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"Remaining healthy and avoiding disease and early death is one of the greatest concerns of Canadians. But how do we go about doing this? Most Canadians would answer: by avoiding germs and living a "healthy lifestyle" full of exercise and healthy foods and avoiding excessive alcohol and tobacco use. We are told to carefully monitor our own "lifestyle choices" and accept that if we become ill, we have likely brought it on ourselves. Yet, medical and public health officials and workers are familiar with the hundreds of studies in Canada which, over the past four decades, tell the real story: whether we live longer and healthier -- or shorter and sicker -- lives is due the living and working conditions we experience every day. These health-shaping characteristics have come to be known as the "social determinants of health" (SDoH). In a nutshell, SDoH are the social and economic conditions we are born into, experience over the course of our lives, and pass onto our children. These, not our medical treatments nor our so-called lifestyles determine whether we stay healthy or become ill. And these living and working conditions are usually imposed upon us as a result of our positions in society -- our social class, gender, race and other aspects of our identities that lead to the many social inequalities common to Canadian society. In this 3rd edition of Health and Illness, Dennis Raphael continues his analysis of how SDoH shape the health of Canadians and how their quality and inequitable distributions are determined by public policy decisions made by governing authorities. He updates how patterns of information about health and illness are connected to the worsening levels of inequality in Canada - the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting sick. This edition also includes a full chapter on the links between the SDoH and the incidence and mortality from COVID 19 which were so strong that even the mainstream media began to focus on them. He also details how differences in the quality between for-profit and not-for-profit long-term care and nursing homes led to profound differences in COVID-19 mortality rates. The experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic make the clear case that we need to restructure work and living conditions through create public policy that more equitably distributes economic resources.It is only through such actions that we will be able to promote the health of Canadians and prevent illness in an effective manner."--
About the author
Dennis Raphael is a professor at the School of Health Policy and Management at York University. He is the editor of Social Determinants of Health: Canadian Perspectives; Tackling Health Inequalities: Lessons from International Experiences; and Immigration, Public Policy, and Health: Newcomer Experiences in Developed Nations. He is author of Poverty in Canada: Implications for Health and Quality of Life; co-author of The Politics of Health in the Canadian Welfare State; and co-editor of Staying Alive: Critical Perspectives on Health, Illness and Health Care.
Summary
Inequality, discrimination and oppression make us sick. Collective caring will go further in making us healthy than "wellness lifestyles" the rich are getting richer, the rest of us are getting sick.
