PHCA1509 Health and Healthcare Equity for a Just and Sustainable World

The topic shows how 21st Century public health combines social, political and ecological models to explain the existence of inequities; or systematic differences in health status that are avoidable because we know the causes and solutions. Drawing on current research, the topic demonstrates how differences in health status usually follow a gradient (for example social class, income, access to resources). Contemporary models of public health are presented to show how ecological sustainability is vital for equitable improvements in human health at global and local levels.

This topic aims to:

• Demonstrate how public health saves millions of lives and seeks to achieve social, economic and ecological justice to achieve a fairer and more sustainable world

1. Understand the concepts of equity, inequity, fairness and justice
2. Locate and understand local and global evidence about contributions to population health inequity of health systems
3. Locate and understand local and global evidence about contributions to population health inequity of economic, political and ecological systems
4. Apply theories to explain how the achievement of Australian and global equity would address systematic disadvantage; particularly Indigenous communities and marginalized groups
5. Critically analyse policies and strategies designed to promote health equity and a socially and ecologically just world