Experts highlight how health systems can build trust among traditionally under-represented groups
12 July 2024
On 2 July, The Health Policy Partnership (HPP) hosted a webinar to launch the report Earning trust: a foundation for health equity.
Kristi Mitchell, a member of the A Million Conversations Advisory Group and CEO of Health Equity Outcomes, introduced four key principles intrinsic to building trust – understanding, inclusion, transparent communication and data generation – and discussed how to use the report to drive meaningful change.
She outlined the need for health system leaders and governments to be proactive in tackling inequities, highlighting the cost of these inequities in disparate health outcomes and deepening distrust among under-represented groups for health systems and professionals.
HPP Associate Director of Research and Policy Lucy Morgan moderated a panel discussion featuring three members of the Advisory Group who helped develop the report, along with Brian Foard, Executive VP Specialty Care at Sanofi.
During the discussion, Professor Phillip Della AM of Curtin University, Australia, spoke on the work being done to include Aboriginal people in shaping health policy. He explained that, when more Aboriginal people were represented in the healthcare workforce, it led to greater adherence among Aboriginal communities to treatment plans, leading to better health outcomes.
Disability Inclusion and Rights Activist Made Wikandana, from Indonesia, emphasised the need for disabled people to be part of discussions concerning their health, and for healthcare professional education on how to accommodate and communicate with disabled people accessing health systems.
Professor Marisa Miraldo of Imperial College Business School, UK, highlighted that health systems have to win the trust of those they seek to help, and that this requires a combination of grassroots and top-down changes.
The webinar and report form part of A Million Conversations, an international initiative aiming to build trust in health systems.
This webinar was funded by Sanofi. For more details, please visit the project page.
