What shapes our health? In this session we will talk about the building blocks of collective health, the causes and effects of health inequalities, and the impact that an unequal distribution of wealth, resources, and opportunities can have on our lives and wellbeing. We will explore the barriers and challenges that come with leading positive change around complex, sensitive, and sometimes overwhelming topics, and how we can best support each other and work collectively, across our sectors of social care, health and social work, to overcome them.
What you can expect:
In this Diversity Coffee Connect session, we welcome Cristina Fernandez-Garcia. The session will explore health inequalities and leadership.
We will start the session with an introduction from Cristina, then participants will be put into smaller groups to allow for deeper reflection and conversation.
Prior to this event, to help inform our conversations, we encourage you to read the blog that Cristina has kindly prepared, linking to the theme of the session and her leadership journey.
The Leading to Change Diversity Coffee Connect programme aims to provide a safe learning space to connect with others across the sectors to have important, informal conversations about equality, diversity and inclusion. The sessions are open to leaders at all levels and stages across social care, social work and health in Scotland.
Cristina Fernandez-Garcia
Role:
Specialist Lead – Health Inequalities, Social Care and Communities Directorate at NES
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept”.
I believe that this quote by Angela Davis perfectly summarises my approach to life. I’m Cristina, and I’m the specialist lead in health inequalities at NES. My background is in Medicine, and very early on in my career I realised the biomedical model of health was not for me. I did my specialty training in Public Health, with a great focus on gender, which inevitably led me to confront other challenging realities and systems of oppression. My last role before relocating to Scotland last year was in the field of substance use and homelessness. This experience was eye-opening in many ways, unveiling new dimensions of what stigma and discrimination can look like, and reinforcing my belief in the importance of intersectionality, multidisciplinary work and human-rights based approaches.
