Palliative Care – Social Determinants of Health

Transcript

There are six key domains of the social determinants of health which are:

• Economic stability, which means employment, income, debt, expenses, or medical bills.
• Second is neighborhood and physical environment like housing, transportation, safety, playgrounds, or parks.
• Third is education, level of literacy, language, early childhood education, vocational training or higher education.
• Fourth is food, hunger access to healthy food options or clean water.
• Five is community and social context, social integration, support system, community engagement, discrimination, and stress level.
• The sixth one is the healthcare system, healthcare coverage, access to healthcare provider, linguistic cultural competency and quality of care.

An example for how this all comes together is someone who cannot afford to buy medication the doctor recommends. The fact that they won’t take it doesn’t mean they’re not compliant with the doctor’s recommendation. It simply means that they do not have the money to buy it, or the health insurance to cover the cost. Letting your medical team know what the reality of your life is helps them not only understand you and an individual life context, but helps everyone choose the best resources and support that addresses those gaps.