APSY 7314 Health Inequity

This course provides an overview of disparities in health status and the delivery of healthcare in the US. Students will explore relationships among individual characteristics such as gender identification, education, income, literacy, race, ethnicity, culture, acculturation, disability, age, and sexual orientation; interpersonal factors such as communication with healthcare providers, family and social ties, and discrimination; and societal-level factors such as neighborhood and community context, healthcare organizations, economics, politics and policies and seek to understand how those factors shape health behaviors, access to health care services, unequal treatment, and health status. This course will underscore the importance of developing structural competency, which is a critical understanding for systems that influence health outcomes above individual interactions. Students will critically examine how to utilize these individual and systemic characteristics when engaging in case conceptualization and treatment planning and identify steps that practitioners and leaders can use to address disparities within their practice and community. Lastly, students will examine the importance of outreach to community resources, agencies, and settings (e.g., community centers, senior centers, churches, shelters) in order to support both clinic and patient in whole person health.