Health Equity

‘Health equity means that all people can reach their full health potential and are not disadvantaged from attaining it because of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, social class, socioeconomic status or other socially determined circumstance’ (Whitehead & Dahlgren, 2006).

GOAL

Members of the community will have equitable opportunities to be healthy, by having access to quality care that is fair, dignified and appropriate to their needs, regardless of where they live, their income or who they are

Equity doesn’t mean Equality

Equality means that everyone is treated the same regardless of their needs or circumstances. However, treating everyone equally doesn’t mean that it is fair.
Equity recognizes that some groups in our community may require extra support and resources to provide the same opportunities to reach and more importantly maintain their optimal health. Understanding additional barriers that individuals face and providing an opportunity to reduce those barriers, is the first step to achieve the same level of health for everyone. Barriers may include low income, inability to access to healthy food, unsafe housing or limited access to reliable transportation.

Health Equity Presentation

Health Equity Resources

Training and associated links

• Health Equity Impact Assessment (HEIA) Online Training
• Health Equity 101 video from a health care perspective
• The National Collaborative Centre for Determinants of Health
  (addressing health equity/social determinants of health, resources such as webinars)
• Link to Bridges community presentation October 2018-Video 2 hours
• How to use HEIA: Developing Effective Mitigation Strategies in a Public Policy Context