Community... Health

How does your job, your work, your money affect you on the inside?

That’s precisely the question one of the moderators asked while presenting a session on the term “social determinants” that I love so much. Basically, he was asking what affects our health?

This was the topic of the first session I attended concerning health disparities in the community focusing on the movie, Unnatural Causes.

I thought I was in class.

Social gradient. Health disparities. All are terms that we throw around in the College of Public Health as if they are going out of style.

So apparently morbidity and SES are connected.

“As you climb the social ladder, your life expectancy climbs with you,” said Dr. Strelnick, director, Institute for Community and Collaborative Health, Motefiore Medical Center.

Like I haven’t heard that enough.

But the problem isn’t the graduate student who is in the wrong school trying to understand public health.

The problem is trying to convey the differences in health associated with SES (socioeconomic status) with your audience.

What did the panelists suggest?

They said to find the human element of the story — bring the problems to life through stories journalists can tell. We have the power to tell the story. We have the power to be a voice for those silenced. We have the power to initiate change.