EWSE Webinars
 Did you miss an Every Woman Southeast webinar in 2015? All of our archived webinars can be found on our website here.
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A Recipe for
Health Equity
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A Recipe for Health Equity in the
21st Century
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Dr. Renaisa Anthony -- a physician, public health practitioner, and assistant professor -- is committed to improving the health of women, children, families and communities. In this Ted talk, she discusses the impact that race, gender, and background has on the lives of the people she serves and offers a recipe for health equity.
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Click here to view an infographic that explains health equity and inequities.
Roots of Health Inequity is an online learning collaborative and web-based course designed for the public health workforce. This site offers a starting place for those who want to address systemic differences in health and wellness that are actionable, unfair, and unjust. Based on a social justice framework, the course offers strategies for taking action in everyday practice.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has developed a collection of courses to assist the public health workforce in locating distance-accessible training programs on health disparities. Designed to address how marginalized populations disproportionately experience negative health outcomes, these course provide public health professionals with tools to address inequities.
APHA's report, Better Health through Equity: Case Studies in Reframing Public Health Work, highlights state and local efforts from health agencies and one Tribal Nation across Colorado, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin to address the root causes of health inequities. The report features stories of the health agencies as they shifted their thinking and their work from focusing on health disparities to advancing health equity.
With guidance from state and local health department staff and nationally-recognized health equity experts, the Prevention Institute developed the Health Equity and Prevention Primer (HEPP) to serve as an online learning tool to build the knowledge and capacity of practitioners to incorporate health equity into their work. It is comprised of seven brief, interactive presentations along with selected publications, tools, and other resources focused on health equity.
 On Sept. 9, 2015 the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH) unveiled the first CMS plan to address health equity in Medicare. The CMS Equity Plan for Improving Quality in Medicare focuses on Medicare populations that experience disproportionately higher burdens of disease, lower quality of care, and barriers accessing care. These include racial and ethnic minorities, sexual and gender minorities, people with disabilities and those living in rural areas.
The Health Equity Leadership & Exchange Network (HELEN) is a collaborative effort between the National REACH Coalition, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the National Collaborative for Health Equity. HELEN is a national network designed to bolster leadership and the exchange of ideas and information among health equity champions relative to the advancement of equity in health laws, policies, and programs.
With a mission to advance public health research, policy, practice, and education, the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) is dedicated to the publication of original work in the field of public health. Each month, public health professionals turn to AJPH for the most current, authoritative, in-depth information in the field. Visit their site for a wealth of publications on health disparities, inequities, social determinants of health, and best practices in the field.
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Happy New Year! As we begin a new turn around the sun, this is a perfect time of year for self reflection, letting go what wasn't working well and embracing new challenges and dreams. We hope 2016 brings you joy and new learning and adventures.
Each January we reflect on the previous year's activities and set direction forward. Our goal is to continue to strive for health and wellness equity. This means that 2016 will hold some difficult conversations and exploration but this work is crucial for people and families in the South and across the nation.
This is critical if we are to achieve our belief that all women deserve the right to live productive, safe, happy and healthy lives.
What is Health Equity?
Health equity means that everyone has a fair opportunity to live a long, healthy life. It implies that health should not be compromised or disadvantaged because of an individual or population group's race, ethnicity, gender, income, sexual orientation, neighborhood or other social condition. Achieving health equity demands creating fair opportunities for health and eliminating gaps in health outcomes between different social groups. It requires that public health professionals look for solutions outside of the health care system, such as in the transportation or housing sectors, to improve the opportunities for health in communities.
Health Disparities vs. Health Inequities
Health disparities, or health inequalities, are differences in the presence of disease, health outcomes or access to health care between population groups. Health inequities, on the other hand, are differences in
health that are not only unnecessary and avoidable, but are also considered unfair and unjust. Health inequities are rooted in social injustices that make some population groups more vulnerable to poor health outcomes than other groups.
The Social Determinants of Health
Where we live, learn, work and play has a tremendous impact on our health. While going to the doctor and receiving medical care are essential for detecting, treating, and curing illness, access to health care can only account for 10 to 15 percent of preventable deaths. Social factors such as housing, education, income and employment greatly influence the health and quality of life in neighborhoods and communities.  These social factors, generally referred to as the social determinants of health, determine whether or not individuals have parks and playgrounds to exercise, supermarkets to buy fresh and affordable fruits and vegetables, job opportunities to support their families, and other resources that allow them to be healthy and well. While it is definitely important for us to encourage people to make healthy choices, we must remember that people can only make healthy choices if they have healthy options.
