Health Equity Core (HEC)

Chronic pain and fatigue conditions are more common and more severe among historically marginalized and underrepresented populations. This includes women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, those living in rural or frontier settings, and those who are incarcerated or without housing. Called health inequities, these differences in health are avoidable, unfair, and unjust.

Social and environmental factors contribute to health inequities in chronic pain conditions, including:

• Implicit and explicit bias, stigmatization, and marginalization.
• Systemic racism, ageism, sexism, classism, ableism, etc. 
• A lack of access or restricted access to resources like health insurance, a good primary care provider, nutritious food, clean water, non-polluted air, safe communities, decent housing, and transportation.
• A lack of representation, diversity, and inclusion in research and the development of interventions.

Health equity will be achieved when every person can attain their full physical and mental health potential.

To advance health equity, our mission is to increase diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility within clinical care, research, and intervention development for chronic pain and fatigue conditions. Meaningful and mutually beneficial partnerships between research investigators and representatives of historically marginalized and underrepresented groups are necessary to accomplish this mission. We are committed to developing and sustaining multi-directional learning and resource-sharing across researchers, physicians, patient groups, and representatives of historically marginalized and underrepresented communities. 

• Prioritize local context and perspectives from historically marginalized and underrepresented communities across the research life cycle.
• Co-create and disseminate evidence-based resources that can improve the diagnosis, treatment, and management of chronic pain and fatigue conditions. 
• Raise awareness about health inequities and community needs related to these inequities.
• Mentor students and junior investigators in social determinants of chronic pain conditions, community-engaged research approaches and health equity.
• Continually evaluate our objectives, processes, and progress to inform and advance best practices in community-engaged research for chronic pain and fatigue conditions.

PainGuide.com: This is a website that provides educational resources for people who have chronic pain and their families.

ConquerLupus.com: This is a website that provides educational resources for people who have lupus and their families.

ABetterMewithSCD.com: This is a website that provides educational resources for people who have sickle cell disease and their families.

PASCguide.com: This is a website that provides educational resources for people who have long COVID, also known as post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), and their families.