From the Co-Chairs  1  
From the Incoming Co-Chair  1  
Virtual Meeting 2020  2  
Commentary on COVID  2  
Community Health Praxis Award 2020  3  
Graduate Student Paper Award 2020  3  
Recent News (Awards and Publications) and SSSP resources  4  
Gift a Membership  5  
Farewell from the 2018.2020 Co-Chair  5  

2020 Division Co-Chairs 
Meredith Bergey 
Co-Chair (2018-2020) Villanova University 
meredith.bergey@villanova.edu 
Kathleen Abrahamson 
Co-Chair (2019-2021) Purdue University kaabraha@purdue.edu 


Dear Health, Health Policy, & Health Services Division Members, 
We hope  this finds everyone  safe and well during this unprecedented time. As you know, the 2020 Meeting in San Francisco was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. We are disappointed not to be able to reconnect in-person and would like to  thank all of our session organizers, presenters, and  discussants for their role in organizing an exciting program. 
In lieu of the in-person meeting, SSSP will be holding a virtual meeting (Aug. 7th), with a timely plenary session on pandemics (see details within). We hope to see you there! Our Division members are poised to play an integral role in examining and addressing the many social and policy implications of COVID-19. We encourage members to collaborate and share insights on this complex, ever-evolving issue. 
We look forward to next year's program, entitled Revolutionary Sociology: Truth, Healing, Reparations & Restructuring. Look for SSSP's call for papers this Fall and consider submitting to the DivisionÕs Graduate Student Paper or new Outstanding Scholarship Award competitions. Consider nominating a health organization for our Division's 2021 Community Praxis Award as well. 
Lastly, we encourage you to renew your member.ship and spread the word about our division. We are currently one of the largest SSSP divisions and we hope to see membership continue to grow. Thank you to our members for their continued support. We hope you are all safe and well. 

-Meredith Bergey and Kathleen Abrahamson 


Introducing the 2020-2022 Co-Chair 
Hi everyone. I am excited about being co-chair of the Health Division. I have been active in SSSP as Vice President and chair of 2 other Divisions, but my heart has always been with the Health Division. I worked in health 
care for over 20 years as a home care and hospice executive before enter-ing academia. My teaching focuses on policy -heavily on health policy. My research has evolved from my home 
care and hospice experience; mainly the home care experience. I have written many articles and done many presentations on my mainly qualitative studies. The studies are based on exploratory interviews with home care nurses and social workers on the Medicare home health benefit, specifically the Benefit's failure to assess and treat substance abuse; failure to address social determinants of health; failure to cover evidence-based interventions, specifically for depression and Alzheimer's disease; and failure to cover professional social work services. I look forward to planning for next year's (2021) SSSP annual meeting and meeting more of you in person. Please feel free to email me (wcabin @umich.edu or tuf34901@temple.edu). Until then, take care and be well. 

-William Cabin, Temple University (2020-2022) 


This meeting is complimentary for current members and will include a plenary session on the topic of pandemics, entitled Pandemics Clarify: Another World is Possible, Another World is Necessary. See below for the full schedule. We hope to see you there! 
For more information, visit: https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/783/2020_Annual_Meeting/ 

Commentary on COVID-19 


The Covid-19 pandemic has under-scored and ex.acerbated injustice and inequality in regards to health, healthcare and health policy. This is partic.ularly true in the United States where despite our advanced economic status the lack of universal access to healthy living environments, work environ.ments, and health care has led to a disproportion.ate burden within segments of our society. For example, 22.4% of Covid-19 deaths in the US were among Black individuals (www.CDC.gov, 8/3/20), although only 13.4% of US adults are Black. Geographic areas with large Native American populations have seen disproportionately high rates of disease (NYT, 7/30/20). Beyond these and other racial or ethnic disparities there is increased risk for Ôessential workersÕ, who often perform lower-wage service work that is truly essential for society to operate, yet are often unsupported in regards to labor rights such as workplace safety, reasonable work hours, healthcare benefits, autonomy in the workplace, and equitable pay. Additionally, 40% of COVID deaths in the US have been among nursing home residents, highlighting the risk to those living in communal housing situations, as well as health care workers (www. Cidrap.umn.edu). As social science scholars, we understand the Òwhy?Ó behind such glaring disparities. It is understood that discriminatory experiences, lack of access to sound nutrition, lack of safe space for outdoor activity, crowded or unsafe housing, stress and fatigue from difficult working conditions, lack of access to quality education and child-care, and lack of access to health care negatively influence individual and community outcomes across the lifespan. Conversely, individuals who are economically able to social distance, provide quality virtual education experiences for their children, access rapid testing, and have a lifetime of preventative health care are benefiting from privilege.  While these disparities have been well publicized, one could argue that the US policy response has been inadequate to address the needs of the vulnerable. Our work as a Division is crucial during this time. It is through our organized voice supporting social justice in health, equitable health policy, and inclusive access to health care that change can happen. 

-Kathleen Abrahamson 

SSSPÑ Health, Health Policy & Health Services Page 3 
Honoring Local Organizations for Community Health Praxis 
We are honored to award the Health Division's inaugural Community Health Praxis Award to Street LevelHealth Project for their tireless work to empower marginalized communities of color. Members work closely with the neighbor.hoods they serve to promote equitable and dignified access to health care and employment -advancing the wellbeing of uninsured, under-insured and recently arrived immigrants in the Oakland California area. 
For more information about the work Street Level Health Project is doing, please visit their website at: http://streetlevelhealthproject.org/. 


