SSWLHC Anti-Racism Advocacy Statement

Anti-Racism Advocacy Statement

As an organization, the Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care recognizes what Berwick calls “moral determinants of health”¹, thus the members of the Society for Social Work Leaders in Health Care are committed to being proactive in advocating for reforms to address the conscious and unconscious bias in healthcare, behavioral health, and other systems in which we have influence as social workers. Therefore, in order for us to address systematic racism, social justice, and health inequities we commit to being proactive and to speak out against injustice. Social Work is a profession that has at its foundation advocacy for vulnerable patients and communities.

 – The Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care Board of Directors

¹In his recent JAMA article, Donald Berwick eloquently describes what he termed the “moral determinants of health,”  by which he meant a strong sense of social solidarity in which people in the United States would “depend on each other for securing the basic circumstances of healthy lives,” reflecting a “moral law within.”