Elevating the Social Determinants of Health with a Focus on Achieving Health Equity

Authors

Keywords:

social determinants of health, child welfare, social services, systems change, human services, health equity

Abstract

Authors Jody Levison-Johnson and Amy Templeman suggest that our nation’s goal to achieve greater health equity requires an elevation of and effective response to the social determinants of health. Social/human services sector organizations can offer a roadmap to achieving this goal through an upstream population health approach.

Author Biographies

Jody Levison-Johnson, Social Current

Jody Levison-Johnson, PhD, LCSW has over 30 years of experience in human services. She is the President and CEO of Social Current, an organization focused on advancing the work of the social sector through collaboration, innovation, policy, and practice excellence.

Jody is a longstanding champion for systems change which results in the ability for individuals and communities to thrive. Her career has crossed a variety of settings including private providers and state and local governments. Much of her work has focused on cross-sector alignment to benefit children, youth, and families. Jody’s experience leading system reform efforts across the country has prompted her interest in the environmental contexts that surround leadership of deep change in social and public systems.

Amy Templeman, Social Current

Amy Templeman, a kinship and adoptive parent, is the director of Within Our Reach, and senior director of child and family practice excellence at Social Current. Previously, Amy served as executive director of the federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities, leading the effort to produce a report to the president and Congress. Amy helped to establish the Office of Well Being at the District of Columbia's child welfare agency, where she oversaw programs to address substance use disorders, domestic violence, education, housing, and child care. She also worked at The Urban Institute, contributing to a book and reports on the benefits of kinship care, and later at Johns Hopkins University, managing a community-based, participatory research grant through the CDC resulting in better adolescent mental health.

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Published

2023-09-13

How to Cite

Levison-Johnson, J., & Templeman, A. (2023). Elevating the Social Determinants of Health with a Focus on Achieving Health Equity. Social Innovations Journal, 20. Retrieved from https://socialinnovationsjournal.com/index.php/sij/article/view/6561

Issue

Vol. 20 (2023): Population Health Equity for People with Intellectual Disability, Autism, and Mental Health Challenges and Other Special Populations

Section

Access to Healthcare

Categories

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Copyright (c) 2023 Jody Levison-Johnson, Amy Templeman (Author)

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