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EWSE 2015 Year in Review
A Time of Growth and Connection
The Every Woman Southeast Coalition has had a wonderful year! Here are a just few highlights: Expanded Strategic Goals
Our Coalition seeks to connect and combine talents, perspectives, and resources to elevate what's working and create a new legacy for women in our region. By working together, our Coalition can spark change more rapidly and more powerfully. We have three key directions. Breaking down Barriers to create space for conversation and action across sectors, geography and experience. Forging New Paths to support innovative projects and approaches to improve women's wellness and opportunities for good health as well as to explore ways of bringing the experiences and solutions of women in our region to a larger audience. Launching and Lifting Leaders to provide the training and support that leaders and influencers need to change the way business is done and to connect them with each other so they can share, invent and act together.
Connecting and Engaging We have had the opportunity to partner with the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) and Merck for Mothers on improving the postpartum health and wellness of women. We participated in the Black Mothers Matter and Regender Women's Research conferences in Atlanta as well as City MatCH in the fall. We had the chance to attend the TED Women's Impact conference in May. A top favorite Talk from that event was Roxane Gay on being a "bad" feminist.
EWSE also worked with Caroline Brazeel and her team at the Louisiana Department of Health to take first steps toward collaboration among family planning, MCH and chronic disease services. A manuscript describing the work has been submitted and the work was presented at the HRSA MCHB CoIIN meeting in July. We will share the paper in 2016.
Lifting up Women's Voices
Last winter we partnered with NC Central University's Preconception Peer Educators to complete a photovoice project to consider the barriers and facilitators to reproductive life planning in the campus community. Check out our online gallery for the images and stories.
This year, with funding from AMCHP and WK Kellogg and in partnership with the Office on Minority Health, we have launched a preconception peer educator fellowship program. Kicking off with a retreat with eleven fellows and their mentors, we explored various styles of leadership and examined the mentoring process. The busy fellows are now working on their photovoice projects. We are grateful for Erin's guidance of the program and for our talented fellows and their mentors.
Increased Social Media Presence
Our coalition continued to increase its social media presence during 2015 - connecting with partners on Twitter and enhancing our reach. We were featured on the WK Kellogg Foundation's website for a few months as well. We've also held numerous webinars and produced monthly newsletters all focused on topics requested by our members. Follow us! Have something to blog about or tweet? We'd love to hear it.
Gratitude Thank you to our amazing volunteers across the region, whose energy and engagement have fueled our growth and built our mission. We are lucky to have had a wonderful intern - Elizabeth Thomas - as well as a dedicated team - Angela Aina, Anna Bess Brown, Erin McClain, Sarah Verbiest, Suzanne Yergensen, Amanda Zabala, and Kia Barbee (who keeps our books straight). We are also happy to be working with Chris Wretman from the UNC School of Social Work on evaluation. We also appreciate Maggie Tomei and Michele Lashley at Epic Brand Group. Together, we will bring change to the South. We are #PoweredByPassion and leading toward health, equity, and opportunity. We hope you all have a great and successful New Year filled with joy.
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New Blog Posts!
The CDC's Office of Minority Health & Health Equity developed a blog site devoted to increasing awareness of health inequities and promoting national, state, and local efforts to reduce health disparities and achieve health equity. Cleverly titled " Conversations in Equity," readers are invited to read about and discuss topics related to common challenges, lessons learned and best practices related to Health Equity.
We also want to call your attention to a blog about the recent Wilson Center Maternal Health Initiative event on maternal mortality in the U.S. featuring Monica Simpson of SisterSong as a speaker. She makes a clear case for why we need to go beyond public health approaches to addressing this issue to also examine racial and gender discrimination in the health system and develop community responses that empower women. While acknowledging that that there is no single answer to addressing the problem, the author sets out a number of solutions that have proven to work and may be useful for you to note if they are unfamiliar to you.
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Have Thoughts to Share?
Write For Our Blog!
What are some some of the challenges you face in your efforts to infuse equity into your work?
We'd love to here from you! Share your thoughts by writing for our blog. Click here for more information.
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Stay Connected!
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