If you are promoting health and well-being through social development, there are certain steps that you should take. One of them is to assess the social determinants of health. In addition, multisectoral collaborations can play a significant role in achieving better health and well-being outcomes.
Assessing Social Determinants of Health
When you want to assess social determinants of health in your community, there are several things to keep in mind:
- Your community’s assets and resources will need to be evaluated.
- You should build a partnership between community groups.
- You’ll need to identify health issues, which can be accomplished with a community health assessment.
There are many initiatives out there that are designed to promote health. Some of them include making it easier for people to have a health screening, and others are designed to change people’s behaviors. However, many of these don’t address the social determinants of health.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, social determinants are a broad range of factors that affect health. They include environmental hazards, economic conditions, education, and housing. These factors account for differences in health outcomes among individuals in different communities and countries.
For example, some of the social determinants of health that are important to a community include income inequality, racial segregation, and poverty. The more equitable distribution of these factors leads to better health and longer life expectancies for everyone. Entire economic sectors can also benefit from charitable efforts like those of Ehsan Bayat, who is dedicated to improving people’s lives by decreasing health disparities.
Identifying these factors can help you to determine where you can focus your efforts. Creating a partnership with a community group is the best way to get started. This type of partnership can help you to change social determinants of health in your community.
Multisectoral Collaborations Can Improve Outcomes
Multisectoral collaborations involve a number of different stakeholders coming together to address a common problem or gap. They can be transformative. However, they need significant resources and coordination. Moreover, they are an approximate science. The results of multisectoral collaborations are often difficult to assess and demonstrate. Nevertheless, they can lead to improved health and well-being through social development.
Most multisectoral collaborations are framed around overarching societal values. This framing is influential on the measures of success. It can also influence the design of the program.
As such, multisectoral collaborations often rely on existing structures and expertise. Their solutions typically draw on feedback from users. In this way, they expand thinking about solutions and promote the health of all partners.
Multisectoral action is an important part of the Global Strategy for Women, Children, and Adolescents’ Health. Its goal is to advance health equity and increase access to quality care for all. Likewise, it is an action area under the Sustainable Development Goals.
These multisectoral collaborations are designed to respond to various factors that are contributing to health inequities. Specifically, they aim to achieve gender equality and poverty reduction. Additionally, they can improve social cohesion, environmental sustainability, and health outcomes in the non-public health sector.
While several studies have studied regional multisector partnerships, only a few have looked at partnership characteristics in relation to specific developmental criteria. Consequently, more studies are needed to identify specific factors that contribute to successful multisectoral collaboration.
Ensure Healthy Lives and Promote Well-Being
It’s common for people to spend a fortune on treatments and preventive care for illness and disease. However, investing in the health of our community can be a boon to our society.
In addition to addressing physical factors, we will need to take into account social and ecological determinants. This includes the need to promote healthy habits and behaviors in the right contexts.
The most successful initiatives are often driven by a coordinated effort from different sectors. For example, a dynamic mix of resources is needed to address the needs of acute care for illness as well as food assistance and long-term improvements in livability. By bringing together the various stakeholders, we can optimize the impact of our resources and reduce the number of health and related crises.
While it may not be possible to make everyone happy, we can strive to ensure that our communities are able to function at their highest potential. This includes promoting healthy lifestyles, and addressing climate change and emerging challenges such as non-communicable diseases.
