On Tuesday, March 19, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Downtown Grand Rapids held the “A Geographic Perspective on Global to Local Health Disparities” event presented by Debarchana (Debs) Ghosh, associate professor at the University of Connecticut.
The event itself was sponsored by Grand Rapids Community College as well as Corewell (formerly Spectrum) Health. Ghosh’s plan for the discussion was to begin talking about global and local health disparities. For example, the role of systems, structures and policies within those disparities.
Ghosh described disparities in health and health care as “A particular type of health difference that is linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage, and that adversely affects groups of people who have systematically experienced greater obstacles to health, well-being, and access to care.” This quote came with the hashtag #HealthyPeople2030. She also went on to talk about the preventable differences in burden, disease, injury, violence, or in opportunities to achieve optimal health experienced by socially disadvantaged racial, ethnic and other population groups and communities.
Ghosh went on to present a “Web of Causation” that shows the structural and social determinants and its impact on health. The web includes topics like the history of Jim Crow Laws, slavery, the GI Bill, redlining and the 12th Amendment. These topics were broken down into different categories including safety, rates of incarceration, food stability, housing and education.
Ghosh talked about her birthplace of Kolkata, India, and their research program “Shakthi” which stands for “Studying physical and mental health status among Hijra, Kothi and Transgender community in Kolkata, India.” “Shakthi’s mission statement is to continue strengthening the activism of transgender community leaders and members by providing insights from their evidence-based studies. They hope this will ensure the inclusion of individuals with non-binary gender identities and improve their health and well-being.
Ghosh also talked about the topic of human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) and the major epicenter of the epidemic in districts with the highest HIV prevalence rates in the country. This includes rural districts and districts with nomadic tribal populations.
Ghosh also went into disparities with cancer in African Americans as well as the racial segregation, income equality, lack of health care access and redlining that is associated with it in southern U.S. states like Alabama and Mississippi. Ghosh brought up different Cable News Network (CNN) highlights including disparities with supermarkets choosing to not open or deciding to close down in African American communities.
Ghosh ended by restating her plan for the lecture as well as quoting that the aspect of geography is more than just a place, space, or environment but instead ethical, political and economic communities.
For more information on future events at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, please visit the Gerald R Ford Foundation website here.
