Across all specialty areas, healthcare providers are working to create patient-centered care plans that address each individual's unique health needs. To do this effectively, health equity in integrative care must be prioritized. Integrative care providers who adopt key health equity strategies are better positioned to deliver whole-person care. This approach is essential for reducing the effect of health disparities and ultimately enhancing overall patient outcomes.
Integrative health is a comprehensive approach to healthcare. Integrative health providers often blend conventional medicine with complementary therapies designed to treat the whole person. According to research published in the Global Advances in Integrative Medicine and Health academic journal, integrative health equity is a comprehensive approach to healthcare that addresses the physical, emotional, and spiritual health of individuals while recognizing the cultural, social, and structural determinants of health.
Health equity occurs when every individual can live a healthy, productive life regardless of their circumstances. There are serious health equity gaps that exist in the world today, and to improve underserved populations' healthcare, these gaps must be addressed.
Integrative care often takes a collaborative approach to healthcare. Integrative health providers can apply best practices through an equity lens by acknowledging the social determinants of health that may impact patient outcomes.
Culturally responsive care involves reducing rural and urban health disparities through inclusive practices and accessible approaches to healthcare. Making healthcare more affordable is one of the core principles of culturally responsive integrative healthcare.
Cultural humility is required when working with diverse patients. Rather than making assumptions or relying on unconscious bias, health professionals need to address patient and family preferences, recognize their cultural traditions and values, and improve language access in healthcare.
When caring for patients in underserved populations, health providers need to be aware not only of the cost of healthcare, but also of the cost of living a healthy life. For example, providers should offer patients information about budget-friendly healthy recipes to help them see that healthy eating is achievable regardless of their means.
Access to food, cultural traditions, and the time a family dedicates to health and well-being will all impact their personal health outcomes. Health providers can develop a better sense of social context by:
When working with patients, integrative health providers should collect demographic information to better understand the economic realities they face and the social support they may have. This can give them the data that they need to create better patient-centered care plans.
Providers also should work to increase their sense of cultural awareness, as this can help them better understand the cultural and spiritual traditions of their patients. Through ongoing learning and education, providers can create culturally-responsive care plans that accommodate and respect the cultural beliefs and spiritual traditions of the patients they serve.
Food plays an important role in everyday life. It is more than just a way for a person to sustain themselves — for many people, food is a reflection of their culture and traditions. As a result, integrative care providers should adapt nutrition protocols to improve food access while respecting cultural systems.
Food-as-medicine programs are designed to provide people with consistent access to nutritional resources to improve health outcomes and reduce the prevalence of chronic disease. The goal of these programs is to ensure that all people — not just those who are privileged enough — have access to high-quality, nutritionally valuable food.
Providers should acknowledge and embrace culturally rooted meal patterns and incorporate them into the budget-friendly health recipes they suggest to their patients.
In addition, integrative health professionals can provide practical support to improve food access. For instance, community gardens and health clinics can ensure that people within a local community have access to fresh produce and high-quality food.
In an effort to address time poverty and improve mental health overall, integrative health providers are taking advantage of the time-smart movement and incorporating mind-body practices into their patient-centered health plans.
The time-smart movement refers to the process of balancing available time with financial resources. Integrative health providers need to recognize that many underserved patients have less time for self-care, requiring them to create adaptive plans that improve their time-smartness.
It's unreasonable to suggest that a single mother in an underserved community should enroll in yoga classes to improve her mental health. This individual is probably working a couple of jobs, raising children, and likely doesn't have the time or money available for costly lessons. Instead, integrative health providers can provide information about accessible mind-body tools, such as visualization tools or deep breathing exercises. These can be used on demand and cost nothing.
Traditional and community healers play an essential role in many cultures, and discounting their insight and knowledge can lead to a lack of trust in those communities.
Integrative health providers can improve community-based integrative care through:
Providers can acknowledge and respect the work of community healers and collaborate with them to create a comprehensive care strategy for patients in their community.
Providers can verify the safety and compatibility of treatments that community healers rely on. It is important to be aware of potential interactions among herbs, supplements, and conventional medicines.
By forging strong and lasting community partnerships, integrative health providers can increase trust and improve patient-reported outcome measures within a community.
Diagnostic testing and additional healthcare services are often used to provide patients with comprehensive care, but integrative health providers need to be aware of how much these complementary services may cost their patients, particularly if they are working with an underserved community.
