The PHA – an informed, collaborative and strong advocate for public health.

Inequalities and the Social Determinants of Health

National and Regional Action on Inequalities in the Social Determinants of Health

The Next 10 Things to Do to reduce inequities in health in New Zealand: Fact and Action Sheets on Health Inequities.

To make comments and suggestions on the Next 10 Things to Do, please email kate.sloane@otago.ac.nz. 

HealthGAEN – a global alliance for health equity through action on the wider determinants of health inequities – was established to build on the momentum, expertise and partnerships generated through the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH). See http://healthgaen.org/.

International action on Social Determinants of Health

ACTION:SDH is a website from the WHO to provide public health practitioners (and others) with a one-stop portal on the social determinants of health.

The ACTION:SDH website houses knowledge on the social determinants according to the five social determinants of health action areas identified in the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health in October 2011.

It also provides a platform for discussion of action on the social determinants of health. The WHO invites all in the social determinants of health community to register on ACTION:SDH. The WHO is also actively seeking partners interested in collaborating in building up the tool, together with its users (contact: actionsdh@who.int).

The website brings together:

• documents from the WHO's Commission on Social Determinants of Health (Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health equity through action on the social determinants of health – the final report by the World Health Organization's Commission on Social Determinants of Health Closing the gap in a generation),
• subsequent WHO /UN decisions (Reducing health inequities through action on the social determinants of health),
• World Conference on Social Determinants of Health in Rio, October 2011
• Papers, research and action on SDH internationally.

Talking About the Social Determinants of Health

Many of the social and other issues that are challenges in public health are ones we face both in New Zealand and globally that are 'bigger-than-self' problems. 'Bigger-than-self problems' may include those which face people elsewhere – for example, human rights violations in a distant country, fair trade food pricing, issues facing communities at the other end of the country or problems where the 'return' on an individual's personal effort to help address climate change is unlikely to justify our own individual cost in helping to tackle the problem.

Common cause – the case for working with our cultural values is a publication from the UK that gives wise advice on how to talk about the social (and also the physical) determinants of health in ways that can tap into and reinforce deeply held values to produce action for equity and health.

A New Way to Talk About the Social Determinants of Health was specifically developed in the US to provide information on what words, phrases and framing works to help others to understand about what it means to be healthy and what influences health and wellbeing. E.g. "Health starts where we live, learn, work and play."

While these publications have been developed elsewhere, most of the information is highly relevant to us here in Aotearoa.