Tackling health inequalities and the Anti-Poverty Strategy
Tackling inequalities in health and social care is a key element of the work of the Department and of the Health and Social Care (HSC) family of organisations.
- A Healthier Future (PDF 673 KB) - the regional strategy for health and wellbeing in Northern Ireland - presents a vision of how health and social services will develop in the next twenty years. It highlights the links between deprivation and ill health and the need to tackle the social, economic and environmental inequalities that impact on our health and wellbeing.
- Through the cross-departmental public health strategy, Investing for Health
, we are working towards reducing health inequalities by focusing on the wider determinants of health, which include the effects of poverty, disadvantage and social exclusion
- The DHSSPS's distribution of funds to each of the Health and Social Services Boards is largely determind by the application of the Capitation Formula. The Capitation Formula is kept under review to ensure that, at the most strategic level, health and social care resources are allocated fairly and more effectively according to need, including deprivation-related need.
The Department's work on tackling health inequalities sits alongside Lifetime Opportunities, the Government's Anti-Poverty and Social Inclusion Strategy for Northern Ireland. The Department is fully committed to playing its part in meeting the challenges contained in the strategy.
, the Government's Anti-Poverty and Social Inclusion Strategy for Northern Ireland. The Department is fully committed to playing its part in meeting the challenges contained in the strategy.Inequalities Monitoring
The Inequalities Monitoring system comprises various indicators which are monitored over time to assess area differences across morbidity, utilisation and access to Health and Social Care services in NI. Results for each indicator for the 20% most deprived (as per 2005 NISRA Measures of Deprivation) and the 20% most rural areas are compared with the NI average. There is also a comparison of the Section 75 equality group profiles of the areas with the 20% worst outcomes with NI overall for selected indicators.
In October 2007 the Department published its second update bulletin on the Health and Social Care Inequalities Monitoring System which provides an up-to-date picture of health inequalities in relation to area differences in morbidity, mortality, utilisation and access to health and social services.
