How Neighbourhoods Make Us Sick

Description

Our neighborhoods are literally making us sick. Buildings with mold trigger asthma. Community violence traumatizes residents. Poverty, unemployment, inadequate housing, food insecurity, racial injustice, and oppression cause physical changes in the body, resulting in disease and death. But there is hope. Loving our neighbor includes creating social environments in which people can be healthy. While working in community redevelopment and treating uninsured families, Veronica Squires and Breanna Lathrop discovered that creating healthier neighborhoods requires a commitment to health equity. We can promote the health of our communities by addressing social determinants that facilitate healing in under-resourced neighborhoods.