Veterans experience higher rates of both homelessness and suicide compared with their non-Veterans peers. In addition, Veterans experiencing adverse social determinants of health—such as homelessness—are at increased risk of suicide and other poor health outcomes. This webinar will explore the concept of homelessness and housing instability generally and experiences among Veterans specifically. We will discuss how homelessness is defined and enumerated, pathways into homelessness, trajectories of homelessness, and multi-level interventions to prevent and end homelessness. We will also explore the intersection among homelessness (and other adverse social determinants of health), Veterans’ use of tailored services to address these needs, and their experience of particular health conditions and outcomes, including suicide ideation, attempt, and death.

This webinar presentation explores refugee resettlement, health surveillance methods that help identify health conditions among newly arriving refugees, and the impact of refugee health from multiple perspectives. During 2016, approximately 80,000 refugees and other entrants were resettled into virtually every state in the US as part of the federal refugee resettlement program. Refugees bring with them a variety of health conditions and health needs that are important to address in order for them to achieve the self-sufficiency required for success resettlement. As refugees represent multiple cultures and speak many different languages, integration into local society requires that communities be competent to address the cultural and communication needs of their new community members.

This webinar is an opportunity to address what works to reduce disparities in rural communities and what’s needed in future research and practice.

Unconscious bias refers to the biases we hold that are not in our conscious control. Research shows that these biases can adversely affect key decisions in the workplace.

In order to strive to eliminate health disparities, public health practitioners must go beyond cultural competency which is part of the process rather than an end goal.

Dr. Camara Jones presents a Cliff Analogy for understanding three dimensions of health intervention

The increasingly diverse and multicultural 21st century US population requires health departments to be deliberate when it comes to ensuring their programs, services, practices and policies do not reinforce health inequities and disparities.