Group items tagged

Below are resources to help educators and students explore health equity and deepen understanding of series concepts. These lesson plans, syllabi, facilitation guides and online courses draw the UNNATURAL CAUSES series, this Web site, and carefully selected resources.

Improving the Health of Canadians: Exploring Positive Mental Health brings together available information and data analyses that look at one way of defining positive mental health, how we currently measure it, its role in health, the factors associated with high levels of positive mental health and what strategies are, or may be, effective at promoting mental health at a population level.

Many of the recommendations in Fair society, healthy lives have been made in previous reports on health inequalities. I was part of the Marmot review team for a few months and we made a conscious decision not to make a long list of recommendations addressing every single aspect of health inequalities. Instead what the report seeks to do differently is to present health inequalities as a question of fairness and encourage all parts of society to play their part. Health inequalities are traditionally regarded as a problem for the NHS but as this report argues (reflecting the 1998 Acheson report) the NHS is but one player in this task. Tackling health inequalities means addressing the social determinants of health - those factors that shape health and wellbeing such as social environments, the housing and neighbourhoods where people live, education, income, standard of living, occupation and working conditions. Clearly the NHS cannot tackle these issues alone, central and local government departments, the third and private sectors as well as individuals themselves have a role to play. The report makes six wide-ranging recommendations. The primary recommendation is to give every child the best start in life. This means supporting Sure Start programmes, maternity services and parenting programmes so they can better deliver their services to those most in need. A great deal of evidence demonstrates that these programmes lead to long-term improvements in health and education outcomes - cutting these programmes would reverse the progress made in the last 10-15 years. Another recommendation is to create and develop healthy and sustainable places and communities. Those working in planning, transport, housing or environment departments need to work with their colleagues in public health to plan and develop joint strategies and outcomes. The quality of parks, the number of take-aways in an area, road safety - all of these decisions influence how we live our lives and

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION LAUNCHES NEW COURSE ON SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH The course consists of an online tutorial with four learning units that making connections between health, and equity, social justice and human rights. It is intended to provide insight on the social determinants of health in order to encourage changes in policy that promote and protect the health of a population. The course is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese, and is targeted to WHO staff members and other health ministry officials but is free to access and fully available to the public.

Far more attention needed indeed!