Upstream
Looking Upstream: Tackling the Root Causes of Health Inequalities When it comes to health, we often focus on treating illnesses once they appear: prescribing medication, performing surgeries, or offering lifestyle advice. But what if we could prevent many of these issues before they ever reached the doctor’s office? That’s the idea behind the Upstream Theory in public health (Onie, 2018). Imagine standing by a river. People are struggling in the water, drifting downstream, and you rush to pull them out. While lifesaving, you eventually start to wonder: why are so many people falling in to begin with? Instead of just rescuing them, wouldn’t it make more sense to walk upstream and stop people from falling in at all? That’s the heart of the upstream approach: looking beyond immediate fixes and focusing on the root causes of poor health (Onie, 2018). What Does “Upstream” Mean in Healthcare? In healthcare, going upstream means tackling the social determinants of health (SDOH) inclu...