The Orange County Health Department (OCHD) acknowledges that public health is a system that was and continues to be structurally and foundationally built on racist policies, practices, and procedures. Due to this history, OCHD must actively work to gain the public’s trust and to grow the department to become a more equitable system.
OCHD also acknowledges that our county's marginalized populations face barriers across systems due to racial inequities in housing, banking, education, employment, etc. all of which contribute to poor health outcomes. This is why Health Director Quintana Stewart declared Structural Racism a public health crisis.
In 2017, a courageous group of staff began a health equity journey to ensure all members of the community receive health services and support based on their needs and not their race. This health equity webpage was created to help others in our community grow with us in this work, to show our community what strides we have made in this work, and to help us stay accountable to our community.
