Anthropological Engagements in Implementation Science to Advance Health Equity for Sexual and Gender Diverse Youth

Anthropology Colloquia: Anthropological Engagements in Implementation Science to Advance Health Equity for Sexual and Gender Diverse Youth

Speaker:

Cathleen E. Willging is a Senior Research Scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. She is a medical anthropologist passionate about community-engaged research that uses implementation science to help organizations and systems become more structurally competent when working with people impacted by health and healthcare inequities, including transition-age youth experiencing homelessness and LGBTQ+ adolescents.

Abstract:

Anthropology is crucial to implementation science—the study and application of methods for integrating new policies, programs, and interventions into regular use. Both fields aim to understand the everyday realities of implementation settings and their social actors. While anthropologists question the purportedly apolitical, objective nature of established “evidence” of effectiveness valued by implementation scientists, they offer critical perspectives on context and power that can guide new initiatives for populations harmed by structural violence. I describe how anthropologists can leverage implementation science to embed structurally competent innovations in systems (e.g., health, educational) that perpetuate health inequities for LGBTQ+ youth.