Aboriginal Health > Programs > Social Determinants of Health

Social Determinants of Health

Program Team

Program Managers
Carolyn Modra
Scott Davis

Program Leaders
Fran Baum
Michael Bentley
Colleen Hayward
Justin Mohamed
David de Carvalho

Projects
View list of projects

Program goal
The Goal of the Social Determinants of Health Program is to “Develop a detailed understanding of the social determinants of Aboriginal health and of the interventions that are effective in improving health status through action on social determinants”.

Program overview
Social determinants of health are the economic, physical and social conditions that influence the health of individuals, communities and jurisdictions as a whole. They include housing, education, social networks and connections, physical infrastructure, connection with land, racism, employment, and law enforcement and the legal and custodial system.

More information can be found about the program in the Program statement [pdf].

Research priorities
A workshop (workshop report [pdf])  in July 2004 and an industry roundtable in June 2006 have contributed to the development of this Program. At the roundtable, group discussions explored potential partnerships and/or activities in areas including:

  • building awareness of the social determinants of Aboriginal health;
  • racism and the impact on health outcomes;
  • housing and the physical environment;
  • education, employment and childhood.

It was also identified that further discussion was needed in three areas not sufficiently represented at the roundtable:

  • education;
  • law and justice;
  • culture and land.

The Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) - International Symposium on Indigenous Health – 29-30 April 2007, Adelaide. This international symposium was hosted by the CRCAH as one of the main activities of the Social determinants of Health Program for 2007.

Prison health roundtable, held at AIATSIS, Canberra on 28 November 2007.

Social Determinants of Indigenous Health textbook - see CRCAH media release. Further information is available from Allen & Unwin. This was an in-kind project (SD128).

Details about current activities in the Social Determinants Program can also be found in the latest issue of the CRCAH newsletter, Gwalwa-gai.

 Useful links

Social determinants of health: the solid facts. 2nd Edition/edited by Richard Wilkinson and Michael Marmot - http://www.euro.who.int/document/e81384.pdf.

World Health Organisation (WHO) Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) - http://www.who.int/social_determinants/en/

Developing a Candadian Economic Case for Financing the Social Determinants of Health. David Hay,  March 2008, Canadian Policy Research Networks Inc (CPRN) - http://www.cprn.org/documents/49485_EN.pdf

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