Reporting on Place and Health: Water Woes in California's Central Valley
In California's agricultural Central Valley, clean water is surprisingly hard to come by, and expensive, for some of the region's poorest residents. It's not hard to make the connection between poor health and water that has been tainted by nitrates from agricultural runoff.
Mildred Thompson, director of the PolicyLink Center For Health And Place, cites access to clean water as a prime example of the links between where you live and your health. Other connections include whether people have access to fresh fruits and vegetables and other healthy foods in their communities, or safe places to get exercise.
"Environments have critical influences on behaviors that directly and indirectly affect health," she told a group of community news site editors gathered in Los Angeles on Friday.
"At PolicyLink, we talk a lot about the 'community of opportunity' – parks, grocery stores, financial institutions, good schools, good public transportation," Thompson said. All are institutions necessary for healthy communities, Thompson said, and the lack of them can contribute to poor health outcomes including obesity and chronic disease.
But she also spoke of the often underemphasized role that race plays in health, a topic highlighted in a recent PolicyLink report called "Why Place and Race Matter."
Thompson's nonprofit organization, PolicyLink, aims to improve the health of communities by influencing land use and urban planning decisions, helping environmental justice advocates, and increasing access to healthy food through community gardens and farmers' markets, among other projects. Increasingly, organizations like PolicyLink and foundations are considering these "social determinants of health" issues in their work and trying to heighten awareness of the role of racism and historic discrimination in shaping community health.
These efforts offer a different lens for stories on the health beat. Here are some resources for your reporting:
Shortened Lives: How Where You Live Affects Your Health
Useful Resource Guide: Social Determinants of Health
The Connection between Place and Health: Resources for Reporters and Bloggers