Community Resources and Social Determinants of Health
At Mineral Community Hospital, we’re here to care for you in every way possible—not just your medical needs but also the life factors that can have a big impact on your health and well-being. Things like having a safe place to live, access to nutritious food, a steady job, and a strong support system all play an important role in your health. That’s why we’re starting an exciting new effort to connect with you and better understand the challenges you face.
Let’s work together! Partner with your provider to make decisions and set goals that can improve your family’s health and happiness. We’re here to help you thrive.
Traditionally, medicine has predominantly focused on diagnosing and treating specific clinical conditions, and not focused on social determinants. As medical knowledge has
evolved and health systems shift towards value-based medicine, health care is beginning to acknowledge these non-medical conditions and their impact on health outcomes, health equity, and overall well-being.
These conditions, called Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) are conditions in the places where people are born, live, learn, and work that affect a wide range of health,
functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. The five key domains of SDOH account for up to 75% of all health outcomes. These include health care and quality, neighborhood and built environment, social and community context, and economic stability, education access and quality.
Social determinants of health (SDOH) have a major impact on people’s health, well-being, and quality of life. Examples of SDOH include:
Safe housing, transportation, and neighborhoods
Racism, discrimination, and violence
Education, job opportunities, and income
Access to nutritious foods and physical activity opportunities
Polluted air and water
Language and literacy skills
SDOH also contribute to wide health disparities and inequities. For example, people who don't have access to grocery stores with healthy foods are less likely to have good nutrition. That raises their risk of health conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and obesity — and even lowers life expectancy relative to people who do have access to healthy foods.
Just promoting healthy choices won't eliminate these and other health disparities. Instead, public health organizations and their partners in sectors like education, transportation, and housing need to take action to improve the conditions in people's environments.
