[EQ] Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?

UNNATURAL CAUSES: IS INEQUALITY MAKINGS US SICK?

Unnatural Causes is a four-hour series that will, for the first time on television, sound the alarm about the extent of our alarming socio-economic and racial disparities in health—and search for their causes. The Unnatural Causes Web site will include multiple entry points and dynamically delivered content tailored to various user interests.  PBS 2007/2008

Website: http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/site-description.html

Series Structure:

Program One: Sick of It? (wt) - 55 minutes

Why do some of us get sicker and die sooner? What are the connections between healthy bodies, healthy bank acounts and skin color? We travel to Louisville, Kentucky to discover how social policy, growing economic inequality and racism affects our health.

Program Two: Place Matters (wt) - 26 minutes

Our street address can be a powerful predictor of our health.  In Richmond, California we witness how one neighborhood exposes its residents to health threats while in Seattle, Washington, another neighborhood is being created that promotes health. What public policies and community actions make the difference?

Program Three: Becoming American (wt) - 26 minutes

On average, poor immigrants of color actually arrive in the U.S. healthier than the average American. But the longer they are here, the less healthy they become. We follow Mexican immigrants laboring on the mushroom farms of Pennsylvania to find out why they are healthier, what's grinding down their health over time (and even more so, that of their children), and what they are doing to reverse this trend.

Program Four: When the Bough Breaks (wt) - 26 minutes

African American pre-term births and infant mortality rates remain more than twice the national average. The babies of African American women with professional degress face as much risk as being born early and low-birthweight than white high school drop-outs. Might the cumulative impact of racism over the life-course be the culprit?

Program Five:  Bad Sugar (wt) - 26 minutes

Diabetes is a growing American epidemic and Native Americans were the first to suffer its profound effects.  We travel to the O'odham Indian reservations of southern Arizona to see how history and powerlessness can drive the disease, while Native efforts to regain control of their communties' economic destiny and re-connect to their culture offer hope for the future.

Program Six: Not Just a Paycheck (wt) - 26 minutes

Unemployment and job insecurity isn’t just bad for your pocketbook – it’s bad for your health.  Must it be this way? Workers in Michigan and Sweden were both thrown out of work by the same corporate giant. One town struggles against depression, spousal abuse and an uptick in heart disease and diabetes while the other seems to be doing just fine.

Program Seven: No Man Is an Island   (wt) - 26 minutes
Pacific Islanders, even native Hawaiians, have poor health outcomes. In the Marshall Islands and in the unlikely spot of Springdale, Arkansas we can see how U.S. occupation, foreign policy and globalization impact peoples' health--often in unanticipated ways.

Highlights of the site content include:

§         Case Studies - loosely structured as medical investigations, case studies will provide a "guided tour" of series themes and point visitors to other areas of interest on the site. Each case study will include an emailable Sidebar that highlights success stories, action steps and related issues

§         Interactivities - educational games and activities that illustrate important concepts from the series, geared towards television viewers and the public. For example:

·         A Perfect Neighborhood: what really distinguishes a healthy environment from an unhealthy one? what policy decisions contribute to this?

·         YOYO Health: how does the U.S. compare to other countries in terms of health, wealth, and inequality? what are we doing differently?

·         A Tale of Two Smokers: two personal stories illustrate how life circumstances constrain or promote our ability to make healthy choices

·         Eye of the Beholder: an interactive poll that helps us quantify the impact of race on health

·         Health Equity Quiz: test your knowledge of key health equity concepts

·         Neighborhood Stress Test: how does your neighborhood affect your health and what can you do about it?

·         The Game of Life Expectancy: which factors affect how long you will live? how can we all live longer?

§         Explore Health Equity – for self-directed learners, a searchable database of articles, PDFs, transcripts, fact sheets, research and video clips, including pre-populated, annotated searches on major topics

§         Action Center – comprehensive resources and information for taking action, including a calendar of events, a step-by-step toolkit for using the series, highlighted success stories, and Connect Up!, our database of health equity organizations

§         Ask the Experts – a moderated Q&A, in which site visitors pose questions for key scholars

§         Video Clips – episode and interview excerpts as well as extra material, all of which users can email to others and/or embed in their own sites

§         About the Series – episode descriptions, transcripts, credits and discussion guides

§         For Educators - lesson plans and primers on using our materials in the classroom

§         For Press - press kits, photos, backgrounders, interview links and suggested sources

 

           

 

 

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This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ IKM Area]

"Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members".
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