Empathy and Health Inequality

Best practices to address health disparities are only as good as how well we engage with the people we are trying to serve. Culture always eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The best, most innovative health initiatives face the challenge of deeply engaging the consumers being served.

According to the Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation, 

"Health and health care disparities refer to differences in health and health care between population groups. Disparities occur across many dimensions, including race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, location, gender, disability status, and sexual orientation."

Disparities are wicked and complex issues. In fact KFF continues, "A complex and interrelated set of individual, provider, health system, societal, and environmental factors contribute to disparities in health and health care." 

Not only do real people lack access to care but that individual is part of a family, community and broader system. So goes the individual, so goes the collective.

If we want to address health disparities we must increase empathy. 

Community engagement is not easy work, but it is important work. Design Thinking gives us a tool, approach and process to meet people where they are. According to IDEO, "Design Thinking is process for creative problem solving."

Taking a human-centered approach can help us understand the person impacted and why they face disparities. The first step of Design Thinking it to empathize. How do you make sure that you are connected to the people that your work impacts – to their perspectives, their values, and their unmet needs? Much pushback from health providers comes with their limited belief that they are only tasked to provide a service that can help the individual's presenting needs. Think about how long the average doctor visit is...15 minutes tops? Empathy requires us to slow down, listen, ask clarifying questions, and look beyond symptoms and prescriptions.

First, you spend time listening — without judgement — to how others explain problems and roadblocks to success.

Empathy, the first step of human-centered design is the ability to step into another person's shoes. It actually means the ability to enter into another person's experience and connect with it in such a way that you actually experience to some degree what the other person is experiencing. 

When working to create community change start by seeking to understand the needs and aspirations of the community you are serving. Human-centered design is premised on empathy, on the idea that the people you’re designing for are co-creators to innovative solutions.

Design Questions: Start by asking these questions.

1. What Is? 

Start by defining the problem you’re trying to solve early. Before moving toward solutions, spend time gaining a deeper understanding of the needs of the people you’re serving.

• Deep learning can yield innovation. 
• Understand the other's needs, challenges, desires, dreams. 
• Engage them in coming up with the solutions. 

2. What If? 

Once you have an understanding of the people you’re serving, start ideating. Brainstorm, what might be some solutions; what might be some ways of approaching this?

 Empathy and Improved Health Outcomes

"Because of the complexities of the social determinants of health, it will take cross-sector collaboration between the health care system, local community resources, and government to reduce and eliminate their negative impacts. The ability to demonstrate empathy in the health care setting is one solution to this problem." Health Affairs 

A disparity exists because there are systemic inequalities and individual causes. Empathy is more than a "nice to", but a "need to" approach. Unless there is an intentional posture and approach, then empathy is thwarted by transaction. By nature, empathy requires relationship. Every service provider does not have to take their consumer out to coffee and lunch to get their entire life story, but how might that service provider spend time understanding more than the deficit, symptoms, presenting problem and disparity?

KFF: https://www.kff.org/disparities-policy/issue-brief/disparities-in-health-and-health-care-five-key-questions-and-answers/

IDEO: https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/what-is-design-thinking