By Emily Wolfe, MSW, LCSW, HERO Director of Learning Experience
HERO Forum23 is a wrap! Wow, what a fabulous week of learning! A few key takeaways and insights.
There is nothing new here, yet a simple reminder: diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB); health equity; climate change and conservation; the economy; and population health and well-being are all interconnected. Here are a few of the individuals and organizations working hard to make strides.
➡ To advance health equity, it’s critical to understand and elevate health literacy. Seth Serxner and EdLogics are doing fantastic work in this space and moving the needle. You can’t begin to change what you can’t understand.
➡ Climate resilience, conservation, and climate change are directly tied to population health and health equity. Atlantic Packaging is doing its part to promote sustainable business practices that help the environment while maintaining a solid bottom line. This work can’t occur in silos and requires strategic community partnerships like those with the Medical University of South Carolina, South Carolina Healthy Business Challenge, South Carolina Hospital Association, and Sustain SC.
➡ DEIB continues to take hits regarding rollbacks in education, communities, and workplaces. Yet DEIB work is critical to thriving communities, economies, and workplaces. Kumanu is working with employers to identify purpose and build connections between well-being, DEIB and ESG on 3 levels: Personal, Social, and Organizational. Hasira Soul Ashemu shared a beautiful message of hope and healing while also emphasizing that change doesn’t occur through shame but rather through radical, open dialogue rooted in understanding each of our cultural histories that were abandoned generations ago in an attempt to assimilate into ‘white’ culture.
➡ The workplace itself is a social determinant of health, and employers are critical to creating an equitable and healthy future of work. The University of Illinois Chicago offers an “Equitable Workforce Health and Well-being Decision-making Framework” to assist!
➡ If we want our healthcare workforce to thrive, it’s essential to have workplaces/spaces, policies, and practices that promote well-being!
➡ One thing health and well-being researchers can do to translate science to practice in meaningful ways is to make their research (and themselves) available to journalists and train researchers to engage with media to communicate evidence-informed research accurately.
Show up to learning events (and conversations) with humility, curiosity, and an open mind. We ALL have something to learn and contribute, and NONE of us know everything.
CONNECT ➕ LISTEN ➕ LEARN ➕ LEAD #payitforward
