Affecting real lives: the human cost of health inequalities
/This article was featured in the SCDC Weekly - 28th May 2025
Last week we shared information on how key global targets around life expectancy are due to be missed - targets that show outcomes related health inequalities are not improving, and in some cases are getting worse.
While these statistics on health inequalities are shocking, we don’t truly gain an insight into what that means for people in reality. That’s why it’s vital that we understand the human cost of not addressing the underlying causes of health inequalities.
One way that's happening in Scotland is through people being able to tell their stories and, crucially, relate their life experiences to wider social injustices.
Through the Health Issues in the Community (HIIC) course, participants have channelled their lived and living experience into creative, compelling stories that act as a call to action for decision-makers.
With community development at its core, the course promotes the values of equality and non-discrimination, and the idea that everyone should be able to have a say in decision-making processes that affect them - and the value of telling stories that go further than the statistics.
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