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How Neighborhoods Make Us Sick: Restoring Health and Wellness to Our Communities Paperback – Illustrated, January 15, 2019
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Our neighborhoods are literally making us sick.Buildings with mold trigger asthma and other respiratory conditions. Geographic lack of access to food and health care increases childhood mortality. 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. Jesus' ministry brought healing through dismantling systems of oppression and overturning social norms that prevented people from living healthy lives. We can do the same in our communities through addressing social determinants that facilitate healing in under-resourced neighborhoods.Everyone deserves the opportunity for good health. The decisions we make and actions we take can promote the health of our neighbors.
- Print length240 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherIVP
- Publication dateJanuary 15, 2019
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.8 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-100830845577
- ISBN-13978-0830845576
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"The time is right for an insightful, well-documented exposé of the pathology in poverty neighborhoods and a road map for the journey toward health and wholeness. How Neighborhoods Make Us Sick is just that. Turning troubled communities around is no small challenge, the authors admit. But there are practical steps that have proven to be effective. This is essential reading for anyone engaged in service among the poor." -- Bob Lupton, community developer, author of Toxic Charity
"Framed expertly in terms of the macrolevel social determinants of health and the gap in life expectancy between poor neighborhoods and wealthier ones, this heartfelt first-person account by two staff members of Atlanta's Good Samaritan Health Center makes vivid the microlevel daily pain and struggles of those who live in poverty. It also outlines an activist, social justice approach to making the changes that have to be made with and by community members, in order for neighborhoods to produce health, and not harm, to their residents." -- Ellen Idler, director of the Religion and Public Health Collaborative, Emory University
"In my thirty years of working in health nonprofits, I've never come across a book that puts a real face on the socioeconomic and geographic disparities that truly exist in health care. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the stark realities of providing health services to vulnerable populations from two compassionate, remarkable women working and living in the trenches, while providing a roadmap to community wellness." -- Donna Looper, executive director of Georgia Charitable Care Network Inc.
"At a time where words like poverty, injustice, mental health issues, trauma, and the like have become familiar to our common justice narrative, we are in need of a deeper dive into how these systemic barriers truly impact communities. Veronica and Breanna have generously invited us into their realm by sharing their experiences and learned expertise in an effort to help illuminate the need for deeper awareness and collective action toward the flourishing of poor communities." -- Michelle Ferrigno Warren, advocacy and strategic engagement director of the CCDA, author of The Power of Proximity
"Through compelling stories, this eye-opening book illuminates the inverse relationship between poverty and health of all kinds. It acknowledges both the complexities and hard realities in addressing needs that often feel overwhelming. And ultimately, it points to hopeful strategies that flow from taking ownership of both the problem and the solution." -- Amy Simpson, author of Troubled Minds
"How Neighborhoods Make Us Sick was a disturbing read because in its pages I saw descriptions of where my two young-adult, adopted, biracial sons potentially would be if they did not have the safety net of financially secure parents behind them. The authors are realistic about the complexity of the problems that those with limited resources face. They avoid simplistic answers while offering possible solutions for greater overall health. Maybe there is hope after all." -- Heather Davediuk Gingrich, professor of counseling at Denver Seminary, coeditor of Treating Trauma in Christian Counseling
"How Neighborhoods Make Us Sick is an excellent and desperately needed addition to the nursing literature on community and social justice. Impressive for its narrative style that provides accessibility, relevance, and a guide for praxis, Veronica Squires and Breanna Lathrop detail their journeys and desires to help the most vulnerable in society and offer us a glimpse into the transformation of mere practice into praxis―practice that is intentionally aimed at social justice goals. Their pathways to praxis are substantiated by their poignant and pragmatic accounts of emerging awareness, deep self-reflection, risk taking, choosing change, and taking action to transcend present circumstances for both their clients and themselves. A mandatory book for current times as nurses expand their scope and locus of practice into the community. How Neighborhoods Make Us Sick is an amazing example of emancipatory nursing. It will transfix and engage any health care provider seeking to reduce suffering by uncovering and challenging systemic barriers to better society and quality of life through true praxis." -- Paula N. Kagan, associate professor, DePaul University, lead author, Philosophies and Practices of Emancipatory Nursing: Social Justice as Praxis
Review
"How Neighborhoods Make Us Sick is an excellent and desperately needed addition to the nursing literature on community and social justice. Impressive for its narrative style that provides accessibility, relevance, and a guide for praxis, Veronica Squires and Breanna Lathrop detail their journeys and desires to help the most vulnerable in society and offer us a glimpse into the transformation of mere practice into praxis―practice that is intentionally aimed at social justice goals. Their pathways to praxis are substantiated by their poignant and pragmatic accounts of emerging awareness, deep self-reflection, risk taking, choosing change, and taking action to transcend present circumstances for both their clients and themselves. A mandatory book for current times as nurses expand their scope and locus of practice into the community. How Neighborhoods Make Us Sick is an amazing example of emancipatory nursing. It will transfix and engage any health care provider seeking to reduce suffering by uncovering and challenging systemic barriers to better society and quality of life through true praxis."
-- Paula N. Kagan, associate professor, DePaul University, lead author, Philosophies and Practices of Emancipatory Nursing: Social Justice as PraxisAbout the Author
Veronica Squires is chief administrative officer for Good Samaritan Health Center in Atlanta. She previously served as director of corporate development for Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta and as the Georgia director of ministry partnerships for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. She is a certified CCDA practitioner and serves on the advisory board for the Georgia Charitable Care Network.
