Aligning in Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic struggles highlighted long-standing health and societal inequities. Many believe there are ways that health care, public health, and social services can coordinate and align policy, organizational, and cross-sector efforts to offset the impacts of COVID-19, rebuild the economy and more adequately address systemic racism.

The Georgia Health Policy Center, in partnership with the School of Public Health at George Washington University and with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is working to identify, synthesize, and disseminate cross-sector policy and implementation opportunities that facilitate recovery from the triple crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, the resulting economic struggles, and the ongoing impact of systemic racism. Together, researchers from both universities will build understanding among federal, state, and local policymakers of the core components that enable health care, public health, and social sectors to effectively align to meet the goals and needs of people most affected by health inequity. This will include working with partners and emerging research to support national surveillance and implementation of alignment policy and practice activity.