In Good Health

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of meeting with several young women in southeastern Colorado. Many of them were preparing to graduate from high school or already in college, pursuing careers and building their dreams for the future. We talked about the things that worry them and the barriers they face every day. Shortly after meeting, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Justice Department proposed a change in federal regulations that, if adopted, would allow more employers to deny insurance coverage for family planning services – a move that would undoubtedly put health further out of reach for many Colorado women, their children and families.

When this rule was proposed, I immediately thought of

How can you tackle inequity? Look at your immediate surroundings: Your neighborhood, your work, your city or your volunteer time. What is happening that prohibits people from reaching equity in their health, in their pay, in their treatment by our institutions? 

It's fair to say this challenging, self-reflective approach is not the first quality many city residents expect to find in their local police chief. Thus, it's all the more effective and thought-provoking when retired Charleston, S.C. Police Chief Greg Mullen quietly described the painstaking steps he led his department through while changing a deep-seated culture and creating a more equitable city.

Mullen, speaking at the 2017 Colorado Health Symposium, told of balancing his obvious job – public safety

The beauty of Colorado originates from its diversity. Our state is interlaced by rugged mountains, vast plains, grasslands and wetlands, cavernous canyons, mesas and the tallest sand dunes in North America. When we apply a different lens and look beyond geography – at county, city and community level data – we see even greater variation across the state.

Colorado’s median income is $63,945 compared to Costilla County at $27,944. Looking at the city level, Aurora Public Schools serve students from 130 countries and who speak more than 150 languages. Thirty-six percent of their students are second language learners and 82 percent of them are Spanish-speakers. Drilling down to the community level, the median age in Colorado is 36.3; however,

Just more than a month ago, we closed the books on our Colorado Health Symposium. At the event, we dug into inequity, with a special focus on racial inequity and racism, all of which prevents people from leading their healthiest lives.

We received feedback onsite and afterward through an evaluation survey. As I’m taking in all of the feedback, I thought it was important to share what we’ve heard because all feedback we receive is a gift that helps us to improve our work.

Those comments, not surprisingly, revealed many perspectives on inequity and what people took away from the conversation. Though more than 600 of us attended the same event, there were widely varying experiences. Lots of people were