Key resources for environmental public health practitioners to address health equity: A curated list

Public health organizations across Canada have highlighted health inequities as a priority area for action.  Environmental public health practitioners may be unclear of how to approach health inequities within their scope of practice because they have often not been included in discussions about how public health can do this work.

This list contains resources specific to environmental public health practitioners with respect to their roles in addressing the social determinants of health (SDH) and health equity in consultation, enforcement, and education. In order to explore their roles in this work more deeply, the resources are organized into three main themes:

• The intersection of SDH and health equity with environmental public health practice
• Facilitators and barriers to integrating SDH and health equity into individual and organizational practices to support a shift in practice focus
• Taking action on SDH and health equity, including stories from the field and tools to provide practical considerations for how public health inspectors can address SDH and health equity

Use this resource to:

• Facilitate a discussion with colleagues about the role of environmental public health practitioners in addressing health equity
• Work with organizational leadership to integrate work on the SDH into the scope of environmental public health
• Learn from other environmental health practitioners about how they address the SDH in their practice