Societal Factors
· Racism as a public health emergency
· Increasing recognition of the harmful effects of structural impediments to health and education equity
· Rising impact of social justice issues on student, family and community well-being
· Addressing the impact of social media on the health literacy of students and their families’ access to appropriate health information and the rise of misinformation.
· Growth in frequency of infectious diseases, natural, environmental, and man-made disasters bring a need to address the capacity for surveillance, emergency response, mitigation, and recovery planning.
· Includes epidemics (H1N1, 2011), and pandemics (COVID-19); natural and environmental disasters (lead in drinking water, flooding, wildfires) and human migration (refugees, political or economic and social violence).
· Increasing focus by the health profession on public health and individual human health threats and inequities caused by climate change and the need for an accelerated response to mitigate and adapt to these threats.
· Increasing number of students with special health needs, e.g., allergies, infant surviving neonatal intensive care, survival to preschool and entrance to kindergarten; those with severe health conditions, cancer, and early hospital discharge with remaining complex care needs due to inequalities in healthcare.
