Taking Action in Global Health for the Next Generation
This year’s Global Health Students and Young Professionals Summit (GHSYPS) encourages like-minded individuals to take action within the global health sphere while broadening their vision of global health. Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest among this generation to address health disparities both within local communities and on a more global scale. The summit aims to hone relevant skills to better tool emergent health professionals to take on global health challenges in an inclusive and modern manner.
Key learning outcomes for GHSYPS 2023 will revolve around addressing health disparities in two global health topics:
- Current Focuses in Global Health
- All Health is Global Health
Current Focuses within Global Health
In an increasingly globalized world, global health has never been more relevant. The COVID-19 pandemic has created new inequities while exacerbating pre-existing disparities worldwide. Since 2020, pandemic prevention and disease X have been of growing interest in global health discourses.
Further, the extreme weather events occurring in Canada, such as the record-breaking 2023 wildfire season and globally, such as the floods in Sudan, have highlighted the need to work together to ensure a collectively healthier future.
Other emerging topics, such as digital health and population aging, continue to remain a focus as well.
Emergent global health professionals could benefit from harnessing the tools necessary to educate the public about global health topics, design global health solutions and use practical tools to reduce health inequities. This sub-theme will delve into the following: What are the current focuses in global health? How can we take action in global health? What skills do we need to tackle current and future global health crises? How can we hone our research and communication skills relevant to global health?
All Health is Global Health
The term “global health” evokes a preconceived image in our heads. In global health discourses, many people believe that global health refers to health as it exists somewhere else, in a different country. But in its essence, global health examines the overarching factors, the social determinants of health, whether they be of a social, political or economic nature, that contribute to health inequities. Global health should not be defined by any specific geographical location. As such, all health is global health.
As future global health leaders, we must reflect on what health disparities exist within our communities and strategies to move toward greater equity, understand how social and environmental context influences health and disease, understand how we collaborate, partner and communicate to promote health equity, understanding how advocacy and social justice are part of our role and understanding the limitations of our perspectives and the need for diverse voices to shape better health outcomes.
Within Canada, there remain prominent gaps in child and maternal health across different socio-economic statuses, gaps in health equity for Indigenous people, opioid crisis and vaccine hesitancy. Globally, these issues also exist. For instance, global colonial policies created ongoing system structures that serve as the basis for unjust power structures, behaviours, and beliefs, which have adverse effects on Indigenous communities. For this sub-theme, we will ponder: How is all health related to global health? What are the key global health challenges and concerns specific to Canada? What is the difference between international health and global health? How we do ensure that we include community partners when working to promote health equity and when working on global health-related initiatives?
GHSYPs Summit 