Special Edition: Leading Change in Health Equity

11/19/18 • 37 min

Minnesota is one of the healthiest states in the U.S., yet we have some of the worst health disparities.

The factors that play the greatest role in these health disparities — race, income and ZIP code — require community-led changes and solutions. It’s changes at this level, through workplaces and policies, along with communitywide change, that will lead to long term, sustained health improvement.

In this special edition of the State We’re In podcast, Anika Ward, Director of the Center for Prevention, has a conversation with her brother, Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, about his leadership in Saint Paul, and the City’s role in the health of its residents. They talk about bringing all voices to the table, especially those who have been excluded, to undo the policies and systems that have created the gaps we see in health, wealth, and education, and what it will take to create healthy and strong communities for generations to come.

The conversation continues with health advocates throughout Minnesota who talk about their different approaches to this work.

Minnesota is one of the healthiest states in the U.S., yet we have some of the worst health disparities.

The conversation continues with health advocates throughout Minnesota who talk about their different approaches to this work.

Previous Episode

Trauma and Repair

In this episode we’re focusing on Trauma and Repair: how trauma threatens health and wellbeing for individuals and communities. It’s an important issue for us at the Center for Prevention, as it feeds into the health disparities we see in Minnesota. It’s not an exaggeration to say that unaddressed trauma generates lifelong consequences that can end in early death.

We’ll talk with people in Minnesota who are working in their communities to address and prevent trauma, along with rebuilding and healing from trauma, as we consider what it means to be trauma-informed when addressing the health equity in our state.

Understanding the current and historical context in which we all live is a key component to advancing health equity, especially as it relates to historical and collective trauma inflicted on African Americans and indigenous communities. The adverse effects of past violence carried down from generation to generation is known as historical trauma. Collective Trauma happens to large groups of individuals and can be transmitted through generations and across communities.

Collective and historical trauma affects people in countless ways: manifesting in the lack of access to housing, safe spaces and healthy food; community violence; people coping through addictive behaviors like smoking or drug use; and the resulting chronic health conditions that many families and communities face. Addressing root causes means knowing that both racism and oppression are embedded in American culture, and realizing how this, along with massive historical traumas, continue to shape the lives of individual children, families, and communities.

Through the conversations in this episode, we hope to support learning, growth, and understanding of historical and collective trauma, racial justice and how to foster community healing. We had the chance to sit down and talk with a few dedicated individuals who work for this change every day. It’s not quick or easy, and it requires coming together with openness and persistence to shine a light on these issues to create the opportunities for better health for all of us.

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Changing the Narrative

Stories surround all of us, and the way they are told shapes how we make decisions in both conscious and unconscious ways. What influences the stories we see and hear? Whose voices are heard the most and who is being left out?

In this episode we examine these questions through the work of ThreeSixty Journalism, a nonprofit that uses principles of strong writing, reporting and media production to help diverse Minnesota youth tell the stories of their lives and communities.

For the second year in a row, during the summer of 2018, ThreeSixty and the Center for Prevention partnered together to conduct a one-week TV Broadcast Camp for high school students. The theme was health equity, with the goal of inspiring more active participation in creating more equitable, healthier communities. This work illustrates how changing the narrative, who is telling stories and how they are created, is an integral part of this goal.