Throughout my career, I have been an advocate for women’s mental health and wellness. While exploring what true wellness looks like, I have found it starts with access to consistent, high-quality healthcare and mental health resources.
With this exploration, I have also found that there are many barriers within our healthcare system that make it challenging or even impossible to achieve the appropriate level of care, especially for marginalized or underserved populations.
Data shows that Black, Hispanic, and AIAN people experience higher levels of health disparities than White people in the United States. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen these disparities widen for people of color, leading to even greater negative health outcomes for this population. Higher levels of uninsured people, a lack of mental health services, higher rates of pregnancy-related mortality, and food insecurity all affect people of color at a higher rate, leading me to further research why these outcomes have come to be.
In this post, let’s uncover what exactly health equity is and how we can begin to use modern tools and technology to close the gap and provide access to better health and wellness opportunities for everyone.
What Is Health Equity?
Health equity is when everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health. In order to achieve health equity, we must remove barriers, such as poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to quality healthcare. For women, this means addressing gender-specific disparities and barriers affecting their mental health.
Why Is Health Equity Important?
Achieving health equity is essential for ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to attain optimal health. By dismantling barriers to healthcare access, we can create a more inclusive and equitable healthcare system that serves all individuals, regardless of their background or circumstances.
Women, especially those from marginalized communities, often face significant obstacles in accessing mental health services, compounded by societal stigma and gender stereotypes that discourage seeking help. Social determinants such as domestic violence, caregiving responsibilities, and workplace inequality profoundly impact women’s mental and physical health.
How Can We Improve Health Equity?
Promoting health equity requires improving the availability, affordability, and cultural appropriateness of mental health services, reducing stigma and creating supportive environments. Additionally, addressing intersectional factors, including race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and sexual orientation, is crucial for achieving mental health equity for all women. By focusing on these areas, we can work toward a future where all women have the opportunity to achieve optimal mental health and well-being.
Here are a few ideas we might consider implementing into our healthcare system to improve health equity outcomes for everyone:
Proactive Investments in Public Health Infrastructure
Oftentimes, our healthcare system takes a reactive approach to investing in disease prevention. Our system tends to allocate the majority of resources to major public health emergencies, such as COVID-19 and H1N1. While this spending is important, we need to also focus spending on long-term system building and innovations, with spending specifically allocated to mental health resources to address this growing crisis in America.
Trust Building in Community Institutions
Since many marginalized communities have historically experienced abuse from the healthcare system (as we have seen with compulsory sterilization for women of color and the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment), many people in these communities have a sense of distrust for our current system, and rightfully so.
In order to promote health equity, we need to rebuild trust in our healthcare institutions so that these communities feel safe seeking out quality care. The Brookings Institution suggests that healthcare institutions start by partnering with organizations within the communities to build this trust and share public health messages. Examples might include churches, libraries, or any other third spaces where these populations may gather.
Access to Affordable Housing
Stabile housing is a key determinant to a person’s well-being. Think about it, if you were struggling to afford a place to live, you would likely experience high levels of stress and anxiety which can lead to a staggering amount of mental and physical health issues. Studies have also found housing insecurity can cause people to age faster, even experiencing higher levels of memory loss and serious falls.
With 80% of those facing eviction being people of color, it’s clear that we need to seriously address the disparities in housing across the United States. By championing affordable housing initiatives, we can ensure people have a safe place to thrive and be active members of society.
How Can Technology Improve Health Equity?
Technology is a powerful tool that can revolutionize how we approach mental health and promote health equity. Telemedicine, artificial intelligence (AI), mobile apps, and wearable devices are just a few examples of how technology is being harnessed to improve access to mental health care, particularly for underserved communities. These innovations have the potential to provide personalized, culturally sensitive support and resources, breaking down geographical and financial barriers to care.
By leveraging my expertise in these areas, I am committed to connecting with women across the country to spark conversations about healing, recharging, and thriving together. Through open dialogue and innovative solutions, we can harness the transformative power of technology to advance mental health and promote health equity for all.
Want to continue this conversation on health equity? Let’s get connected here.