health

Unnatural Causes

Meghan Keaney — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:16:22 -0500

Tonight at 10 p.m. WGBH will debut a new seven-part documentary series, by executive producer Larry Adelman, that looks into how social and economic conditions affect health. The series begins with "In Sickness and in Wealth," an episode that compares the paths of a CEO, lab supervisor, janitor and unemployed mother in Louisville, Ky. as they attempt to access resources. You can see a preview of the series at the end of my full post. read more »

Unnatural Causes

Bridget Jevens — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:03:18 -0500

Last Thursday I went to a video premiere of “Place Matters”, which is the fifth episode in the video documentary series Unnatural Causes…is inequality making us sick? (see Meghan's previous Blog for a preview) I have to say as I walked into English High School in Jamaica Plain I was surprised to see how many high school students were present. There were parents, non-profit educators and executive directors there as well, but the sheer fact that about 45 high school students gave up their Thursday afternoon and night to come watch a community video in their auditorium was inspiring.

The video raised the question: why is your street address such a good predictor of your health? read more »

UWA Common Good Report: A Lesson in the Importance of Measurement and Message

Elena Sokolow — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:25:35 -0500

As Meghan said in her last blog, the United Way of America (UWA) recently unveiled what they are calling The Common Good Report which identifies three broad issue areas that UWA believes are the essential building blocks to a successful life, these being education, income and health, and goes on to articulate four indicators within
each of those categories, which they plan to track over time. More importantly though, is the fact that in this report and the communication that has accompanied it both in the press and at the UWA Community Leaders Conference, UWA has put forward what I consider to be both very bold and very specific goals around what they are commiting to achieve in the next ten years. Cutting to the chase, these goals are: read more »