Our Purpose

Eliminating Health Disparities
by Addressing the Social Determinants of Health

PLACE MATTERS is a nationwide initiative of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Health Policy Institute (www.jointcenter.org).  The initiative is intended to improve the health of participating communities by addressing social conditions that lead to poor health.  Our national learning community consists of 16 PLACE MATTERS Teams responsible for designing and implementing health strategies for residents in 21 counties and three cities.  The Health Policy Institute provides technical assistance to participating Teams in the form of facilitation, Design Lab meetings (including national-level experts and peer-to-peer learning opportunities), technical assistance grants, and access to data.  

Our approach to reducing health disparities involves identifying the complex root causes of health disparities and defining strategies to address them.  Addressing upstream causes of health (for example, employment, education, poverty, and housing) is at the core of our work.  With generous funding provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the PLACE MATTERS Initiative attempts to address social determinants through the work of the participating Teams.

What are Social Determinants of Health?

“Social conditions are major determinants of health.  Social forces acting at a collective level shape individual biology, individual risk behaviors, environmental exposures, and access to resources that promote health.  There is a graded relationship between social position and health status that affects people at all levels of the social hierarchy.  While public health programs alone cannot ameliorate the social forces that are associated with poor health outcomes, developing a better understanding of the social determinants of health is critical to reducing health disparities among Washington State residents of differing socioeconomic position.”  -- The Health of Washington State, 2007