Saying it out loud: explicit equity prompts for public health organization resilience

Frontiers in Public Health

Public Health

Claire Betker¹  Margaret Haworth-Brockman²  Yoav Keynan³ 

[1] National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, Canada;National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada;Department of Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada;National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada;Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada;

关键词: health equity;    emergency preparedness;    public health;    resilience;    intervention;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2023.1110300

 received in 2022-11-28, accepted in 2023-04-28,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionIn the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic there were numerous stories of health equity work being put “on hold” as public health staff were deployed to the many urgent tasks of responding to the emergency. Losing track of health equity work is not new and relates in part to the need to transfer tacit knowledge to explicit articulation of an organization’s commitment to health equity, by encoding the commitment and making it visible and sustainable in policy documents, protocols and processes.MethodsWe adopted a Theory of Change framework to develop training for public health personnel to articulate where and how health equity is or can be embedded in their emergency preparedness processes and documents.ResultsOver four sessions, participants reviewed how well their understanding of disadvantaged populations were represented in emergency preparedness, response and mitigation protocols. Using equity prompts, participants developed a heat map depicting where more work was needed to explicitly involve community partners in a sustained manner. Participants were challenged at times by questions of scope and authority, but it became clear that the explicit health equity prompts facilitated conversations that moved beyond the idea of health equity to something that could be codified and later measured. Over four sessions, participants reviewed how well their understanding of disadvantaged populations were represented in emergency preparedness, response and mitigation protocols. Using equity prompts, participants developed a heat map depicting where more work was needed to explicitly involve community partners in a sustained manner. Participants were challenged at times by questions of scope and authority, but it became clear that the explicit health equity prompts facilitated conversations that moved beyond the idea of health equity to something that could be codified and later measured.DiscussionUsing the indicators and prompts enabled the leadership and staff to articulate what they do and do not know about their community partners, including how to sustain their involvement, and where there was need for action. Saying out loud where there is – and is not – sustained commitment to achieving health equity can help public health organizations move from theory to true preparedness and resilience.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Haworth-Brockman, Betker and Keynan.