Nov 27, 2013
Research shows that medical care accounts for only 25% of health outcomes, while the social determinants of health, including income, education, housing, food security, and immigration status, account for around 50%. This is why Toronto physicians, Dr. Gary Bloch and Dr. Julia Morinis, have started treating poverty as a disease. They screen for poverty in among their patients and treat it by prescribing income, among other creative interventions.
Gary Bloch is a family physician with St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, chair of the Ontario College of Family Physicians’ Committee on Poverty and Health, and founder of Health Providers Against Poverty.
Julia Morinis is a pediatrician who practices at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto as well as The Hospital for Sick Children.
Check it out on CBC The Current
“I decided to treat poverty not as a social or moral issue, but as a disease to be diagnosed and treated like any other.”
– Dr. Gary Bloch
