Health Equity
The HIV/STD/TB (HST) Section will commit to promoting and achieving health equity in all its work. HST shares Oregon Health Authority's definition of health equity: Oregon will have established a health system that creates health equity
when all people can reach their full health potential and well-being and
are not disadvantaged by their race, ethnicity, language, disability,
age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, social class,
intersections among these communities or identities, or other socially
determined circumstances.
Achieving health equity requires:
- the equitable distribution of resources and power resulting in the elimination of gaps in health outcomes between and within social groups,
- use of an intersectional lens: Intersectionality asserts that multiple social categories used to group people (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status) intersect at the micro level of individual experience to reflect multiple interlocking systems of privilege and oppression at the macro, social-structural level (e.g., racism, sexism, heterosexism), and
- solutions that look beyond traditional health care and government systems to embrace community wisdom and focus on broader social determinants of health (e.g., education, economic opportunity, transportation, housing).
We are leading with racial equity.
Racial equity is the condition that would be achieved if one's racial identity no longer predicted a person's life options and outcomes. Racial equity is one part of racial justice. This includes elimination of policies, practices, attitudes and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race or fail to eliminate them. Racial equity ensures all persons receive what they need to thrive regardless of racial or ethnic identity.