May 24, 2022
The Community Health Corner
Submitted by Stephanie Gutierrez
Community health uses science-based approaches for the greatest health benefit to the greatest number of people by addressing the social, economic and structural drivers that impact everyone’s health.
The National Extension Framework for Health Equity and Well-being recommends using community development practices to ensure that every person has the opportunity to "attain his or her full health potential," and no one is "disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances." The following tools and resources can be used to improve health equity and well-being working with communities to achieve the nation’s Healthy People 2030 objectives.
READ NOW: The Brooking Institute released a new report about the importance of "building connective tissue" between the health and housing sectors to better address the social determinants of health. The report identifies ending homelessness, helping older adults age in place, and improving health in under-resourced communities as potential areas of collaboration.
USE NOW: Caregivers care for someone with an illness, injury or disability. Caregiving can be rewarding, but it can also be challenging. Stress from caregiving is common. Women especially are at risk for the harmful health effects of caregiver stress. These health problems may include depression or anxiety. Visit https://www.womenshealth.gov/a-z-topics/caregiver-stress to learn more about caregiving stress signs and symptoms, how it affects health and tools to prevent and relieve it.
EXPLORE NOW: A major part of a person’s ability to maintain a healthy diet is being able to access and afford quality, nutritious food. This access requires that all communities have local grocery providers, like supermarkets. In addition to physical proximity, stores need to be accessible via driving, walking, biking and public transportation. Explore the Trust for America’s Health’s (TFAH) report - Public Transit Access to Full-Service Grocery Stores Will Help Address Country’s Obesity Crisis to learn more about how social determinants of health like access to transportation and healthy food affect overall health and well-being.
For more information, contact Elaine Johannes, ejohanne@ksu.edu; and Stephanie Gutierrez, smgutier@k-state.edu.