Education, Learning, and Getting Involved with Health Equity

Department of Family Medicine and Community Health

• JEDI Learning Collaborative
• JEDI listserv
• Past JEDI Grand Rounds

National organizations

• Association of Departments of Family Medicine (ADFM)
• Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM)

• Value all populations and individuals equally
• Recognize and rectify historical injustices
• Provide resources according to need

Most of the effects of structural oppression work without bias because they manifest as inaction in the face of need.

Trauma-Informed Care

Trauma-informed care is a comprehensive approach that actively shifts the perspective from “What is wrong with you?” to “ What happened to you?,” according to Trauma-Informed Care's website.

Trauma-informed care seeks to accomplish the following:

• Realize the widespread impact of trauma and understand paths for recovery;
• Recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma in patients, families, and staff;
• Integrate knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and
• Actively avoid re-traumatization.

Sources:

• Lessons from Decolonial and Liberation Psychologies for the Field of Trauma Psychology
• What is Trauma-Informed Care?
• SAMHSA's Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach
• Key Ingredients for Successful Trauma-Informed Care Implementation

Cultural Humility and Cultural Safety

Cultural humility is an essential practice in moving toward health equity, and you can read more about the definition and framework by Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-Garcia's Cultural humility versus cultural competence.

Cultural safety is a concept with many of the same principles as cultural humility, but it takes accountability and a historical understanding of power one step further. Cultural safety originates from the work done by the Māori community and health practitioners in New Zealand. Read more about cultural safety:

• Why is cultural safety essential in health care?
• Why cultural safety rather than cultural competency is required to achieve health equity: A literature review and recommended definition

Community Engagement and Relations

• In the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, we are working to create equity-empowered systems and relationships with communities, utilizing cultural humility and power-sharing. Read more from NICHQ about the differences between savior-designed and equity-empowered systems: NICHQ Savior-designed vs. Equity-empowered Systems.
• Each clinic has a patient-advisory council and unique relationships with community organizations based on their specific location and community needs.
• For more information on the work being done in the department around community engagement, please visit our department’s Community Health and Engagement webpage. 

Structural Competency

Structural competency is a "new medicine for the inequalities that are making us sick." This framework acknowledges and works to address structures, systems, and stigmas that contribute to health inequities, determinants, and biases, "with the ultimate aim of developing new platforms, practices, and agendas that address health issues in the present day."

Source: "Structural Competency Meets Structural Racism: Race, Politics, and the Structure of Medical Knowledge" by Jonathan M. Metzl and Dorothy E. Roberts, AMA Journal of Ethics (September 2014).