What does health inequalities mean in the context of AHP practice?

Health inequalities is something we talk about, we know it is important, and we know something needs to be done to improve it.

So, who is responsible?

• Is it national and local government?
• Is it directors of public health?
• Is it charities?
• Is it the education system?
• Is it NHS leaders?
• Is it frontline health and care professionals?

The answer is all of the above and more; yet it is all too easy to view health inequalities as something we support, and others should ‘sort out’.

This is because it is difficult to determine what we as individual health and care professionals can do to improve health inequalities.We seem like a small cog in a big system. However, in any complex system, all the cogs need to move to achieve change. So, what can we do as health and care professionals?

We want to start that conversation amongst Allied HealthProfessionals in this tweet chat. I hope you can join us for a conversation with no right or wrong answers. We want to explore:

• what health inequalities means in the context of your practice;
• what opportunities there might be for you/us to make a difference and;
• what needs to happen to make that possible.

Before the chat here is a summary of what we mean by health inequalities

Health inequalities are the preventable differences in health status between groups, populations or individuals that arise from the unequal distribution of social, environmental and economic conditions within societies, which determine the risk of people getting ill, their ability to prevent sickness, or opportunities to act and access treatment when ill health occurs.

There are several dimensions of health inequalities

It is important to note that people often fall into various combinations of these categories.

In England today, those in the least deprived areas of the country live around 20 years longer in good health than those in the most deprived areas. This is just one example of the stark differences in health outcomes that exist between different groups and communities in our society.

Health inequalities arise because of the conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work and age, which influence our opportunities for good health and how we think, feel and act. This then shapes our mental health, physical health and wellbeing. This report and short video from the health foundation provide an excellent overview of the social determinants of health

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only brought existing health inequalities into sharp focus, but in some cases, has increased them, through its disproportionate impact on certain population groups. This was clearly demonstrated in PHE’s recent COVID-19review of disparities in risks and outcomes.

I hope you can join us as we discuss how this applies in the context of AHP practice.

Questions:

Q1: What does health inequalities mean to you?

Q2a: What is the role of AHPs in helping to tackle health inequalities?

Q2b: Think about Q2 in relation to your work with patients as well as what can AHPs do through advocating (as individuals or through our networks and organisations, leadership roles or education & training commitments)

Q3: Do you know of any examples where AHPs have played an important role in addressing health inequalities?

Q4: What things help to make it easier for AHPs to address health inequalities?

Q5: What makes it harder for AHPs to address health inequalities?

Q6: If a framework was developed to help AHPs to better understand their role in tackling health inequalities what do you think are important things to include in it?