Academic Resources: Research Tools
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Databases: Films Database
Unnatural Causes: is inequality making us sick?
- Topics(s): ethnic inequalities in health in the U.S., Pima Indians
- Brief Summary: The UNNATURAL CAUSES series and accompanying impact campaign aim to enlarge our public discourse about health through the following objectives:
- (1) Increase public awareness of our alarming socioeconomic and racial/ethnic inequities in health and their human and financial costs;
- (2) Promote understanding of the various ways in which class, racism and disempowerment can get under the skin and influence health outcomes;
- (3) Illustrate how well-being is not just a matter of making good choices and having access to quality care; our outcomes are inextricably linked - for better and worse - to the social conditions that surround and shape our lives;
- (4) Demonstrate that health inequities affect all of us. On average, the bottom 80% of us have worse health than the rich and powerful. We all bear the financial burden for disease and disability: increased medical costs, lost economic activity, lowered business productivity;
- (5) Move health discussions "upstream" - beyond the individual-focused "repair shop" model of disease and illness to a preventive approach that looks to change the underlying conditions that shape whole group outcomes;
(6) Link health discussions to social and economic policies - e.g., housing, racism, education, jobs and wages, community development, social supports and tax policy. Evaluate social and economic policies by their health impact, and press for more health-promoting measures; - (7) Communicate hopeful solutions that draw public and policy maker attention to innovative and community-based initiatives for health equity.
- Date of Release: 2008
- Length: four hours
1 disc, 7 segments (1x56 min, 6x30 min) - Where was it produced/filmed & in what language: Produced by California Newsreel in association with Vital Pictures, Inc./English
- Where to get it: http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/about_the_series.php
