In Cultivating a Healthier Policy Landscape: The Building Healthy Communities Initiative, a recent article penned by PI’s Juliet Simms, Rob Baird, Sarah Mittermaier, and Manal J. Aboelata, the authors examine how local public health departments can identify and secure policy and systems changes that will achieve health equity and improve health outcomes across diverse populations.
“To achieve health equity, we must address factors that drive elevated rates of illness and injury—and challenge the decisions, decision makers, policies, and practices that create and perpetuate inequitable conditions. This means addressing power imbalances, social and political hierarchies, and norms and values that perpetuate racism, discrimination, and exclusion.”