Understanding Social Determinants of Health: Why Poverty Training Matters in Healthcare

Health is shaped by far more than what happens in an exam room. Where people live, work, and access support plays a powerful role in their ability to stay well. These factors, known as the social determinants of health, influence outcomes long before a patient ever sees a provider.

Poverty sits at the center of many health disparities. It affects access to stable housing, reliable transportation, nutritious food, and consistent care. It also shapes stress, mental health, and the choices people are able to make. For healthcare teams, understanding poverty is not about blame or behavior. It is about dignity, context, and shared humanity.

Too often, healthcare systems recognize social determinants of health in theory but struggle to address them in practice. When lived realities are missing from training and decision-making, misunderstandings can grow. Missed appointments or gaps in care may be interpreted as disengagement, when in reality they reflect barriers created by systems, not individuals.

Poverty training helps bridge this gap by building empathy and understanding across roles. Experiential tools such as an online poverty simulation or virtual poverty simulation allow healthcare professionals to step into complex, real-world scenarios. These experiences reveal how quickly stability can be disrupted and how systems interact in ways that limit choice.

For Medicaid staff, managed care organizations, and community health teams, this kind of learning builds connection. It creates a shared language for discussing health equity, strengthens trust, and supports collaboration with the communities most affected by health disparities. Most importantly, it centers insight informed by lived experience rather than assumptions.

When healthcare teams understand how poverty shapes health outcomes, care becomes more responsive and more human. Policies are designed with flexibility. Care plans reflect real constraints. Conversations shift from “Why isn’t this working?” to “What is getting in the way, and how can we address it together?”

Addressing social determinants of health requires more than awareness. It requires partnership. When people most impacted by poverty help shape training, policy, and practice, healthcare systems are better equipped to support community health improvement and advance health equity.

Rethinking poverty in healthcare is not about fixing people. It is about learning together, building trust, and creating systems that honor dignity and possibility.

Ready to Learn Together?

Request a COPE training plan for your healthcare team to deepen understanding of social determinants of health and strengthen empathy, connection, and collaboration across your organization.