SSSP2021,Chicago 

Inspired by the social justice work a health organization is doing? 
Consider nominating them for the Division's 2021 Community Health Praxis Award! Please send the name and a brief paragraph describing the mission and service of the organization to Kathleen Abrahamson (kaabraha @purdue.edu) and William Cabin (tuf34901@temple.edu). 

2020 Health Division Student Paper Competition Award Winner Anne McGlynn-Wright, Tulane University 

ÒThe Role of Science in Shaping Surveillance of Pregnant Bodies: The Case of WICÓ 
A substantial literature has demonstrated the importance of the perceived race, gender, and class statuses of policy targets in shaping punitive and surveilling social welfare policies. Despite the pregnant body being an important site of political contestation, pregnancy status remains under-examined in the context of social welfare development. Using comparative historical methods and relying on congressional, presidential and other archival data from the 1960s to 1970s, I examine the emergence of two food assistance programsÑone generally targeted (SNAP) and one targeted specifically at pregnant individuals, infants, and young children (WIC). I argue that pregnant individuals were easily constructed by politicians and advocates as medical subjects. Viewing WIC recipients through a medical framework necessitated medical re.sponsesÑfood distribution was performed within medical centers, program evaluations required health metrics, and eligibility criteria necessitated a medical assessment of nutri.tional risk. These programmatic elements defined hunger and malnutrition for pregnant people, infants, and children within a medical framework, reinforced the importance of medical professionals to the program, and allowed for a level of bodily surveillance unprecedented in other food assistance programs. I discuss the implications of program criteria for the privacy rights of WIC recipients. 


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Recent Member Announcements, News, Awards, & Publications 

Virtual conference invitation: "Pathways to Health Equity: Dismantling Barriers and Creating Solutions through Integrative Health." 

The Integrative Medicine for the Underserved annual conference is of particular interest to social scientists who work on complementary, integrative and traditional health and health care approaches. It will be taking place virtually 8/27-8/29. We're currently doing early bird pricing, lots of financial aid is available, and all are welcome. Feel free to reach out with any questions. https://im4us.org/conferences/2020-conference/ 

Recent Publications: 

Thompson-Lastad, Ariana, and Sara Rubin. 2020. A Crack in the wall: Chronic pain management in integrative group medical visits. Social Science & Medicine. 258 doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113061

Dobransky, Kerry. 2020. Reassessing Mental Illness Stigma in Mental Health Care: Competing Stigmas and Risk Containment. Social Science and Medicine 249. doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.11286 

Cabin, William. 2019. Social Workers Assert Medicare Home Care Ignores Social Determinants of Health Home Health Care Management & Practice doi.org/10.1177/1084822320923988 

Cabin, William. 2019. "Less is Better" Philosophy Decreases Home Health Aide Utilization to Increase Reimbursement in Medicare Home Health Home Health Care Management and Practice doi.org/10.1177/108482231989010 

Cabin, William. 2020. In the Realm of Haunting Ghosts: Denying the Existence of Substance Abuse in Medicare Home Health Journal of Evidence-Informed Social Work doi.org/10.1080/26408066.2020.1723770 

Congratulations to Bill Cabin for being named a 2019 Distinguished Alumni by the University of Michigan School of Social Work! 

SSSP Resources 
Fellowships & Scholarships: 
https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/328/ Fellowships_&_Scholarships/ 
Members News: 
https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/359/ Members_News/ 
Member Announcements: 
https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/360/ Announcements/ 

Job Opportunities: 
https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/320/ 
Call for Submissions and Conferences: 
https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/361/ 
Membership renewal: 
https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/pageid/925/ 

Call for Papers 
The official call for papers will be issued in October. Visit the SSSP web.site for more 
details: https://www.sssp1.org 
SSSP Awards, including Division Awards 
https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/397/Awards/ 
Online Resources Related to Health Policy Research 

Below, please find several resources for sharing topics on the current research needs of the health-care delivery system and state of those topics. 
https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/ hblog20190123.63012/full/ https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues http://www.ncsl.org/research/health.aspx https://www.kff.org/ 
SSSPÑ Health, Health Policy & Health Services Page 5 

Gift a Membership! 

While we may not be meeting in-person as a Society this year, the work and dedication of our members to issues of social justice is more important than ever. Please consider gifting a membership to a graduate stud.ent or a non-academic activist Ð their membership ensures them opportunities for active participation in the Society and its divisions. A membership for graduate students is only $33/year, and comes with 2 free division memberships. First-time professional membership is only $50 and each member receives a free division membership. Current members interested in gifting a membership, please contact sssp@utk.edu to inquire. 

Fall/Winter Newsletter Submissions 

We want to hear from you! Our Division's newsletter provides a platform for sharing innovations in teaching, research, and policy as well as commentary on health concerns occurring locally and internationally. Contributions can include images as well as written text, as long as they can be easily reproduced and transferred. As always, we welcome announcements of recent publications, media appearances, reports on comm.unity events, job opportunities, and other breaking news from Health Division members. 
Please submit all newsletter items to Kathleen Abrahamson at (kaabraha@purdue.edu). 

Farewell from the 2018-2020 Co-Chair 

I would like to thank everyone for the wonderful opportunity to serve the Health Division as Co-Chair. ItÕs been a tremendous experience getting to know our members, organizing the programs in New York and San Francisco, working on sub-committees and newsletters, and seeing the amazing work Ð in research, practice, and activism - that our division members conduct in matters of health, health policy, and health services. IÕd like to thank our previous co-chair, Debora Paterniti, for her dedication and service to the division and all it stands for. I would also like to thank our current co-Chair, Kathy Abrahamson, for a fantastic partnership over the last year and for all that you do for the Division. It was a pleasure working with you both. I wish everyone safe and well and hope to see you all in Chicago! - All the Best, Meredith