Changing Care - by Jennifer Brady & Jacqui Gingras

Book Synopsis

How can health professionals use advocacy and activism to advance social justice?
Changing Care: Advancing Social Justice in the Health Professions is a collection of essays from healthcare practitioners presenting unique and diverse perspectives on the devastating effects of structural injustice from the front lines of the health care system. They witness the impact of poverty, racism, misogyny, and ableism on their patients' wellbeing, seeing firsthand how these and other forms of structural violence can obstruct access to vital resources necessary for health and survival. Despite this deeply felt urgency, educational and regulatory bodies have been painfully slow to respond to these systemic inequities.

Changing Care explores the crucial roles that health professions and practitioners can--and should--play in advancing social justice amid some of the most urgent public health issues of our time, including anti-Black racism, data governance, and the opioid crisis. Through a blend of research, case studies, and personal stories, the book offers practical strategies and solutions that can be applied both in an everyday practice and beyond traditional health care settings.

Changing Care carves a path forward for both health professionals and the organizations that educate, train, and regulate their services to embrace their responsibility in driving social and structural change.

About the Author

Jennifer Brady is a Registered Dietitian and Associate Professor in Women's and Gender Studies and the School of Nutrition and Dietetics at Acadia University in Mtaban, Mi'kma'ki (Wolfville, Nova Scotia). Her work explores food, health, and social justice with an emphasis on health professionals' role in social justice, the history of home economics, and cultural food security.

Jacqui Gingras is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her research explores social health movements, fat studies, critical pedagogies, and decolonization of higher education and health professions within the entanglements of colonial neoliberal economics and intersectional feminisms.