On Disparities & Social Determinants of Health

On February 28, 2008, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced the creation of a commission whose principal objective is to assess the social and economic conditions that drive illness and health disparities.  You can read the press release here.  In conjunction with the announcement, RWJF released a report entitled Overcoming Obstacles to Health, which touches on many of the concerns voiced here at MH Blog regarding public health policy and the relative lack of attention and resources paid to the social determinants of health.

These are welcome developments, and to my mind, are long overdue.  The commission website is here.