Urban Public Health

Urban Public Health
Author: Gina S. Lovasi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2020-09-10
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0190885319

Today, we know cities as shared spaces with the potential to both threaten and promote human health: while urban areas are known to amplify the transmission of epidemics like Ebola, urban residency is also associated with longer, healthier lives. Modern cities encompass a wide ecology of infrastructures, institutions and services that impact health, from access to improved sanitation and early childhood education to the design of buildings and transportation systems. So how has this centuries-long transformation in human settlement affected the mindset surrounding public health research and practice? Urban Public Health is an interdisciplinary collaboration from experts across the globe that approaches the issue of urban health research from a uniquely public health orientation. The carefully crafted and thoughtful chapters in this volume grapple with the complexity of the urban setting as a physical and social space while also providing an abundance of global and local examples of current urban health practices. Urban Public Health is divided into four pragmatic sections which cover core conceptual models of public health and their inequities, methods of urban health research assessment, methods of urban health research analysis and explanation, and ultimately, opportunities for urban health research to inform action through partnership and collaboration, including those which elevate community voices and capacities. An accessible guide for both students and researchers alike, Urban Public Health shines a light on how to understand, measure and change the urban setting so that cities grow, people thrive, and no one is left behind.

Source Materials for Healthy Communities Toolkit

Source Materials for Healthy Communities Toolkit
Author: Joie D. Acosta
Publisher:
Total Pages: 57
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

Community and faith-based organizations (CFBOs) play a critical role in promoting health and improving access to healthcare across the nation. In 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was enacted, in part, to expand access to preventive care. Several of the law's titles offer new opportunities for CFBOs to expand their community health workforce, to access funding for preventive services and programs promoting healthy lifestyles and overall physical and mental health, and to strengthen partnerships with state/local governments and other actors in the health system, such as hospitals and health clinics. This brief report provides content for a toolkit that will summarize the provisions of the Affordable Care Act for a CFBO audience, with particular attention to ways the Act will improve care for underserved or hard to reach populations.

Communities in Action

Communities in Action
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 583
Release: 2017-04-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309452961

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Building Healthy Places Toolkit

Building Healthy Places Toolkit
Author: Urban Land Institute
Publisher:
Total Pages: 98
Release: 2015
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:

"This project was made possible through the generous financial support of the Colorado Health Foundation. Additional support for the ULI Building Healthy Places Initiative has been provided by the estate of Melvin Simon."