Social Determinants of Health

Health Fund Sponsors Kansas Airing of New PBS Series on What Makes Us Sick
The Health Fund is sponsoring the airing of a four-part documentary series on the social determinants of health on Kansas PBS stations. “UNNATURAL CAUSES: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?” will first air on KPTS Wichita on four consecutive Thursday nights starting March 27 from 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. On Topeka KTWU, the series will air on Sundays at 2:30 p.m. beginning March 30. Smoky Hills KOOD is scheduling the series to start in May. The four-hour series looks at what makes us sick, investigating new findings that suggest there is much more to poor health than bad habits, inadequate health care or unlucky genes. The series circles in on a slow killer in plain view: the social circumstances in which we are born, live and work that can affect our risk of disease as surely as germs and viruses.

The Health Fund will offer complimentary copies, while supplies last, of the study guide “Health Through Faith and Community” as part of our sponsorship. The study guide, developed as a project of the Health Fund through the KU School of Social Welfare, is a resource for Christian faith communities to learn more about the spiritual and social factors that affect health and ways to promote personal and community well-being. Further details about the study guide appear in the following article.

Health Through Faith and Community Study Guide Offered
The Health Fund has a limited number of copies of the“Health Through Faith and Community: A Study Resource for Christian Faith Communities to Promote Personal and Social Well-Being” study guide available, which we are offering to Kansans at no charge. To request a copy, please use our simple online form or call 800-369-7191.

The curriculum contains eight study sessions which can be used independently or together as a multi-week class. The guide provides information and learning activities on the physical, mental, social, spiritual, and environmental aspects of health from an ecumenical Christian perspective.

The study guide is designed as an instructor resource, containing handouts and worksheets which may be copied and distributed to class participants. Participants do not need individual copies of the book.

The study guide was produced through a Health Fund grant and written by a team led by KU social work professor Ed Canda, Ph.D. Haworth Press is the publisher.

Supplemental materials to aid in teaching the curriculum are available at www.healthfaithstudy.info. The supplemental materials include electronic versions of the overheads and handouts contained in the book, and a special supplement available only online. Interested out of state persons or churches are encouraged to purchase a copy of the study guide, which is available through several online bookstores. Google Books has additional information including page previews and links to several resellers carrying the study guide.