This past week at the Knowlton School, Megan Sandel, MD, MPH, presented a lecture titled "The Housing Vaccine: Why Stable Decent Affordable Homes Keep Communities Healthy". Dr. Sandel is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health and a co-principal investigator with Children's Health Watch.
Dr. Sandel's lecture presented research done with Children's Health Watch. The research is aimed at understanding the importance of affordable housing and how to use housing as a tool to improve health outcomes. With the findings, they hope to create permanent solutions and develop efficient models for countering housing insecurity.
Dr. Sandel argues that housing is a part of a vaccine that can be issued to lower income or lower advantage neighborhoods. She proposes that affordable housing is a first in a series of vaccines to improve community health.
Sandel raises some issues including how housing insecurity can begin to affect overall health. According to Sandel's research, housing insecurity plays a large role in socio-emotional behaviors particularly in the lives of children. Some of the housing insecurities that are described are frequent moves, consistently being behind on rent, food problems, etc.
Also addressed was the issue of opportunity within neighborhoods. Housing insecurity affects the amount of opportunities that residents have. There is the idea of equality vs. equity. In the realm of housing, it is important to understand that some areas need more investment and more care than others.
More information about the school and a full schedule of lectures can be found at knowlton.osu.edu. Previous lectures can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/user/knowltonosu/.
This blog will be a feeder for recent news, events and student work occurring at the Knowlton School at The Ohio State University. Posts will typically center around updates from the school's lecture series, exciting projects from recent student reviews and updates from other school events.
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