living conditions for underprivileged communities. The educational approach to for young children would allow for them to reflect on the older generation they live with. In addition, teaching good eating habits to young children molds a new generation that grows up knowledgeable in healthy food options and where they could be found. Ultimately this educational approach would hopefully cause a domino effect that would create food hubs, improvement of food quality, as well as create jobs for people in the food sector. Ultimately, these changes would improve the conditions of an underprivileged community. The food education program alongside the food hub allows young kids to learn good eating habits as well as, apply what they learn by having healthy options accessible at an affordable price.

A key strategy to improve food inequalities within a community would be introducing new job opportunities within the community. A workshop on how to apply to certain positions such as SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program) and to become food handlers not only educates employers of healthy decisions but allows for them to get a source of income as well. All the strategies mentioned in the reading are interconnected to ultimately drive down the cost of healthy foods, improve supermarkets while educating the community on what a balanced diet consists of. The program has made a large improvement starting from only 10 sites with only 700 children to impacting about 30 sites with 1500 children. The increase in the number of children in the program benefits the final goal at hand.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28664510

http://restorationplaza.org/center_healthy_neighborhoods/

The food environment in the community of my internship on the upper west side consists of a food desert full of many unhealthy decisions. The only healthy options available is a whole foods located a block away from the site. The community holds multiple fast food chains such as McDonald’s, Dunking donuts, and pizza shops. Based on patient demographics, a large portion of patients seen at Ryan health center are diabetic and or pre-diabetic. The clinic is based on a community care initiative, for which foresees the care of multiple patients in the area. The group of diabetic patients that are treated at the site are also seen by a nutritionist if necessary, which would bridge the gap to patients that need education on healthy eating options.

On the other hand the obesity and diabetes percentages in the community are relatively low based on the community health profiles of 2015. District 7 is considered to have a 4% of adults to be diagnosed with diabetes. As a whole 7% of adults were diagnosed with diabetes in Manhattan thus, the 4% that makes up the district is considerably low. On the other hand, the leading cause of death in the district is heart disease which takes about 2,146 lives for every 100,000 of the population. Although some of the numbers don’t correlate with the amount of patients seen at the clinic, about 89% of the upper west side claims to be in excellent or very good health in comparison to the upper east side that has 92% of people who claim to be in good health. Ultimately I believe that the data collected on the district might be slightly outdated considering that the community is constantly undergoing change. Change that involves new food spots, as well as neighborhood conditions, and health care.

References:

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/data/data-publications/profiles.page