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Why Are Health Disparities Everyone's Problem?
Health is determined by far more than a person's choices and behaviors. Social and political conditions, economic forces, physical environments, institutional policies, health care system features, social relationships, risk behaviors, and genetic predispositions all contribute to physical and mental well-being. In America and around the world, many of these factors are derived from a lingering history of unequal opportunities and unjust treatment for people of color and other vulnerable communities. But they aren't the only ones who suffer because of these disparities--everyone is impacted by the factors that degrade health for the least advantaged among us.
In Why Are Health Disparities Everyone's Problem? Dr. Lisa Cooper shows how we can work together to eliminate the injustices that plague our health care system and society. The book follows Cooper's journey from her childhood in Liberia, West Africa, to her thirty-year career working first as a clinician and then as a health equity researcher at Johns Hopkins University. Drawing on her experiences, it explores how differences in communication and the quality of relationships affect health outcomes. Through her work as the founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, it details the actions and policies needed to reduce and eliminate the conditions that are harming us all.
Cooper reveals with compelling detail how health disparities are crippling our health care system and society, driving up health care costs, leading to adverse health outcomes and ultimately an enormous burden of human suffering. Why Are Health Disparities Everyone's Problem? demonstrates the ways in which everyone's health is interconnected, both within communities and across the globe. Cooper calls for a new kind of herd immunity, when a sufficiently high proportion of people, across race and social class, become immune to harmful social conditions through "vaccination" with solidarity among groups and opportunities created by institutional and societal practices and policies. By acknowledging and acting upon that interconnectedness, she believes everyone can help to create a healthier world.
Features
- Raises readers' health care inequities literacy through an approachable narrative with specific examples
- Introduces the concept of "herd immunity" as it applies to building communal awareness of systemic injustices
- Features sections that underscore key takeaways
- Includes contributions from the world's leading minds through their research findings and quotations
- Guides readers on what can be done at an individual level as a patient, public health professional, and community member
- Includes inspiring stories of effective health equity studies and practices around the world, from Ghana's ADHINCRA Project addressing hypertension control to Baltimore's BRIDGE Study for depression in African Americans and the Maryland and Pennsylvania-based RICH LIFE Project for hypertension, diabetes, and other medical conditions
Johns Hopkins Wavelengths
In classrooms, field stations, and laboratories in Baltimore and around the world, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professors of Johns Hopkins University are opening the boundaries of our understanding of many of the world's most complex challenges. The Johns Hopkins Wavelengths book series brings readers inside their stories, illustrating how their pioneering discoveries and innovations benefit people in their neighborhoods and across the globe in artificial intelligence, cancer research, food systems' environmental impacts, health equity, science diplomacy, and other critical arenas of study. Through these compelling narratives, their insights will spark conversations from dorm rooms to dining rooms to boardrooms.
In Why Are Health Disparities Everyone's Problem? Dr. Lisa Cooper shows how we can work together to eliminate the injustices that plague our health care system and society. The book follows Cooper's journey from her childhood in Liberia, West Africa, to her thirty-year career working first as a clinician and then as a health equity researcher at Johns Hopkins University. Drawing on her experiences, it explores how differences in communication and the quality of relationships affect health outcomes. Through her work as the founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, it details the actions and policies needed to reduce and eliminate the conditions that are harming us all.
Cooper reveals with compelling detail how health disparities are crippling our health care system and society, driving up health care costs, leading to adverse health outcomes and ultimately an enormous burden of human suffering. Why Are Health Disparities Everyone's Problem? demonstrates the ways in which everyone's health is interconnected, both within communities and across the globe. Cooper calls for a new kind of herd immunity, when a sufficiently high proportion of people, across race and social class, become immune to harmful social conditions through "vaccination" with solidarity among groups and opportunities created by institutional and societal practices and policies. By acknowledging and acting upon that interconnectedness, she believes everyone can help to create a healthier world.
Features
- Raises readers' health care inequities literacy through an approachable narrative with specific examples
- Introduces the concept of "herd immunity" as it applies to building communal awareness of systemic injustices
- Features sections that underscore key takeaways
- Includes contributions from the world's leading minds through their research findings and quotations
- Guides readers on what can be done at an individual level as a patient, public health professional, and community member
- Includes inspiring stories of effective health equity studies and practices around the world, from Ghana's ADHINCRA Project addressing hypertension control to Baltimore's BRIDGE Study for depression in African Americans and the Maryland and Pennsylvania-based RICH LIFE Project for hypertension, diabetes, and other medical conditions
Johns Hopkins Wavelengths
In classrooms, field stations, and laboratories in Baltimore and around the world, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professors of Johns Hopkins University are opening the boundaries of our understanding of many of the world's most complex challenges. The Johns Hopkins Wavelengths book series brings readers inside their stories, illustrating how their pioneering discoveries and innovations benefit people in their neighborhoods and across the globe in artificial intelligence, cancer research, food systems' environmental impacts, health equity, science diplomacy, and other critical arenas of study. Through these compelling narratives, their insights will spark conversations from dorm rooms to dining rooms to boardrooms.
264 pages, Paperback
Published June 29, 2021
3 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 21, 2024
How can we have a discussion on public health policy and race without politics. There was no mention of active efforts to dismantle public health and further inequities that contribute to health by conservative politicians. This was a good read obviously meant to be an intro to the topic rather than a deep dive but ObamaCare being the only actual government policy mentioned was interesting. Considering this book was written in 2020 I would expect more about the at the time current administration and their response to COVID and non health related policies that contribute to maintaining inequity.
June 27, 2024
A great breakdown and analysis of systemic racism, social determinants of health, and disparities in the healthcare world. A little repetitive towards the end, but I highly recommend it if you're learning more about cultural inclusion and competency!
November 23, 2024
Very informative book, and nicely introduces concepts of health inequalities, as well as connecting them to real, community-based solutions. As the book transitions from research into explaining community interactions, you start the see the abstract unravel into the real, lived experience. So, it's necessary to first get a size-up of the abstract.
Cooper's training and life history shines through in this discussion on health inequities, and leaves you with the impression that you, too, can make meaningful contributions towards better health for all.
Cooper's training and life history shines through in this discussion on health inequities, and leaves you with the impression that you, too, can make meaningful contributions towards better health for all.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews