Abstract
Purpose: This article explores the results of community-engaged PhotoVoice research with the Family Tree Clinic (FTC) in St. Paul, MN. FTC has >45 years of experience providing sexual, reproductive, and primary health care, with a central mission of overcoming issues for their patients including those of poverty, oppression, lack of access, and discrimination in meeting health care needs.Methods: This research presents the findings of social justice-inspired PhotoVoice focus groups with patients of the clinic that asked two central questions: “Why do you choose Family Tree Clinic” and “What stands in the way of achieving your goals for your health?”Results: When health equity is a central priority and evident in clinic culture, practices, and policies, patients articulate positive experiences despite real structural and systemic barriers outside the clinic.Conclusion: We offer suggestions for a health equity-oriented approach to clinic care.
Highlights
Together with Family Tree Clinic (FTC) we explored how patients experience clinic care when health equity is applied as a motivating theoretical concept
Research on distinctly LGBTQ+ populations continues to be limited, but the unique health experiences and disparities are well established.5–7 ‘‘ the acronym LGBT is used as an umbrella term, and the health needs of this community are often grouped together, each of these letters represents a distinct population with its own health concerns.’’7 (p.1) To address the health needs and disparities of LGBTQ+ communities, research and clinical approaches to LGBTQ+ health care need to acknowledge ‘‘(a) heterogeneity and intersectionality within LGBT communities; (b) the influence of structural and environmental context; and (c) both health-promoting and adverse pathways that encompass behavioral, social, psychological, and biological processes.’’6 (p.653)
FTC removes these barriers by training its staff to navigate these systems by working with ideologies of equity, in hopes of alleviating the burden on the patients and delivering quality health care
Summary
Health equity is the most central theoretical and applied concept guiding global and public health today.[1,2,3,4] Together with Family Tree Clinic (FTC) we explored how patients experience clinic care when health equity is applied as a motivating theoretical concept. In this clinic, health equity is not just a concept articulated in the mission statement, but it is integrated into every aspect of clinic policy, structure, and practice.
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