Spotlight: Social Determinants of Health – September 15, 2022

Over the last two decades, the public health community has been highlighting how non-medical factors and the environments where people live, learn, and work can play a significant role in a person’s health and overall quality of life. In this episode, Mindy is joined by Vynamic’s Cassandra Zuluaga and special guest, Dr. Charlotte Cuddihy, a UK Public Health doctor, to discuss the critical importance of social determinants of health (SDOH) and how healthcare systems can aim to address these factors. The discussion begins introducing Dr. Charlotte Cuddihy and her interest with SDOH spurring upon seeing the inequalities in healthcare and wider determinants her patients faced in the UK and US (2:00). The conversation then shifts to defining and understanding the overall impacts of SDOH (6:22). The discussion continues on how the COVID-19 pandemic (9:50), the cost-of-living crisis (13:30), and the rise of social justice efforts (17:30) have further magnified the impact SDOH have on people’s well-being and overall health. At the end, Dr. Cuddihy provides examples and opportunities for how healthcare providers (20:35) and systems (24:33) can positively affect health outcomes while considering SDOH.

Podcast Tags: healthcare, healthcare news, social determinants of health, health inequality, COVID-19, social inequalities, health outcomes

Source Links:

· Cost of Living Crisis is Damaging Briton’s Health  

· A fairer future: how can the NHS tackle health and social inequalities? 

· NHS – Our approach to reducing healthcare inequalities 

· Coronavirus and the social impacts of ‘long COVID’ on people’s lives in Great Britain – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

· Rising cost of living is damaging people’s health, says royal college | The BMJ

· Community champions programme: guidance and resources – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

· A Financial Lifeline (glasgowchildrenshospitalcharity.org)

· NHS Long Term Plan » The NHS as an ‘anchor institution’

· Time for local NHS leaders to take a first step in tackling poverty: pay staff the real Living Wage | The King’s Fund (kingsfund.org.uk)

For additional discussion, please contact us at TrendingHealth.com or share a voicemail at 1-888-VYNAMIC.

Mindy McGrath, Healthcare Industry Advisor

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Cassandra Zuluaga, Director

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Dr. Charlotte Cuddihy, Public Health registrar, MFPH, MPH

[email protected]