5 Ways to Be Health Equity In Your Community

‍

Health Equity In Your Community: The United States is experiencing a health equity crisis. Communities of colour, low-income communities, and rural areas are facing unique and severe challenges in accessing quality care and improving the health of their populations. According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Equity Atlas, in 33 states, there is a racial or ethnic disparity gap in access to care (or fair access). That means that African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, or other groups are not able to get the same care as other people at the same stage of illness from the same provider. It’s no secret that people with more significant financial resources have more options for healthcare. The well-to-do have access to better nutrition and education, leading them to healthier lifestyle choices. These decisions also allow them to afford more expensive healthcare when needed. Health equity is about closing those gaps and ensuring equal access to good healthcare. Follow these five simple tips to help reach this goal in your community:

Reach out to underserved populations.

To make health equity a reality in your community, you must reach out to the people who need help. Health equity is a concept that exists in many parts of the country, so it’s essential to find populations that need the most attention. Some communities will have many people of colour and low-income individuals. In these situations, it may be easy to overlook the needs of others in your community. You can start by surveying your community to find out the health equity issues that are most pressing there. Are there large numbers of people who are uninsured or have difficulty paying for medication? Do certain groups have an exceptionally high rate of specific health issues? Find out, and then work to address these problems in your community.

Offer free or low-cost healthcare.

Healthcare is expensive. Even with insurance, medical visits can quickly add up. A flu shot is $30, and a doctor’s appointment costs $150. It can feel like a burden when you must pay for health services out of pocket. Healthcare costs are prohibitive for many people in low- and middle-income communities. There are plenty of ways to make healthcare more accessible in your community. Some standard methods are to deliver care in underserved areas, to offer services on a sliding scale, or to offer free or low-cost health insurance. Some community health centres also provide free or low-cost healthcare services as part of their mission, making them an excellent place to start.

Foster improved community health and safety.

Health equity is about providing better healthcare for all individuals and ensuring that people in your community feel safe and healthy. There are several ways that you can improve community health and safety. Some of these include prioritising programs that help people with food insecurity and mental health issues and enhancing educational opportunities for underserved populations.

Improve data collection and maintenance.

Making healthcare more accessible, however, is only helpful if it leads to better health outcomes. To do this, you will need to improve data collection and maintenance. Having good data about your community’s health is incredibly useful. It can help guide behavioural change and give communities a better understanding of their health problems. It can also help researchers understand how to improve healthcare in the future. You can do this by starting an open health data collection program. Available data allows you to collect health data from a variety of sources. This can include data from government programs and healthcare providers.

Research to develop new strategies and practices.

You must research to ensure your community has access to high-quality healthcare. You can do this through community-based research projects or partnering with universities or other research institutions. You can develop new strategies and practices to improve healthcare through this research. These could include screenings for diseases like heart disease or diabetes or methods for finding high-quality healthcare.

Conclusion

Health equity is a critical issue because nearly one-third of the U.S. population is uninsured, and two-thirds are underinsured. Getting involved in your community is essential to ensure everyone has basic health coverage, regardless of income or race. Suppose you want to make health equity a reality in your community. In that case, you need to reach out to the people who need help, offer free or low-cost healthcare, foster improved community health and safety, improve data collection and maintenance, conduct research to develop new strategies and practices, and much more. The good news is that achieving health equity is easier than you think.