Resources

These resources are designed to empower individuals and organizations in their efforts to promote and implement effective health equity policies. By providing accessible tools and insights, we aim to foster environments where equity and justice thrive, addressing disparities and creating fair opportunities for all.

To ensure proper use and distribution of these materials, please complete the permission request form if you wish to reprint or utilize them in your initiatives: Permission Request Form.

For any questions or additional guidance regarding the use of these resources, please feel free to contact us at info@perinatalQI.org.

Equality Image – Each of the people in this image are all the same height and have the same number of boxes that are all the same shape and size. They are all in the vicinity of the tree. But, the ground underneath the people is structurally different. The ground under the person with the lightest color is higher than the ground under the person with the darkest color. This means that people standing on the highest ground are able to reach more fruit than people standing on the lowest ground. The difference in how much fruit they can reach is not because of anything intrinsic to them as individuals.

Equity Image – Equity is how we ensure everyone gets the resources they need to reach the fruit. Giving the person with the darkest color two more boxes doesn’t mean this person gets more fruit. It means that they are able to reach the fruit that the lightest skinned person was already able to reach.

Justice Image – In order to ensure social justice for everyone the structures that prevent equity need to be removed. Removing structural barriers is illustrated in this image by having the ground filled in so that no one needs to stand on boxes in order to have access to the fruit.

These images illustrate the concepts of social determinants of health, social justice, structural drivers of health and show why racists policies lead to poor health outcomes. The politics of health affect health by providing unequitable access to opportunities for having good health.

We use a Rubik’s cube as a learning device because it illustrates the interconnections among Food Equity, Neighborhood Equity, Economic Equity, Education Equity, Healthcare Equity, and Healthy Outcomes. In addition, Rubik’s cubes are puzzles that can be solved and in fact become easy to solve once you know the algorithm.

“Just as the twists of a Rubik’s Cube bring each side into harmony, we must align our efforts across these interconnected components to build a more equitable society.” Part of L. Nicole Stringfellow’s message to her Mississippi state legislators.

“The key to having the largest effect on health is not only to make changes that help clinicians more effectively treat individual patients or even to education people on the benefits of eating vegetables and exercising but also to understand the underlying structure factors that shape the distribution of health and disease, to identify the policies that drive these differences, and to change them. The goal of health reform should be health.” David K. Jones, PhD, (2024). Ripples of Hope in the Mississippi Delta: Charting the Health Equity Policy Agenda, pg. 2 Prologue.

The framework illustrates how policies dictate structures that affect options which then constrain the options available that then affect the behaviors of individuals which ultimately lead to either positive or negative health outcomes.

“In this book I acknowledge that individual choices affect a person’s health, but I also challenge skeptics who believe that people are to blame for the choices that make them more likely to have chronic diseases. Seeing these decisions in context makes it clear that being healthy is more than making good or bad choices about what to eat and whether to exercise.” David K. Jones, PhD, (2024). Ripples of Hope in the Mississippi Delta: Charting the Health Equity Policy Agenda, pg. 2 Prologue.

“Yes, good health care is critical, but health care does not address why people in some communities are so much more likely to be sick in the first place. The key to having the largest effect on health is not only to make changes that help clinicians more effectively treat individual patients or even to educate people on the benefits of eating vegetables and exercising but also to understand the underlying structural factors that shape the distribution of health and disease, to identify the policies that drive these differences, and to change them. The goal of health reform should be health, not just health care.” David K. Jones, PhD, (2024). Ripples of Hope in the Mississippi Delta: Charting the Health Equity Policy Agenda, pg. 2, Prologue.

Quality Improvement methods and tools are useful for creating and implementing health equity initiatives. Driver Diagrams are one type of quality improvement tool that leaders use to succinctly outline the key drivers of change and change ideas. This master driver diagram is a summary of the key components outlined in David’s book. No one person can do everything, but each of us can do something to improve population health. This master diagram can help individuals and leaders of organizations to identify their priorities for action for their communities and then inspire them to create more granular and focused driver diagrams for their organizations, communities, and states.

Chapter Resources

Chapter 3