Social Determinants of Health Program
Program goal
The Goal of the Social Determinants of Health Program is to “Develop a detailed understanding of the social determinants of Aboriginal health and of the interventions that are effective in improving health status through action on social determinants”.
Program overview
Social determinants of health are the economic, physical and social conditions that influence the health of individuals, communities and jurisdictions as a whole. They include housing, education, social networks and connections, physical infrastructure, connection with land, racism, employment, and law enforcement and the legal and custodial system.
More information can be found about the program in the Program statement and the Social Determinants of Health Brochure.
Research priorities
A workshop (workshop report) in July 2004 and an industry roundtable in June 2006 have contributed to the development of this Program. At the roundtable, group discussions explored potential partnerships and/or activities in areas including:
- building awareness of the social determinants of Aboriginal health;
- racism and the impact on health outcomes;
- housing and the physical environment;
- education, employment and childhood.
It was also identified that further discussion was needed in three areas not sufficiently represented at the roundtable:
- education;
- law and justice;
- culture and land.
Program Team
Program Manager: Scott Davis
Program Leaders: Fran Baum, Michael Bentley, Colleen Hayward
Program Activities
The Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) - International Symposium on Indigenous Health – 29-30 April 2007, Adelaide. This international symposium was hosted by the CRCAH as one of the main activities of the Social determinants of Health Program for 2007.
The papers presented at the Social Determinants of Health Workshop in July 2004 were written up in Beyond Bandaids: Exploring the Underlying Social Determinants of Aboriginal Health (2007).
Prison health roundtable, held at AIATSIS, Canberra on 28 November 2007.
Social Determinants of Indigenous Health textbook (2007) - see project summary, CRCAH media release. Further information is available from Allen & Unwin. This was an in-kind project (SD128).
Fullbright Symposium: Healthy People, Prosperous Country, held on 10-11 July 2008 in Adelaide. Co-hosted by CRCAH and Flinders University.
Details about activities in the Social Determinants Program can also be found in the CRCAH newsletter, Gwalwa-gai.
Useful links
Richard Wilkinson and Michael Marmot (eds). 2003. Social determinants of health: the solid facts. 2nd Edition, WHO: Copenhagen - http://www.euro.who.int/document/e81384.pdf
World Health Organisation (WHO) Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) - http://www.who.int/social_determinants/en/
Developing a Canadian Economic Case for Financing the Social Determinants of Health. David Hay, March 2008, Canadian Policy Research Networks Inc (CPRN) - http://www.cprn.org/documents/49485_EN.pdf
The Pan American Health Organisation of the World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) has an excellent Equity, Health and Human Development Listserver which has a wealth of recent international publications on the social determinants of health. See the Listserv archives at http://listserv.paho.org/archives/equidad.html
Health habitat: http://www.healthabitat.com/
Brochures
- Social Determinants of Health Brochure [pdf]
- Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health overview Brochure [pdf]
Page last updated 23.11.2009