Several of our MCH students attended the 2021 American Public Health Association (APHA) conference, October 24-27, in-person or online. What follows is a post from one of the attendees.
By Lily King, BSPH
The American Public Health Association highlighted health equity and social connectedness during its 2021 conference. As a first-time attendee, I had the opportunity to virtually attend numerous engaging sessions that aligned with my professional and research interests. I was most intrigued by the session presented by the de Beaumont Foundation, APHA, and the National Collaborative for Health Equity titled Healing Through Policy: Creating Pathways to Racial Justice. Although the speakers did not specifically mention maternal and child health, the framework seemed to align well with the need for structural changes and racial justice within MCH.
Local leaders and health departments across the United States are identifying racism as a public health crisis. The Healing Through Policy Initiative uses the Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation framework (TRHT) in order to curate policies and practices that work to advance racial equity at the local level. The TRHT framework is based on five guiding principles: narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, law, and economy. Narrative change focuses on the communication between communities about past and present experiences and ideas for future change. Racial healing and relationship building emphasizes the need to create strong relationships between communities of different races and ethnicities in order to build trust. Separation refers to the social, as well as physical, division of individuals and communities based on a single trait, such as race or socioeconomic status, that results in the continuation of racial and health inequities. Law outlines the ways in which our legal system perpetuates white supremacy and denies all non-white community members the humanity they should be entitled to. Lastly, the economy examines the manner in which our current financial institutions and systems reward white individuals at the expense of people of color who are oppressed by the same systems. Policies curated by Healing Through Policy and informed by TRHT are disseminated to local leaders in order to provide them with the tools to advance racial and health equity within their communities.
I believe this initiative could be extremely beneficial for leaders in the maternal and child health field. Racism clearly contributes to disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes within the United States. Maternal mortality is increasing in the United States, and in Louisiana, Black mothers are 5.6 times more likely to experience pregnancy-related death compared to white mothers. This is not a problem that can be addressed using individual- or interpersonal-level interventions. In order to address racial inequities in maternal and infant health, policy initiatives at the local and national levels are imperative.
Lily King, BSPH, BA, is a first-year MPH student concentrating in Maternal and Child Health. She plans to graduate in May 2023. Her research interests include maternal health, structural determinants of health, and health disparities. In her free time, Lily enjoys biking in City Park, reading on the bayou, and playing ultimate frisbee.
