Prejudice and stigma can discourage the communities most affected by infectious diseases from seeking care. Inclusive public health messaging can prevent misinformation and guide the most vulnerable.
Throughout the pandemic, much discussion about COVID-19 transmission focused on individual-level decisions, making it easy to blame the unvaccinated.
(Pixabay)
Systemic social issues affect vaccine access and acceptability. Yet, the term ‘vaccine hesitancy’ overlooks this, reducing the multiple factors that affect vaccine uptake to individual-level choices.
Children and youth in care often have complex health and social issues, but they often struggle to access comprehensive health care.
(Shutterstock)
Children and youth in care are more likely to have experienced trauma that can affect future health. A comprehensive, trauma-informed health strategy for these children and youth is long overdue.
Tooth decay can cause pain, embarrassment, missed school and more.
Olga Simonova/EyeEm via Getty Images
Appalachia has one of the highest rates of oral health problems per person in the US.
Creating a safe space for patients to ask questions and provide fully informed consent could help increase clinical trial recruitment.
FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images
Overcoming the access barriers and biases that underrepresented and underserved communities face could not only improve research participation but also improve care.
Physical activity can be an important tool for recovery from the collective trauma experienced and exacerbated throughout the pandemic.
(Shutterstock)
During spring and summer, as more people consider exercising outdoors, a trauma- and violence-informed approach to physical activity can help ensure equity, inclusion, safety and access.
Who gets to flourish and who doesn’t?
Tony Anderson/DigitalVision via Getty Images
For people who struggle to meet their basic needs, it will take a lot more than simple psychological exercises to flourish. It will take systemic change.
On the surface, sober months like Dry January and Dry February are great. But we need to broaden the discussion around how privilege and policy impact one’s relationship with alcohol and other drugs.
Kigali, Rwanda: In Rwanda there are various positions and groups that are responsible for aspects of governance and decision-making.
Shutterstock
Governance structures that provide opportunities for people to contribute to decision-making would also enhance people’s abilities to control important factors in their life.
Differences in the social conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work can lead to health disparities.
SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images
Vaccines and medical treatments can only go so far in an unequal society. Facing the ongoing history of racial discrimination and bias in the US would help end the pandemic.
When Black patients are treated by Black doctors, they have better health outcomes – but fewer than 6 in 100 American doctors are Black.
The Good Brigade/Digital Vision via Getty Images
Black American women have disproportionate HIV infection rates – in part because of systemic and structural racism in the health care system.
Dental decay is the most common non-communicable disease globally, but treating it is not part of our public health-care system.
(Pexels/Cedric Fauntleroy)
People who haven’t gotten vaccinated for COVID-19 often have complex reasons for their relunctance or may face other barriers. Lumping them all together undercuts the vaccination campaign.
Healthcare provision in South Africa is centered in hospitals.
Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Medical innovations paired with innovative programs to get them to Black, Indigenous and Hispanic Americans can help close the health inequality gap.
Unequal access to preventive resources such as healthy foods, a family doctor, health screening and health promotion programs put some groups at increased risk for chronic illness.
(Shutterstock)
While the pandemic has focused the world’s attention on how to prevent infectious disease, many of the lessons learned from COVID-19 prevention can also be applied to chronic disease prevention.
A woman tears up as she attends a community rally in Los Angeles to raise awareness of anti-Asian violence and racist attitudes, in response to the string of violent racist attacks against Asians during the pandemic.
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only increased risk factors for violence, but also simultaneously decreased resiliency for individuals as well as communities.
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University
UNESCO co-Chair in Prevention of Radicalisation and Violent Extremism; Professor of Inclusive Practices in Visual Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University