Health equity is achieved when everyone has equal opportunity to “attain the full health potential”, regardless of their gender identity, their sexual orientation, the color of their skin, where they were born, their level of education, the religion they practice, the language they speak.
What does it mean for Racialized Communities?
Race is an idea developed by society to create differences among groups of people based on their skin color. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms affirms that “the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law … without discrimination based on race”. However, racism has defined and created most of the inequitable structures that exist in our society. This construct shaped social, political, and economic factors that have put communities at increased risk for negative mental health outcomes and health-related behaviors, as well as chronic and toxic stress or inflammation. Racialized populations are less likely to have health insurance, more likely to face cost-related barriers to getting care, and more likely to incur medical debt. It is also less common for individuals from these racialized groups to have a usual source of care or to regularly receive preventive services, like vaccinations (Check out: Black Scientists’ Task Force on Vaccine Equity).
In addition, racialized communities face discrimination when dealing with clinicians and more often receive lower-value or suboptimal care (also referred to as ‘medical racism’ and ‘unconscious bias’). Stigma and bias keep the healthcare industry from wrapping their arms around healthcare as a well-being issue, like instances of caring for individuals with Sickle Cell Disease (Check out: Sickle Cell Awareness Group of Ontario).
Systemic racism threatens physical health and wellbeing. Health inequities can be seen as biological expressions of race relations. Using an equity lens in health promotion and public health requires a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach and a lot of work.
To advance health equity, we need to adopt critical and anti-racist approaches to understand and transform the public policies. Together we must create a world where social, political and economical status or identifiers are not determinants of our access to care, quality of care or health outcomes.
