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The Collective for Health Equity and Well-Being

Cooperative Extension’s Collective for Health Equity and Well-Being is a community of Extension personnel and their partners united by their shared commitment to advancing health equity and well-being. Members work together to support the implementation of Cooperative Extension’s National Framework for Health Equity and Well-Being (2021) to ensure that all people can be as healthy as they can be.

Social Determinants of Health: What’s Happenin’ on the Hill?

 

I recently attended a Congressional Briefing on the Social Determinants of Health to learn more about what is happening at the national level regarding the social determinants (for a refresher course on the social determinants, see my last blog post here – federal policies are a big part of this equation). So, what’s happenin’? Turns out, quite a bit! And the future is expected to be bright as the 117th Congress begins next month.

One of the biggest bills to watch out for is the ‘Social Determinants Accelerator Act’. You can see the bill here, but the gist is that the bill will provide grants and technical assistance to various entities in order to “improve the health and well-being of those participating in Medicaid”. An audience that Cooperative Extension reaches? Yes. An audience that we need to reach more often? You betcha.

This bill, and others, are expected to be re-introduced to the 117th Congress and many members of the House and Senate who support this bill expect that something will be passed by the end of the 117th’s term. There is “strong bipartisan support” and many national organizations have signed on to support the effort.

Some other main takeaways:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic has helped shine a very bright light on the social determinants of health; “many elected officials are now taking notice of how the social determinants have disproportionately affected their constituents” during this pandemic. Silver lining perhaps?
  • According to the presenters, the Biden-Harris administration has “a focus on health equity”; stay tuned as the administration transitions.
  • Some of the major topic areas that were identified as foci were: transportation, housing, poverty, environmental justice, food insecurity and access, maternal mortality, access to affordable higher education, and access to quality, affordable health care – all with an emphasis on underserved audiences, particularly minorities, people of color, and Tribal Nations.

Last but not least…you’ll want to read this one:

  • There is “an appetite to have conversations at the federal level” on the social determinants and the main driving factors is…"money – particularly return on investment and savings that proposed legislation will provide”. Only one out of the five staffers (though they all didn’t respond to this question) identified health outcomes as the main driver. Ouch.

So, there’s what’s happenin’. I’m looking forward to seeing what bills will be introduced and how they will positively influence the social determinants.  

TL;DR: The social determinants of health are gaining the attention on the hill, there is bipartisan support, and there is strong hope that the 117th Congress and the Biden-Harris administration will make progress – particularly regarding health equity. The main driving factor…money (return on investment and savings).  

What are your reactions? What strikes you? Where do you see Cooperative Extension fitting into these efforts if they are passed? What else can we be doing to address the social determinants? Post your thoughts in the chat!

[Photo by Caleb Perez on Unsplash]

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I taught a course titled Integrating Public Health and Clinical Systems. There is of course no standard text book for such a topic, but I found a great compendium of essays from the deBeaumont Foundation  called the Practical Playbook for Integrating Public Health and Primary Care. The social determinants of health are at the heart of connecting the two sectors. The second edition of this book talks about developing multisector partnerships.

https://www.debeaumont.org/pro.../practical-playbook/

This is encouraging, thank you for sharing.  I work in transportation education at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Tompkins County, New York.  Sometimes people know what they need to do to improve their health, but they have no reasonable way to get to their doctor's appointments, or to physical therapy, or even to the pharmacy. 

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The Extension Foundation was formed in 2006 by Extension Directors and Administrators. Today, the Foundation partners with Cooperative Extension through liaison roles and a formal plan of work with the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) to increase system capacity while providing programmatic services, and helping Extension programs scale and investigate new methods and models for implementing programs. The Foundation provides professional development to Cooperative Extension professionals and offers exclusive services to its members. In 2020 and 2021, the Extension Foundation has awarded 85% of its direct funding back to the Cooperative Extension System, 100% of funds are used to support Cooperative Extension initiatives. 

This technology is supported in part by New Technologies for Ag Extension (funding opportunity no. USDA-NIFA-OP-010186), grant no. 2023-41595-41325 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Extension Foundation. For more information, please visit extension.org. You can view the terms of useat extension.org/terms.

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