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Health Equity Blog

Our blog features perspectives from Health Equity Initiative's team and members, as well as guest authors. We cover cross-sectoral efforts, narratives, news, and stories of hope, healing, community engagement, and partnerships to advance health equity. ​

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Starting from April 2025, the Health Equity Blog is supported by a generous unrestricted grant from Macy’s Inc.
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​If you are a professional or a writer who is passionate about health, racial, and social equity, consider contributing to our blog! Visit our Volunteer page to learn more.

NATIONAL MINORITY HEALTH MONTH: APRIL 2023

4/28/2023

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by Paige Hammond on behalf of Health Equity Initiative’s Board of Directors
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 Join us in observing National Minority Health Month by connecting with relevant HEI resources and exploring dedicated resources to mark this month!
​At Health Equity Initiative, we are advocates for improved health outcomes for each and every group of people. This work includes uplifting groups who have been historically marginalized and underserved. This year, the theme for National Minority Health Month is Better Health Through Better Understanding. This theme highlights the importance of promoting health equity through improved health literacy and language access and reduced health disparities, specifically in historically marginalized communities. 


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Belonging in the Clinical SettinG

4/17/2023

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​By Bree Bode, Gladys Pico-Gleason, Kameron Kempker, and Paige Hammond
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In the United States, a variety of inequities present people of minoritized groups with roadblocks to healthcare and equitable health outcomes. When people, especially members of the Black community, experience multiple roadblocks they may feel discouraged to practice health seeking behaviors due to stress and medical mistrust (1). In fact, BIPOC communities have a greater number of people who have been historically marginalized and underserved, or are under- insured, than white communities (2,3). Compared to non-Hispanic whites, people of color continue to have poorer health outcomes (3). Black people living with heart disease, and American Indian and Alaskan Natives living with diabetes, experience higher mortality rates than non-Hispanic whites (3). As another example, quality of care is lower and pain management is less adequate among under-resourced minoritized groups (2).


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NATIONAL DAY OF RACIAL HEALING Today!

1/17/2023

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Posted by Paige Hammond on behalf of Health Equity Initiative's team. 
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Join us in observing this National Day by connecting with relevant HEI resources and taking a pledge to address racism and promote racial healing!
At Health Equity Initiative, we believe in the power and importance of racial healing. Racial healing and health equity go hand in hand, as it is necessary to recognize the consequences of structural racism and implicit bias in order to promote understanding, bridge gaps, stand in solidarity and create transformational change. The National Day of Racial Healing on January 17, 2023, provides the opportunity to reflect on this topic and commit to raising awareness in our own communities.

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Health Equity and Reproductive Rights

8/1/2022

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by Paige Hammond on behalf of Health Equity Initiative’s Board of Directors
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“Equality is giving everyone a pair of shoes, 
​Equity is giving everyone a pair of shoes that fits.”
​~ unknown


The fight for reproductive dignity, care, and autonomy is neither new nor singularly faceted. Inequities exist in health outcomes by a person’s sex and/or gender identity, which in turn impacts gender equity, a major determinant of health equity. These ongoing health inequities have been highlighted, especially in recent months. In fact, women are currently faced with significant adversity in relation to reproductive rights, which ultimately affects the health of all women, both physically and mentally. Women are experiencing ongoing attacks on their reproductive rights and are losing the ability to choose outcomes for themselves. This is in addition to other ongoing crises, such as the disproportionate rates of adverse maternal health outcomes within the Black community and other groups that have been marginalized - or experience disadvantage and bias - as the result of related health, racial, and social inequities. 


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COVID 19 and Mental Health Inequities on College Campuses

6/21/2022

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By Nicole Carberry
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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused hardship and many stressful situations for young people in the United States. Amongst many other challenges, the mental health of many college-aged students has drastically been affected by the pandemic. College-aged students, between the ages of 17 and 22, have reported an increase in feelings of anxiety and depression since 2020. Main causes of such increase include social isolation as well as the health effects and the stress related to a long state of uncertainty. It is also difficult for many to receive adequate support from mental health professionals.


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Health Equity and Racial Healing: Marking the 6th National Day of Racial Healing

1/18/2022

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Posted by Renata Schiavo and Radhika Ramesh on behalf of all of us at Health Equity Initiative
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As we enter 2022 with the hope for an increased emphasis on advancing health equity in our society, we want to mark today the 6th National Day of Racial Healing, which takes place annually on the Tuesday after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and seeks to bridge racial divides to transform our communities for our children and future generations. This national day of truth telling, dialogue, and collective purpose is part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (THRT) efforts, and a much needed reminder on the importance of standing together against racism and promoting healing.  


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Addressing implicit bias at the local government level and beyond

1/12/2022

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by Tina Wong, Melanie Mc Dermott, Toni Lewis, and Renata Schiavo
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​In the United States, local governments play a key role in providing, promoting and regulating health services, economic advancement, education, land use and transportation, and safe neighborhoods with clean air and water.  Even absent explicit discrimination, when that role is affected by implicit bias—the attitudes or stereotypes that unconsciously affect understanding and behavior—it leads to unequal access and unequal allocation of resources in these critical domains.  The ability to vote, approvals of FHA loans, and access to quality education, greenspace and more, are just a few areas contributing to our overall health and wellbeing in which municipal bias continues to produce inequitable outcomes. Communities of color, low-income groups, people living with disabilities, LGBTQI+ groups, immigrants, and other marginalized social groups experience barriers to critical opportunities as a result. These inequitable outcomes are further reinforced by structural racism and other forms of social discrimination that exist in biased policies and practices in our local governments. 


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Health Equity Initiative is ten years old!

12/18/2021

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Posted by Radhika Ramesh on behalf of all of us at Health Equity Initiative
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Health Equity Initiative celebrated this very special milestone with its board members, team, partners, and its broader community at a virtual event on Dec. 9. We reflected on the many lessons learned during this remarkable journey, such as the importance of purposeful conversations with a community of people who share a passion for health equity, the necessity of always anticipating change without losing clarity of purpose and focus, the essential role of community and patient engagement in policy and intervention design, and the central role of trust in everything we do to advance health, racial, and social equity. 


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Community-driven Urban Planning to Promote Health Equity and Address Bias

8/4/2021

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by Bree Bode, Karah Brink, Adriana Akers, Josh Leffingwell, Michelle Davis
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Urban design is a critical concept for supporting the infrastructure and well-being of a city, catalyzing a higher quality of life, and optimizing equitable built environments (1,2). When constructs of urban design are paired with human design frameworks, approaches, practices, and principles, the potential to positively shift the social and political factors of health (SPFOH) in an equitable manner is more attainable (3,4). Without such frameworks, approaches, and inclusive practices, the concepts of urban design negatively impact people globally. When urban design has been paired with motives of xenophobia, racism, or gender bias, the comprehensive SPFOH have compromised livelihoods as seen in historical and recent examples in both the United States and Europe (5-7). 


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What we're reading on health equity: A Summer Reading list from HEI team

7/7/2021

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posted by Radhika Ramesh
We hope you will be able to dedicate some time to relax and spend time with family and friends after a year of world-shifting events. Our team at Health Equity Initiative has been catching up on reading and listening these past few months, and these are examples of what we are reading or listening to on health, racial and social equity. Happy summer, and stay healthy and safe! 

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