Developing a health equality imagination

Abstract

English Critical reflection on hospital social work practices opens the door to question the profession’s response to growing international health inequalities. The development of a health equality imagination provides a driver to challenge and reframe practice that promotes comprehensive actions in both direct practice and education. French La réflexion critique sur les pratiques du travail social hospitalier ouvre la porte à la question de la réponse que peut apporter la profession face aux inégalités croissantes dans l’accès aux soins de santé. Le développement d’une ‘imagination pour l’accès égalitaire à la santé’ propose un outil pour défier et recadrer la pratique qui promeut des actions globales orientées tant vers la pratique que vers la formation. Spanish Una reflexión crítica sobre el trabajo social en los hospitales interroga a la profesión acerca de sus prácticas, dadas las cada vez mayores desigualdades a nivel internacional en cuestiones de salud. El desarrollo de una imaginación que acomode igualdad en la salud constituye una fuerza motora que reta y reenmarca un tipo de práctica que promueve acciones comprensivas tanto en la práctica directa como en la educación.

Power, politics and the street-level bureaucrat in Indigenous Australian health

“…One of the ways in which they do this is through their professional associations, which are not, themselves, impeded by the bureaucratic obligations that may constrain their members' individual agency. Professional associations do not have bureaucratic loyalties, but they can respond to Giles' (2009) argument that the ideological disposition of street-level workers is, itself, among the determinants of Indigenous health, with positive as well as negative potential. For example, in the field of social work, she explains that:…”

“…One of the ways in which they do this is through their professional associations, which are not, themselves, impeded by the bureaucratic obligations that may constrain their members' individual agency. Professional associations do not have bureaucratic loyalties, but they can respond to Giles' (2009) argument that the ideological disposition of street-level workers is, itself, among the determinants of Indigenous health, with positive as well as negative potential. For example, in the field of social work, she explains that: By paying greater attention to the details of the relationship between social factors and physical and mental health, these present both challenges to current social work practices and opportunities for the profession to continue to advance, in collaboration with related professions, common goals of reductions in poverty, the alleviation of oppression and enhanced social equality; that is, the development in each practitioner of a health equality imagination that inspires action.…”