Have you ever wondered how complex social inequities affect people's health? What the difference between equity and equality is? And what you can do to magnify the voices of marginalised communities? 

Equity Reflections is a new six-part podcast series from the University of Melbourne, featuring voices from the Centre for Health Equity. 

In each episode, we explore some of the most pressing health equity issues today, such as COVID-19, gender-based violence, child and adolescent trauma, psychosocial disability, and the importance of Indigenous voice in health research. Joined by experts in social epidemiology, bioethics, sociology and more, each podcast focuses on a specific issue from a health equity perspective and asks us what we can all do to improve the health of marginalised communities. 

For more information, please visit us on (https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/centre-for-health-equity) or follow us on Twitter (@HlthEquityMDHS).

email: che-podcasts@unimelb.edu.au

Equity Reflections

Trailer

They may sound similar, but equity and equality mean different things to health researchers.

In this introductory podcast, Martha Vazquez Corona (Gender and Women’s Health Unit) introduces us to the directors of the Centre for Health Equity, Professor Richard Chenhall (Health, Humanities and Social Sciences Unit) and Associate Professor Cathy Vaughan (Gender and Women’s Health Unit), where they reflect on their very different journeys into health equity. In this episode, Richard and Cathy clarify the distinction between health equity and health equality. What is the difference? And why does it matter to those interested in the health of marginalised communities?

For more information, please follow us on Twitter (@HlthEquityMDHS) or visit our website (https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/centre-for-health-equity).

email: che-podcasts@unimelb.edu.au

Equity or Equality: Why is health equity important to public health?

When Dr Ros McDougall attended a bioethics conference in 2019 and listened to a presentation on flu pandemics, she didn’t realise that her work would soon have a similar focus…

In this podcast, Professor Louise Keogh (Health, Humanities and Social Sciences Unit) talks to Dr George Disney (Disability and Health Unit) and Dr Ros McDougall (Health, Humanities and Social Sciences Unit) about the way that COVID-19 changed their work, as well as their contributions to improving health equity during the pandemic. George discusses his quantitative research on the impact of the lockdowns on people living with disability and the way that COVID-19 magnified existing inequities in some populations. Ros discusses her qualitative research looking at the complicated questions being asked about COVID and bioethics, and what the future of pandemic research and health equity may look like.

For more information, please follow us on Twitter (@HlthEquityMDHS) or visit our website (https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/centre-for-health-equity).

email: che-podcasts@unimelb.edu.au

Profiling the Pandemic: The role of health equity during the COVID-19 pandemic

In this podcast, Dr Natalie Jovanovski (Health, Humanities and Social Sciences Unit) speaks with Dr Meghan Bohren (Gender and Women’s Health Unit) and Dr Kristen Smith (Indigenous Studies Unit) on their local and international research looking at violence against women and its prevention. In this episode, Kristen reflects on the findings of her work with Aboriginal communities in Mildura and Albury-Wodonga, and the importance of taking an intersectional approach to understanding violence. Meghan reflects on her research looking at violence against women in obstetrics, and how she copes with some of her more distressing findings.

For more information, please follow us on Twitter (@HlthEquityMDHS) or visit our website (https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/centre-for-health-equity).

Confronting Violence:  Gender-based Health Equity

In this podcast, Dr Karen Block (Child and Community Wellbeing Unit) interviews Professor Lisa Gibbs (Child and Community Wellbeing Unit) and PhD candidate Melissa Willoughby (Justice Health Unit) in this episode, asking about their research on childhood and adolescent trauma and recovery. Lisa talks about her research with children who have faced multiple forms of trauma in their lives, ranging from environmental disasters to pandemics, and reflects on the importance of resilience and recovery. Melissa talks about her research on children and adolescents in the criminal justice system, and on the lack of research on their health and wellbeing. Ultimately, this podcast will leave you asking: What can I do to facilitate the recovery of children and adolescents who have experienced trauma?

For more information, please follow us on Twitter (@HlthEquityMDHS) or visit our website (https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/centre-for-health-equity).

email: che-podcasts@unimelb.edu.au

Trauma and Recovery:  Child and Adolescent Health Equity

In this podcast, Dr George Disney (Disability and Health Unit) speaks with Associate Professor Eva Alisic (Child and Community Wellbeing Unit) and Dr Alex Devine (Disability and Health Unit) about their research on psychosocial disability, mental health, and trauma. Eva discusses the important work she does on trauma recovery and post-traumatic stress in children and adolescence, and Alex talks about her unexpected journey into studying psychosocial disability and the importance of being a good ally to those experiencing mental health issues.

For more information, please follow us on Twitter (@HlthEquityMDHS) or visit our website (https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/centre-for-health-equity).
che-podcasts@unimelb.edu.au

Inclusion and Connection:  Psychosocial Disability and Health Equity

What does research conducted by Indigenous researchers for Indigenous communities look like? And what is the importance of voice and self-determination in research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples?

In this podcast, Professor Cath Chamberlain (Indigenous Health Equity Unit) interviews Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Marcia Langton (Indigenous Studies Unit) and Shaun Tatipata (Indigenous Eye Health Unit) about their research magnifying the voices of Indigenous people, and addressing the intersecting health inequities they face. Marcia discusses her journey into public health as an anthropologist, and the significant impact she has had on addressing issues such as violence against women in Aboriginal communities. Shaun talks about his extensive experiences working in eye health, and the importance of voice, self-determination and representation of Indigenous peoples in eye health research.

For more information, please follow us on Twitter (@HlthEquityMDHS) or visit our website (https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/centre-for-health-equity).

email: che-podcasts@unimelb.edu.au

Voice and Leadership: Indigenous Research in Health Equity

The Centre for Health Equity consolidates our School's social, behavioural and public health expertise into a single, world-class Centre.

The Centre is situated in Australia’s top ranked university – the University of Melbourne – within the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, we create and exchange knowledge that fosters health equity. Our high quality research informs policy and practice, promotes health, and improves lives in Australia and beyond. Our aim is for everyone to have the same opportunities for a healthy life.

The Centre for Health Equity provides international leadership in working across intersecting factors that shape health including gender, Indigeneity, disability, trauma exposure, migration and refugee status, age, sexuality, and socio-economic status. Our world-class researchers develop practical and nuanced solutions to complex structural injustices that create vulnerabilities for at- risk populations.

“Equity is the absence of avoidable, unfair, or remediable differences among groups of people, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically or geographically or by other means of stratification. “Health equity”… implies that ideally everyone should have a fair opportunity to attain their full health potential and that no one should be disadvantaged from achieving this potential.” (WHO 2020)

Centre for Health Equity

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