Have you heard of environmental justice before? I have heard of environmental justice, but I was not as affected until Peggy Shepard talked about consumerism and industrialization as it relates to environmental sacrifice zone, local and global. Lawyer and environmentalist Hazan struck a nerve because of the Philippines’ situation in the worldwide scene, more specifically, the Smokey Mountain (no, not the Great Smoky Mountain National Park).
This is the
one Smokey Mountain I know….
Have there been any environmental events in
your area that would fall under the purview of environmental justice? The
closest I was exposed to was only hearing the news about the trash being
dumped in the Philippines from other countries.
When you hear the phrase "social determinants of health" do you think of environmental justice as one of them?
According to the World Health Organization, the social determinants of health “are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power, and resources at global, national and local levels”. That being said, environmental justice is one of them.
How can we incorporate environmental justice into our work to address the negative social determinants of health?
One major negative social determinant of health that my focus population suffers from is homelessness.
Locally where I live at (Gilroy), there is a growing number of homeless people and an increasing number of crimes such as burglary, theft, illegal entry and other crimes. As of this writing, there had been no report of their correlation.
There were 23,300 out of 37,800 homeless veterans living in the street as of January 2018 according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. As a Transition Coordinator, most of the readmitted patients I encounter are living in RV without access to electricity or living in a shelter with limited access to their medication. These veterans needed a lot of care coordination and, most often than not, this much-needed help is not easy to carry out because of the veteran’s own preference and personal limitation.
According to the World Health Organization, the social determinants of health “are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power, and resources at global, national and local levels”. That being said, environmental justice is one of them.
How can we incorporate environmental justice into our work to address the negative social determinants of health?
One major negative social determinant of health that my focus population suffers from is homelessness.
Locally where I live at (Gilroy), there is a growing number of homeless people and an increasing number of crimes such as burglary, theft, illegal entry and other crimes. As of this writing, there had been no report of their correlation.
There were 23,300 out of 37,800 homeless veterans living in the street as of January 2018 according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. As a Transition Coordinator, most of the readmitted patients I encounter are living in RV without access to electricity or living in a shelter with limited access to their medication. These veterans needed a lot of care coordination and, most often than not, this much-needed help is not easy to carry out because of the veteran’s own preference and personal limitation.
I am sure you see all kind of cases and barriers to care in your role. Thanks for sharing the statistics. I almost joined the army after graduating from nursing school. looking back, 1 wonder what kind of a veteran I would have ended being. The veterans are really struggling once they come back from war.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely not the Smokey Mountain most of us are familiar with. That photo is very powerful! I was so upset to learn about environmental justice, how in this day an age, this could be happening. I'm on the fence, I understand the need for money and some of us work very hard for what we have and others are privilege to be born with it; but in their past someone has worked hard to accumulate that wealth. What breaks my heart is the disregard for human life, esp when these humans aren't able to properly care for themselves and certainly can not afford to properly care for themselves.
ReplyDeleteHomelessness is huge problem in Monterey and our hospital has recently implemented a new policy that states a patient will not be discharged without a safe place to go- i.e if they are inpatient and homeless, they can not be released back to the streets. Now I love the idea, but it does make it challenging for staff to care for these patients weeks after weeks. Especially when our little hospital is boarding patients in the ER, because in-patient beds are free. Its a slippery slope and I would love to be on a committee to help solve this problem!