Donate to improve health equity

Health equity is generally defined as a state in which there are no patterns of unfair and avoidable differences in health status among communities. Health equity means that all people – regardless of racial, ethnic, class or gender identity; physical or mental ability; residential location, national origin and other social identities – are able to achieve their highest or optimal level of health.

When health equity is achieved, there are no predictable and recurring health disparities (or differences in health statuses) that can be attributed to the social determinants of health, which consist of the conditions of the places in which we are born, grow up, live, work and age, such as our neighborhoods, homes, schools and workplaces.

Our health equity efforts all focus on addressing social determinants of health that directly impact health care access and health outcomes. We partner with community members and organizations to provide programs and services that address systemic barriers encountered by people of color and other underserved populations:

• BeLatched, a Breastfeeding Justice for Black Mothers Program, addresses barriers to breastfeeding for Black mothers and associated negative impacts on Black infant/maternal mortality and health outcomes.
• Our Health Equity Research Initiative (HERI) advances the health of local communities that disproportionately experience inequities in health care access/outcomes through education, awareness, and empowerment.
• The Mom’s Own Milk Project addresses disparities in access to hospital-grade breast pumps and breastfeeding resources for women with very low birthweight infants in NICU, inequities that disproportionately impact women of color and their infants.
• The Spectrum Health Culinary Medicine Program provides education on healthy eating to impact chronic diseases disproportionately experienced by people of color and other underserved populations (i.e., people living in rural communities, lower-income people, etc.).

At Spectrum Health, we value all people and communities equally and we aim to treat them equitably. This means we aim to support people and communities in ways that reflect their unique circumstances and needs. Health equity matters because, as a health care institution, we are bound by a moral and ethical imperative to ensure that everyone we serve enjoys good health.