Changing Care: Advancing Social Justice in the Health Professions

How can health professionals use advocacy and activism to advance social justice?
Changing Care: Advancing Social Justice in the Health Professions is a collection of essays from healthcare practitioners presenting unique and diverse perspectives on the devastating effects of structural injustice from the front lines of the health care system. They witness the impact of poverty, racism, misogyny, and ableism on their patients’ wellbeing, seeing firsthand how these and other forms of structural violence can obstruct access to vital resources necessary for health and survival. Despite this deeply felt urgency, educational and regulatory bodies have been painfully slow to respond to these systemic inequities.

Changing Care explores the crucial roles that health professions and practitioners can—and should—play in advancing social justice amid some of the most urgent public health issues of our time, including anti-Black racism, data governance, and the opioid crisis. Through a blend of research, case studies, and personal stories, the book offers practical strategies and solutions that can be applied both in an everyday practice and beyond traditional health care settings.

Changing Care carves a path forward for both health professionals and the organizations that educate, train, and regulate their services to embrace their responsibility in driving social and structural change.