Breanna Lathrop is chief operating officer and a family nurse practitioner for Good Samaritan Health Center. She earned her doctor of nursing practice from Georgia Southern University and a master of public health and a master of nursing from Emory University. She is passionate about eliminating health disparities through improving health care access and health outcomes among vulnerable populations, and has previously published on the social determinants of health.
Product details
- Publisher : IVP; Illustrated edition (January 15, 2019)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 240 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0830845577
- ISBN-13 : 978-0830845576
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #358,798 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #22 in Asthma
- #141 in Health Policy (Books)
- #276 in Sociological Study of Medicine
- Customer Reviews:
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2019Squires and Lathrop open by comparing the challenge of providing healthcare to the poor communities of contemporary America to the dilemma faced by early modern germ theorists like Semmelweis, Koch, and Pasteur. These scientists were convinced that the spreading of germs was central to illness and disease, and they struggled to improve healthcare within a system unreceptive to these ideas and the practical changes they would necessitate. As germs were ignored as underlying causes of disease in that era, social and community factors of health are ignored today: “[in treating socially disadvantaged patients], I am up against a body system that has been overrun by factors well outside the scope of medical practice . . . Ignoring social determinants [of health] is equivalent to treating patients with unwashed hands and wondering why disease keeps spreading.”
“How Neighborhoods Make us Sick” follows through on this analogy, outlining the social determinants of health, interlaced with Squires and Lathrops’ narratives of their experiences running and expanding a free healthcare clinic for needy patients in Atlanta’s Westside, many of whom experience interlocking disadvantages in nutrition, housing, education, employment, geographic and economic mobility, and racial injustice -- experiences which are a common feature of life for America’s urban underclass.
Squires and Lathrop show that the traditional contemporary American healthcare model, with its emphasis on rigid appointment structure, careful adherence to insurer policies and limitations, and brief diagnostic visits followed (almost exclusively) by either pharmaceutical or surgical interventions, does little to help the health of those in poverty and in otherwise disadvantaged communities. An expanded healthcare model can better serve these communities by providing long term therapy for mental and physical health, counseling and assistant for housing and employment, homeless sheltering, healthy and free or reduced-cost food, community outreach, and careful case tracking and management when these services are centrally located (similar to the “campus model” of welfare services embraced elsewhere by some progressive county governments). The authors provide a roadmap for these facilities, using their own revamped clinic as an example.
In the final chapters, Squires and Lathrop confront the limitations of reliance on local charitable services such as their own, and urge readers to engage in national healthcare reform. Until we do so have, we have “implicitly accepted the fact that the poor and uninsured have shorter and unhealthier lives as a necessary consequence of our health care system.”
This is a great read on the challenges of treating disadvantaged communities, particularly for those with an evangelical Christian perspective.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2019It’s no surprise that the lack of access to quality preventative health care caused by poverty affects a persons physical and/or mental health. What this book does is address how other factors including the stress caused by job insecurity, unstable housing, poor educational opportunities, access to healthy foods and other factors come together to prevent good health. The statistics regarding life expectancy based on zip codes was eye opening.
The second part of the book offers hope in the form of programs not only at Good Samaritan but also across the country to assist people to reach the goal everyone desires - to be able to provide their families with a safe, sustainable environment in which to thrive.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2019"How Neighborhoods Make Us Sick" is a good read on addressing the social, economic, spiritual, physical, and other ills of our society by acting locally. The authors, employed in the healthcare industry, cover many topics in their book, including:
1. Various ways our communities suffer: economic, environmental, educational, social, etc.
2. How poverty affects people of all classes.
3. Suggestions for revamping healthcare (for example, running a productive health care center in the community).
4. Ways unsafe housing affects lives.
5. Practical suggestions for how individuals can get involved in changing peoples' lives.
The book is well-written, contains some Bible verses to reinforce a point (without twisting verses out of context) and is full of ways lives are adversely affected, ways organizations and individuals are trying to improve lives, and full of practical suggestions (unlike other Christian titles I've read on various topics that are long on pious platitudes and short on practical application).
Will read more deeply in the future and is a helpful reference for the follower of Jesus Christ who wants to make a positive impact in God's Kingdom in practical ways. I was given a review copy by IVP Books in exchange for a fair review and appreciate the opportunity.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2019Breanna & Veronica, transitioning between statistics and stories, do an exceptional job outlining the complexity of health in the United States, looking beyond the traditional healthcare ecosystem and into the socioeconomic factors that make people sick. In addition, they outline simple steps to help people go from being informed to becoming active participants in the solution. This book is a must read for anyone looking to improve their neighborhood, improve their understanding of healthcare, or become a better medical professional.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2019This book is eye-opening, inspiring, and a call to action to take steps towards healthier communities and health equity. Beautifully written, with real-life stories and examples, will leave you ready to take action. You will see communities and people differently after this book. Everyone, especially Christians, should read this! We can no longer wear blinders towards what is going on in the communities around us.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2019In a world of chaos and neverending struggle, this book provides real world data and encounters that give hope that a healthy future is possible while educating us on what contributes to our downfalls. Very well written and worth the read.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2019The multi-layered challenges of public health can often feel daunting to undertake. However, the authors brilliantly outline both the systemic problems in our current structures as well as offer solutions that can be implemented practically.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2021Great book. Bought it for school
Top reviews from other countries
- BorisReviewed in Canada on June 18, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Very interesting read. As someone who works in an inner city hospital it was great to see the social determinants of health discussed as they had done in this book. Easy read as well and great perspective on a very real issue affecting society's most vulnerable