Social and Community Context

00:06 And the fifth one is Social and Community Context.

00:10 That's interpersonal interactions that can significantly impact health.

00:16 So if I'm just staying in my bubble, because my environment or my neighborhood is quite unsafe in terms of violence, that affects me in so many ways, when I'm not interacting with people outside of my immediate space.

00:30 We think about mental health and when we think about the psyche, and how human interaction is so important in terms of us being able to thrive and fully exist, that's important.

00:42 So, how do we get groups to give? Support groups, not even just for talking, sometimes just having game days game nights.

00:54 Again, that's simple.

00:56 That's something so simple that we as healthcare providers can implement in a neighborhood if we go there, and do an assessment and see that that's an issue.

01:05 How do we beef up security in those issues? How do we redirect people's energy away from the violence and show people there is a different way.

01:14 We can only do that if we're invested as human beings in the well being of all other human beings.

01:21 So some of the impact factors for their social and community context is unsafe neighborhoods and housing.

01:29 So we talked about that.

01:31 As a home health nurse, I've seen all of that.

01:35 Horrible. I've seen people live in very deplorable conditions, and it always pained me to walk in and have to walk out feeling like I haven't done anything.

01:45 Yes, medically, I may have.

01:47 But what did I do in order to change the holes in the floor where I can see the ground, the fact that there's no running water, the fact that there are broken windows, where people stuffed up pillows from a sofa into the window.

02:01 The fact that people have pets, and there's feces in every corner of the house.

02:06 just lots of different things.

02:08 And I was very young when I did that and wasn't thinking from a comprehensive space.

02:13 But now that I know better, I want to do better and empower you to think about those things.

02:18 What I should have done, had I known better is taken that what I saw and did something about it.

02:24 How could I be a liaison with other people and find resources to get people out of those situations.

02:31 And in some contexts we did when it was severe.

02:36 Going into a house with there is one bedroom and there are like 10 people sleeping on the floor.

02:41 And then in the bedroom, there might be six more people.

02:44 I'm not exaggerating when I have to walk over people to get to the patient in the house.

02:49 Going into places where I can't put my stuff down, because there are roaches everywhere.

02:54 So when we think about safety as so many different things.

02:57 People who don't have electricity in a home.

03:00 It is our responsibility to do something about that.

03:03 And there, again, is so much funding out there in terms of the federal government that we can do something about, we can lobby for.

03:13 Again, there was little to no change over the last several years and some issues in this context have gotten a lot worse.

03:21 So the goal for this one is to increase social and community support.

03:26 People who live in those environments don't really have the ability to think outside of their immediate needs from day to day, sometimes from minute to minute.

03:36 So we can expect that people should make their situations better.

03:39 It's up to us, again, I keep throwing the word around as humanitarians to think beyond our own privilege.

03:47 And think about how we can use our privilege to help other people to do better.

03:53 Because it's a service again, remember that we are one people. We're creating this together.

03:58 Whether we do it consciously or not, we are still creating it together.

04:03 And we have to focus on that every time we interact with the patient, especially those who we may think of as less than assessments in terms of when I go into a neighborhood, if it's a neighborhood or a school, if it's someone accessing care through a clinic, the hospital.

04:21 How can I be an influencer of positive relationships for people at home, in their work environments, in the community.

04:30 And that can help to reduce some of the negative impacts overall.

04:35 But small little things that we may take for granted because it doesn't affect us directly.

04:41 We need to think about it from a very holistic perspective and put ourselves in someone else's shoes.

04:48 So for some people like children whose parents are in jail and adolescents who are bullied, they often don't get support from loved ones or others.

04:59 And why is that? Because of that loved one or other people in their environment or in the same situation then again, people can only think, as far as, how can I help myself from day to day? How can I survive? So interventions are very critical for improving health and well being, for every single human on the face of this earth.

05:20 And we signed up for this when we signed up to become a health professional.

05:24 So one of the things that you can do moving forward, look at all those determinants of health.

05:30 And how can you see yourself in that position, even if you grew up with a life of privilege.

05:35 And oftentimes, people ignore it, because they don't see themselves in that situation.

05:41 And when I say a life of privilege that's not related to race and ethnicity.

05:46 Many of us have had different types of privileges.

05:50 And those of us who have been exposed to a lot of this stuff may be a little more passionate.

05:54 But the goal is to get everybody passionate, because it is about every single one of us as human beings period, to be able to see ourselves in a position where we are able to impact change and use our privilege for good.

06:08 So think about a broad vision and how you can be a part of the change in terms of an advancing the Healthy People 2030 goals.

06:17 And so that when we look at it in 2030, we don't see that there was minimal to no change.

06:23 We see that some real changes have happened.

06:26 And whether you're in the student role, I always remind students that you're still a nurse, student-nurse, or if you're in a medical program, you're still a part of that.

06:37 You have to start seeing yourself as a physician, a nurse, a PA, whatever it is that you're doing in terms of healthcare, it starts now.

06:45 And you start to think about how you can impact that not only in your student role, but how can you impact that when beyond? And continue to do that as long as you're employed or retired, as a nurse or physician, but as the humanitarian first How can you continue to be a part of the change?