When recommending additional interventions, providers should weigh the overall value and determine which costs may be worthwhile to pursue.
Being open and honest about costs allows patients to develop a deeper sense of trust in their healthcare system and make the best decision for their own health and their personal circumstances.
Healthcare providers regularly monitor key metrics to evaluate patient outcomes and the success of health initiatives within a community, but it's important to do so through an equity lens to provide truly culturally competent care.
These are some metrics that should be monitored to improve health equity:
Outcome and disparity metrics allow health providers to better understand the differences that exist between the health outcomes of different groups of patients. For instance, minority patients often have worse health outcomes than patients in the majority, regardless of income level or access to care.
Through participatory evaluation, integrative health providers can incorporate community members into the process of measuring and tracking health outcomes. This collaborative approach builds trust, improves transparency, and actively works to reduce the health equity gap within a community.
When providing integrative care for underserved communities, these are some of the care models that can improve and support equity:
Providing patients with a short, focused visit that addresses their physical symptoms and social and emotional well-being, brief integrative visits allow patients to receive the compassionate care and support they need. Improving access to telehealth for underserved communities can help providers offer these types of visits to a wider range of patients.
Group visits and community classes bring integrative health providers into the community, where they can embed themselves in daily life. Integrative health providers enhance access and build trust by engaging patients in their current circumstances.
Community health workers and peer coaches can bridge the gap that exists between clinical healthcare settings and the community at large. They can connect individuals with the resources and tools they need to live healthier lives.
Implementing the leading health equity strategies requires a strategic and collaborative approach.
Before you can begin developing and implementing equity-focused care strategies, you will need to better understand the patient population you are working with. Begin by capturing social data that can provide you with context and help you develop responsive strategies.
Each team member on the integrative care team needs to be aware of their roles and responsibilities within an equity-focused framework. Effective communication on the team plays a crucial role in successfully improving health equity in integrative primary care.
Integrative health clinics can follow this step-by-step process to begin to improve language access in healthcare, create more affordable health offerings, and develop culturally-responsive practices:
Screening is the crucial first step to improving equity in healthcare. Providers should collect demographic data and analyze it through an equity lens to identify equity gaps.
Once you are more aware of the equity gaps that exist within your community, you can work to create and distribute resources that are both accessible and affordable.
Identifying the equity-focused metrics that best align with your community's needs can help you take a targeted approach to integrative care. These are some of the equity-focused metrics you can consider:
Start by acknowledging these realities and prioritizing stability and safety. Integrative care can still add value through brief stress tools, sleep support, and food-first strategies that work with low-cost staples. Pair clinical work with strong referrals to social services and community resources.
It can be if advice focuses on specialty products. Focus on affordable staples, such as beans, lentils, frozen vegetables, canned fish, whole grains, and adapt recommendations to what is available through SNAP, food pantries, and local markets. Simple changes (like swapping sugary drinks or adding one veggie serving) can still move the needle.
Ask permission to share concerns, explain the specific risks you see, and invite the patient to explore options together. Often, you can keep the core of a tradition while adjusting dose, frequency, or combinations with medications to reduce risk. Collaboration beats confrontation.
Validate their reality, then co-create micro-practices that fit into their existing routines, such as 2-5 minutes of breathing before bed, stretches while coffee brews, or short walks tied to daily tasks. Emphasize that “some is better than none” and celebrate small wins.
Start small: track a few basic variables like language, insurance type, or neighborhood along with access, process, and outcome measures. Look for patterns (who’s improving, who’s missing visits) and use that information to adjust outreach, scheduling, and protocols.
Yes, when there is reasonable evidence, clear indications, and transparency about cost and alternatives. Prioritize food-first and lifestyle changes, and be cautious about recommending expensive regimens that may widen disparities or divert money from essentials.
Begin with simple steps. Screen for social needs, build a list of local resources, adapt a few core protocols for common constraints, and pick three equity-focused metrics to track. Over time, add partnerships with community organizations and community health workers to extend your reach.
Health equity in integrative care is expected to be a high priority among practitioners in the coming decades, particularly as providers work to improve access to high-quality care and valuable health resources.
The online Master of Science in Integrative Health at Indiana Wesleyan University weaves culturally competent care training into its rigorous, interdisciplinary curriculum. With an emphasis on health equity, this graduate degree program prepares students for a variety of integrative primary care roles.
Request more information about our master's in integrative health, learn more about the programs at IWU, and apply today.
