Population Health in the "deeper conversation"

An event we all might be interested in, a gathering of people we need to tell our values to:

WHAT: "Deepening the Conversation: Equity, Race and Social Justice in Our Region"
WHEN: MARCH 2, 2009: 6:00pm - 7:30pm
WHERE: UW Parrington Hall, Forum
This forum will provide an opportunity for University of Washington students, staff, and faculty to deepen the conversation around race, equity, and social justice issues. As current and future policymakers, leaders, teachers, and advocates, it is important for us to examine our role in addressing problematic social conditions. The Evans School Civic Engagement for the 21st Century Project and the Partnership for Cultural Diversity student interest group are collaborating with the Dean’s Office to host a panel discussion with:

* Ron Sims, King County Executive
* Greg Nickels, City of Seattle Mayor
* Dr. Sheila Edwards-Lange, UW Vice President for Minority Affairs and Vice Provost for Diversity
* Norman B. Rice, former City of Seattle Mayor and current director of the Civic Engagement for the 21st Century Project
(Read full post)

A budget to reduce inequality?

Can it be true? Obama's new budget proposes steps toward reducing inequalities:

NY Times: Obama's Budget Plan Sweeps Away Reagan Ideas. (Feb. 26, 2009).

I suppose time will tell what will truly come from this, but for a moment I want to celebrate the fact that the executive branch is talking about income inequalities in this country. What a change!

Here's a link to the actual document Inheriting a Legacy of Misplaced Priorities, from the FY 2010 President's Budget on the White House's OMB page, which includes the following (music to our ears):

"By 2004, the wealthiest 10 percent of households held 70 percent of total wealth, and the combined net worth of the top 1 percent of families was larger than that of the bottom 90 percent. In fact, the top 1 percent took home more than 22 percent of total national income, up from 10 percent in 1980...And these disparities are felt far beyond one’s bank statement as several studies have found a direct correlation between health outcomes and personal income." [Emphasis Added]
(Read full post)

Hunger and the Weakness of the Social Fabric of America

As the economic crisis intensifies, weaknesses in the social fabric of the United States will be come increasingly apparent. One of these holes appears at the intersection of wealth disparity, employment, racism, physical communities, and food insecurity. An amazing panel discussion hosted by the Center for American Progress entitled “All You Can Eat? How Hungry is America in Good Times versus Recession?” took place on February 6, 2009.


The main thrust of the talk is on food programs, but speakers prodigiously bridge concerns of hypocrisy, stresses, and stigma of social support programs; health impacts of community, housing, and wealth disparities; the insensibility of focusing on downstream issues such as healthy choices and obesity; the importance of early childhood wellness; the cost savings of universalizing means-testing programs; and the true incentives of social equalization programs.

Panelists include Joel Berg, director of the NYC Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH) and author of All You Can Eat? How Hungry is America; Judith Bell, President of PolicyLink who studies disparities of access to food in poor and minority communities; and Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC).

Excerpt from Joel Berg on the admonitions of those who advocate changes in the food preparation habits of poor, overweight Americans:

“I remind them that we’ve lectured low-income people that they should be working, and now only 10% of the people in poverty are on public assistance in America. They are working 2, 3, 4 jobs. They don’t have nannies for their kids. And now we’re saying they should spend 5 hours to cook their beans to be responsible.”

Most importantly, the panelists discuss the real possibility of and propose solutions to eliminate hunger and disparities during this opportune time.

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On an unrelated note, two perspectives on of the Horatio Alger Myth (or, “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”) in the United States:

A Political Science Perspective: The Horatio Alger Myth in the American Political Mind

A Literary Perspective: Gimme A Break! Mark Twain Lampoons the Horatio Alger Myth

(Read full post)

From the Producer of Unnatural Causes

Opinion piece by Larry Adelman in the SF Bay Guardian summarizing the current state (and stakes) of population health in the US pretty succinctly... (Read full post)

view from the retreat

Here are some incredibly energetic and creative minds at work. We are taking baby steps, but they can lead to innovation, incredible change and better health for all. Stephen

(Read full post)

Inaugural Population Health Forum Retreat

On February 15, 2009, 9 members of the Population Health Forum met to energize around action steps toward continuing the mission and goals of the PHF. We heard about the history of the PHF and present day constitution of the group. After sharing our own unique pathways to and interests in understanding population health, we collectively came to concrete understandings of the issues behind the forum’s mission and goals.

As steps toward action, we brainstormed about potential audiences we hope to reach with our messages about population health and started to develop lists of allies we hope to connect with as we move forward in spreading the word about population health disparities. Finally, we outlined digital and non-digital mediums for which we hope utilize as we begin a new phase of outreach and growth for PHF. We will create a blog that can help intra-PHF communication and self-education. We hope that in the near future, the blog and other digital technologies can be employed PHF in unique ways to ‘spread the word’. We also began to develop an outreach plan for community events for awareness and action raising around issues of population health. We will report on our research and action items for new directions at the next PHF meeting, March 3rd, 2009.

Overall, the meeting successfully engaged new members of the forum behind the mission and goals of the organization. We are inspired, excited, hopeful and enthusiastic. We are ready to move forward.

- Tegan Callahan (Read full post)

Welcome to the Population Health Movement!

While we are indebted to the many individual and collective purveyors of health and equality throughout the ages, today we recognize the beginning of a new chapter in the Population Health Movement.

A key component in building the Movement will be to share thoughts and ideas, arguments and apologies, comments and criticisms, articles and studies in an effort to not only build our knowledge and test our ability to reveal the unity of health, equality, and community to the world, but also to use these explorations to attract kindred spirits in a common cause.

This blog will serve as that crucible in which our plowshares will be molded and from whose sparks our allies will be guided. (Read full post)