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P4HE aims to keep the public health equity field growing and thriving by sharing a broad range of ideas and perspectives from Collaborative member and experts.
Monthly Featured Topic: Arts as Activism for Health Equity
The arts and health equity: Opportunities for impact
In the US, the field of public health is undergoing a paradigmatic shift—moving from a focus on individual health behaviors to a “social ecological” approach. The latter recognizes that individual experiences and choices related to health are often determined by factors beyond the individual, such as environment, policy, or culture. The recognition of how these social determinants affect our health has led to increased efforts to advance health equity—ensuring that all people have “a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.” Making change at the outer levels of the social ecological model is no small undertaking. It presents an ideal opportunity to establish new arts+health partnerships, bringing greater creativity, innovation, and inclusion to public health’s efforts.
The place of art to address health equity
On World Evidence-Based Healthcare Day 2023, we celebrate the importance of ‘evidence and global health equity’. The aim of this global initiative is to raise awareness of the need for better evidence to inform healthcare policy, practice and decision-making to improve health outcomes globally. Evidence-based healthcare relies strongly on rigorous research and data to guide decisions, and evidence ecosystems are the backbone of equitable health policies, systems and services. In the pursuit of health equity, we must also recognise the valuable role that art can play in the evidence ecosystem. This blog explores the intersection of art, health equity and evidence-based healthcare, highlighting how using art can bridge gaps, foster inclusivity and contribute to the evidence ecosystem.
Visualize health: A community art project
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), a nonprofit research organization in Washington, DC, called on artists of all kinds to illustrate what health equity looks, sounds, and feels like to them. Whether it’s access to healthy food or safe neighborhoods, good education or a living wage, connection to cultural heritage or lack of discrimination, health equity means something different to everyone. By sharing insights directly from people in diverse communities around the United States, the goal of this community art project is to get more people thinking and talking about health equity and the social determinants of health. It is our hope that through a creative lens, we can better understand what people across the country see as the most important health challenges and opportunities facing their communities.
Community Voices
You don’t need a big idea to get started to make a change in the community. I think just going to a community event [or] a listening session - just to hear people talk about their lives and lived experience - that’s where it starts. From there, you identify where you can help.
- Adam C. Alexander, Assistant Professor, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center