Build Your Best Life Total Health Festival, part of Capital Pride Washington, DC USA

Capital Pride and Kaiser Permanente: Build Your Best Life Total Heath Festival – ready, willing, and able to change the world (View on Flickr.com)

Thanks to the awesome Washington, DC organizations dedicated to the health of our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex community, Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health (@KPTotalHealth) and Capital Pride hosted the first ever “Build Your Best Life: Total Health Festival” yesterday.

We were joined by nurses, doctors, lawyers, educators, community leaders, and really the spectrum of professionals who are here to practice their craft in the interest of total community health.

These included some of the most iconic social/health institutions in Washington, DC and beyond: AARP DC (@AARPdc)  to the District of Columbia’s Mayor’s Office  (@GLBTAffairsDC), Whitman Walker Health (@whitmanwalker), Casa Ruby (@CasaRubyDC), SMYAL (@SMYAL), United States Department of Health and Human Services (@HHSgov). This is just a partial list, there’s a full list on the event website, please feel free to add yours in the comments – your presence is appreciated!

As Ruby Corado said to me, one of the most important things we can do is to be present for the people we serve. Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest non-profit health system, is a Gold Sponsor of Capital Pride (@CapitalPrideDC) this year and we are delighted to be the host, since health is what we do 🙂 .

On a personal note for me (since this is my newsfeed, I get to say whatever I want), I got to spend time with more than a few fantastic leaders who continue to influence me and shape my presence as a Permanente physician, a member of the medical profession, and ally for health. Their faces are in the photographs below. Allies need allies. 

PS, we did do the health equity training before the event that I asked for assistance on previously (thanks to all who responded, I did make changes, see the image below).

It’s official: exclusion is something that happened in the 20th Century (View on Flickr.com)

Thanks a ton to my Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health colleagues, Keith Montgomery, Executive Director (@kmontgomeryndc), Erin Meade (@erinm81), Yen Greene (@yengreene) for being fellow allies and bringing the Center for Total Health to participate in massive social innovation happening right before our eyes. Who says innovation is a new mobile app…

3 Comments

Ted Eytan, MD