Wednesday’s “Focus on Poverty and Health Care Mini-Summit” will cover research from UT faculty and graduate students surrounding critical issues related to health care and poverty.
David Patterson, UT professor in the College of Social Work, will moderate the Faculty Research Showcase.
He believes it is important for the community at the university to become aware of health care and poverty to avoid homelessness.
“What we’ve tried to do in this mini-summit is design a series of events that exposes the university community to a discussion and reflection on the challenges of health care delivery and poverty,” Patterson said. “In a sense, (we’re) looking to raise the university community’s awareness of this critical issue.”
Patterson believes that the structural issues that drive people into homelessness are lack of jobs, lack of well-paying jobs and lack of affordable housing.
He commented that “society as a whole, in our social economic structure, create institutional or structural phenomena that increase the probability of homelessness,” in terms of lack of affordable housing, lack of affordable health care and inadequacy of housing options.
“Really, all that we’re doing in terms of trying to address homelessness is correct many structural issues that brought people into homelessness,” he said.
Landon Bevier, graduate student in sociology, will present “Predicting Opinions on Child-Care Funding: Environmental, Experiential and Ideological Indicators.”
In Bevier’s presentation, he will discuss research discovered based on “indicators” that have decided how people feel toward child-care funding.
“One of the interesting things I stress the most is that disbelief in the traditional family structure does not result in a belief that we shouldn’t increase child-care funding for parents,” Bevier said. “So there’s either something different about those who choose to be parents or something within the experience of being a parent that severs the relationship between a belief in traditional family structure and a belief that we should decrease child-care funding.”
Bevier said ideological indicators, such as political party affiliation, can also be factors.
“We’re responsible for our own economic success as evidenced as a belief in conservatism,” he said. “So basically saying whether or not, on a seven-point scale from very liberal to very conservative, what your level of liberal or conservatism, how that would affect your opinion of child-care funding is one ideological indicator, and the other is a belief in a traditional family structure.”
The mini-summit will also feature a forum of representatives from local non-profit organizations such as Cherokee Health Systems, the Knox County Health Department and Interfaith Health Clinic.
The representatives will discuss the attempts being made to provide affordable health care to Knoxville.
Bill Fox, professor in economics, will moderate a presentation of “The Lessons from 15 years of TennCare” before U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper concludes Wednesday’s mini-summit by making a keynote speech at 5:30 p.m.
The mini-summit will take place in the Baker Center’s Toyota Auditorium from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
