How can we tell the story of the health costs of financial inequity, in ways that might shape fresh ideas of fairness and values-based decision-making?

Speaker(s):

Emilie McSwiggan, University of Edinburgh

Abstract:

As the next step in this project, I am interested in working towards the creation of a training or educational resource for people who develop welfare (and related) policies: exploring the human story of poverty and health inequalities, and how it links to their work. During the Interregnum, we began to discuss how complex the story of poverty and health inequalities is, and we’ve acknowledged that this is often not well-understood in policy or research. Scotland’s Poverty Alliance discusses the importance of a ‘values first’ approach (one led by ideas of justice, fairness and common humanity) to build consensus and action on reducing poverty. In this session, I want to work with participants to explore how we could tell the story of the human cost of financial inequity, in terms of loss of health & lifespan, in collaboration with people and communities who have been directly affected. I want to think through how we might use this to help inform ‘values first’ decision-making on economic and welfare policies, and who an appropriate target audience might be. I’d like to take this forward beyond Session 2, with RMR participants and community partners. I’ll set up a Teams channel and mailing list as initial spaces for continued contact and collaboration – although we can change our mode of communication depending on what works best for the group as a whole.