Reflecting on My Summer with the Office of Minority Health and Public Health Policy

Finding solutions to health inequities presents a daunting task: improving the health of the most disadvantaged and marginalized populations, the groups that are left behind. This is the mission of the Office of Minority Health and Public Health Policy (OMHPHP), which seeks to advance health equity for all Virginians.

Sadly, this advance often seems to be moving at a snail’s pace, or occasionally not at all. Many health inequities persist in spite of the best efforts of many public health workers. In the face of harsh realities, progress is sometimes all too slow to come. It can be discouraging, but I hold out hope. Health equity is being advanced and agencies like the OMHPHP are leading the charge.

I find inspiration in a curious source: Latin American writer Roberto Bolaño, author of the novels The Savage Detectives and 2666, among other works. Those familiar with Bolaño’s work will understand why I acknowledge him as an unexpected source of inspiration. His writing forces readers to look deep into the abyss of the post-modern experience, one that is frequently filled with death, madness and injustice. But according to Bolaño, despite the apparent futility, we must confront the horrors of our reality in order to change it. In his essay “Illness + Literature = Illness,” he writes:

“While we search for the antidote or the medicine to cure us, the new, that which can only be found in the unknown, we must continue…even knowing [the search] will lead us into the abyss, which, as it happens, is the only place we can find the cure.”

Perhaps my reading of Bolaño’s dark writing is overly optimistic. But to me, the search for “the new,” the cure for what ails us, is an act of great value and beauty. Only by facing up to the injustices of the world—health inequity among them—can we expect to impact them.

This is exactly what the staff of the OMHPHP does every day—along with millions of other public health professionals around the world—as they continue their own search for the new, working to advance health equity. I hope that in some way I contributed to this advance with my work this summer.

No matter, for the search for the new continues. One day soon, I am certain, we will find it.

Chris Gunther is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in Hispanic Studies and Health and Societies with a concentration in Public Health. This summer with OMHPHP he completed a language needs assessment for Virginia’s health districts, setting guidelines for how districts should work with limited English proficient (LEP) individuals. His interests include Latin America and Latino populations, health and development, and health inequities.