On Thursday, October 24th from 12:00-1:00 PM, the Office of Common Ground and the Boatwright Memorial Library presented Dr. Camilla Nonterah of the Department of Psychology. Her program covered how the social, economic and physical environment in which one lives influences his or her overall health and well-being. Dr. Nonterah introduced the concept that humans conceptualize health differently– health is typically seen as a byproduct of things that one is not doing right such as exercising, eating well, or other habits. However, factors such as income, class, education, social support, genetics, access to health services, sex, and gender identity. Dr. Nonterah explained the concept of social determinants of health, which are nonmedical factors associated with overall health. Examples of the social determinants of health include living in a food desert, living in an area affected by violence (walkability), racial discrimination, and the stresses associated with living in severe poverty. Social determinants of health can result in health disparities, which are differences that are preventable such as disease, injury, violence, and access to optimal health.
Dr. Nonterah’s discussion related to leadership and the humanities through her connection of health disparities to public health policy as well as the connections to intersectionality, implicit biases, and race issues. In order to reduce health disparities, local, state, and federal political bodies must act to close the gaps in overall health. In class, we discussed how implicit biases against disadvantaged groups occur all the time without us realizing; this may seem harmless in conversation, but in the scope of healthcare, implicit bias is extremely detrimental. For example, Latinx and black patients were found to not be treated for health conditions due to implicit bias; Asian Americans were not being screened thoroughly for cancer symptoms, resulting in cancer advancing and becoming fatal. We see the history of redlining and discriminatory housing policies putting minorities in the most unsafe, inaccessible, lowest-funded areas and therefore diminishing their access to good health.
Anna Marston
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