Salus Populi Part 1

Social factors, including housing affordability, quality and stability, socio-economic position, and structural racism are critical determinants of health for children and families. To equip lawyers with tools and information to argue for the wellbeing of children and families, this course will introduce how these factors, collectively referred to as the “social determinants of health” (SDOH), impact individual and population health and inequities in health.

This interactive course will include discussions of the socio-ecological model of health, constrained choice theory, and population health. The course will also illustrate the interconnectedness among SDOH and explore how they intersect with legal issues that arise in child welfare and juvenile law cases in Massachusetts. The course will also discuss the terminology and methodology that epidemiologists and other public health researchers use to understand how the SDOH impact health, and discuss how lawyers can raise issues related to the SDOH in child welfare and juvenile law cases. 

This webinar is part one of a two-part free webinar series.

Topics covered in part one:

• Introduction to the Social Determinants of Health
• How SDOH intersect with child welfare, poverty, and neglect – and its prevention

Presenters:

Alisa Lincoln, MPH, PhD – Director, Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice, Northeastern University
Alisa Lincoln, MPH, PhD, is a professor of Sociology and Health Sciences at Northeastern University, where she is the Director of the Institute of Health Equity and Social Justice Research (IHESJR) and the Senior Co-Director of the Northeastern University Public Evaluation Lab (NUPEL). Professor Lincoln’s research, which has been supported by NIMH, MIMHD, SAMHSA and NIJ, looks at public mental health, race and ethnic disparities in health and health care, literacy, education, and health. She has developed teaching and education materials regarding the SDOH for clinicians and has deep experience in program evaluation. Professor Lincoln oversees and teaches parts of the Salus Populi curriculum that relate to public health and health equity and provide expert methodological consultation to the program’s
evaluation efforts.

Beth Molnar, ScD, SM – Director, Population Health PhD Program; Associate Director, Institute of Health Equity and Social Justice Research, Northeastern University
Dr. Molnar is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist and a Professor in the Department of Health Sciences. She is the Director of the Population Health PhD Program and the Associate Director of the Institute of Health Equity and Social Justice Research (IHESJR) at Northeastern University. Her scholarship focuses on two major areas: (1) violent, traumatic experiences (such as child maltreatment, sexual violence, community violence) and the ways that they affect children, youth and those who respond to those who experience violence, i.e. vicarious trauma; and (2) the social context of high-risk behaviors among adolescents (the latter often being sequelae of the first.).