There is a Public Health crisis affecting individuals, families, entire communities and our society-at-large. It is the precursor of most preventable illnesses and death. This systemic problem is blended into the fabric of EVERY socio-environmental context.  

Human Communication Institute (HCI) and equally concerned healthcare advocates, recognize this specific crisis as the absence of effective communication and listening skills amongst interdependent individuals and groups  affecting and exacerbating current public health inequities. HCI identifies Human  Communication skills -distinguishable from the biological abilities of talking and hearing – as the #1 determinant of a healthy Public Health system and institution. 

Residents in public housing and allies protest use of institutional color used in prison and public buildings.

In its inaugural manuscript, Public Health Liberation emphasized research through diverse approaches to include quality formal academic research and data-gathering. It sought to democratize how research is conducted by relying on academic and community partnerships to assess sources of harm to community health. Several approaches were discussed related to air quality monitoring, tracking community health outcomes, resident displacement, and worsening social determinants of health. Led by founders of Public Health Liberation, Project Southwest was an unfunded cross-sectional study on neighborhood change and health. The recently published manuscript discusses new measures for studying the effects of intense change in the built environments.

These flashcards break down some key concepts in Public Health Liberation Theory and Practice.

Our communities of practice face an endless barrage of challenges to community health. We have compiled a list of liberation strategies that do require little to no costs. Public Health Liberation theorizes that increasing liberation expression and action are essential for accelerating health equity. A lack of public investment in communities’ liberation capacity is thought to be a causal factor in health inequity reproduction. In our conceptualization of community of practice, we need individuals who share a common identity and have geographical closeness while also shouldering a shared health burden.

Our manuscript discussed the deep income and racial chasms in the nation's capital. The Black-white life expectancy gap is an astonishing 12 and 17 years, respectively for females and males. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development recently issued the results of an audit into the DC Housing Authority (DCHA), concluding that the city's largest landlord had 82 findings of deficiencies. The 72-page report noted that the housing authority had the largest percentage of empty units of any housing authority in the nation, among procurement violations and poor commitment to housing quality for low-income residents. While the report does not examine the health implications of DCHA's poor upkeep, including mold, pests, and rodent infestations, the public health import is clear. 

I am completing my graduate studies at a top research US university while trying to heal from racial trauma and other forms of psychological injury that I have experienced while training - senior faculty speaking to me of "lazy Black people," being separated by race for class activities, instructor disdain for critical race theory and other critical theories, assigned readings on Blacks and criminality, and denial that any racism exists at all in the learning environment. As a form of historical re-traumatization due to being a descendant of enslaved African Americans, I was not able to negotiate the value of my labor when a faculty member exploited other students' and my labor by using course assignments to fulfill activities that a federal grant specifically funded. We had not consented to use our labor in this way and had no insight into the unethical and illegal practice until the end of the semester when it was too late.

As with our inaugural manuscript, our subsequent white paper will undergo peer-review. We are preparing a follow-up discussion on PHL research, practice, and training. The following themes will be explored. The manuscript is expected in fall 2022 or winter 2023. In part, it will critically assess accepted approaches and practices in research on race and ethnicity that we believe to be methodologically and ethically problematic.

Systemic Racism in Society Has Major Implications for Research - Clear evidence of widespread racism in the public health economy suggests an "exposure" which most major research studies should account for, as it likely confounds study findings that cannot be controlled for simply by controlling for race in data analysis. Race is an ill-defined construct apt to measurement error. In fact, any belief in the common occurrence of racism translates as a nesting effect in statistical theory and makes many common inferential statistical tests inappropriate.