The health and well-being of a population should be everyone’s responsibility. Education, housing, healthcare, and justice all play a significant role in creating a fair chance for everyone to be healthy. To promote fairness, we need to take a systems approach that is designed to address the aspects of public health issues. For instance, we can align society’s actions to improve health literacy with the factors that affect people’s ability to understand health information. We can also support health and well-being in all policies/laws.
The most important way to improve our nation’s health is by working together and creating a sense of community. We are all responsible for protecting one another and our nation’s health. This means to make sure we are fighting off exclusions and marginalization. Unfortunately, social capital and civic engagement have been declining in the U.S. since the latter half of the 20th century. On the other hand, empowered collaborations that are based on community needs are shown to be effective in increasing social cohesion. This is why everyone should get involved and create a community where everyone feels included.
To achieve health equality, we need to work across different departments and federal programs. Creating innovative programs that address the social determinants of health: healthcare, education, housing, etc. Working together lets people understand how important health is and it’s about your community’s overall wellness.
