Oral

This session provides an opportunity to preview the forthcoming documentary series Unnatural Causes followed by a "visioning" dialog among some of the country's leading health equity advocates who will discuss the "big" changes key to building a more just and healthy society. Unnatural Causes, produced for PBS broadcast this Spring and for DVD release, explores the root causes of our alarming socio-economic and racial/ethnic inequities in health-and searches for solutions. The series promotes a new and hopeful approach to population health, one that links our individual aspirations for better health not only to medical and lifestyle interventions but to "upstream" policies-investing in our schools, improving housing, integrating neighborhoods, creating living wage jobs, and more equitable fiscal policies. In this session we will first preview 35 minutes from the opening episode of the series. Unlike Sicko, it explores not health care but why Americans live shorter, sicker lives than others in the first place, and why our patterns of health and disease are so differentially distributed by race and by class. The screening will be followed by a structured dialog between a leading health equity scholar, practitioner, and member of Congress. Moderated by Gail Christopher, DN, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Vice President for Health, the forum will envision the kind of political and public policy changes that have the most potential for reducing health inequities and improving population health--from community organizing to Congressional legislation and the use of a new Health Equity Assessment Tool to measure progress. There will be time for discussion and interaction with the audience.

Session Objectives: Assess how a new documentary series can be used to build support and buy-in for policy changes needed to tackle health inequities. Identify building blocks central to a social determinants approach to a health equity agenda. Outline changes in public policy and social organization nationally and locally key to improving long-term population health.