Health Is a Human Right: Race and Place in America

Streaming Media

Document Type

Video

Date

Fall 10-17-2017

Abstract

“While health disparities are well documented, they are not well understood,” said Leandris Liburd, associate director of the Office of Minority Health and Health Equity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a discussion hosted by Georgia State Law’s Center for Law, Health & Society. The event was a collaboration among the College of Law, the School of Public Health and the University Library. Liburd, along with panelist Louise E. Shaw, curator at the David J Sencer CDC Museum, were key collaborators in the development and design of the original Health is a Human Right [Race and Place in America] exhibit at the CDC Museum. A modified version of the exhibit is on display at the College of Law.

Many people have the perception that health disparities, particularly racial and ethnic health disparities, are intractable or resistant to change, Liburd said. “But this view of the problem lacks an understanding of what contributes to the disparities, and what is needed to effectively reduce and eliminate those disparities that are largely preventable,” she said. The exhibit was developed in part to answer the question of why health disparities continue to exist, Liburd said. “Part of the answer to that is that the social conditions have not changed, and so we cannot realistically expect significant changes in our health outcomes.”

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