I posted a speech I gave recently at a conference on health equity for children. One of the themes we talked about was that health care professionals and institutions have considerable prestige and social standing, and can use this privileged position to effectively speak to social issues beyond health. At the same time, there is broad sympathy for children’s health and kids facing health challenges. This means that children’s health providers are in a particularly good position to argue that avoidable poverty and health inequalities for kids is socially unacceptable and storing up real problems for the future, and to add their voices to advocating for action on the wider social determinants of health. Here is an interesting example of a video highlighting the health impact of child poverty from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. http://www.youtube.com/user/CHEOvideos#p/u/5/kct6h7FupmA