Your Health: The role of health equity in our community

Health Equity means ensuring that every person has the opportunity to achieve their best health. There are many social and environmental factors that can limit access to good health practices and healthcare. The public health community refers to those factors as health inequities. When considering the big picture of how to achieve health equity, all sectors of public health must value all people equally and address barriers that community members are facing. City-County Health District works with our community and other partners across many sectors to address the factors that influence health. Those factors include employment, housing, education, health care, public safety, and food access.

In the United States, almost 1.5 million individuals experience homelessness in the United States. Another 3.6 million people cannot access medical care due to lack of transportation. Almost 40 million people face hunger while 11.8% of households in the United States are considered food insecure.

At City-County Health District, we participate in and lead many health initiatives in the community to improve health equity. Some of the programs provided include substance abuse prevention and harm reduction, ROPES Recovery Housing, Certified Home Health Care, WIC, Health Tracks, and in-office services for a variety of clients with various needs. As of recently, CCHD has been improving overall health and wellness in our community by assisting the public with resource navigation and advocating for those who are in need. We have assisted numerous clients in our community by addressing homelessness, access to health services, addressing food insecurities, access to health insurance, and increased social and community support.

If you are wondering how you can help make an impact, community members can encourage and strengthen health equity in a few ways. The biggest way involves encouraging and fostering ideas, planning and implementation. When issues are identified and addressed by the people affected by them or by others concerned, two things happen. First, the issues are more likely to be resolved successfully. Second, the people involved learn how to use their own resources to take charge of their lives.

Alexis Elton serves as the Health Equity Coordinator for City-County Health District.

Your Health is coordinated by City County Health District.