Hi Roxanne;
I am not at all disputing the need for healthy lifestyles and education.
However, my response was directed with specific reference to the
communities' replies, as per the prior message. It is a matter of
priorities within those communities. The problem remains that each
community whether it be cancer, Aboriginals, abused women and the like,
have differing values and health promotion may not be and is quite
possibly not at the top of the list.
The larger question remains in how it is anticipated that communities
can be empowered or motivated to address health promotion when they are
simply trying to survive on a day to day basis?  In many cases they do
not have the ability to see the future as longterm and health promotion
is seen' as a  longterm goal. How can health promotion be integrated
under these circumstances when these communities are making very little
headway in already existing endeavours?
I am glad that you brought up the subject though of screening. Other
than breast cancer and prostate there is, to my knowledge, few other
screening recommendations. There is no effective, or otherwise,
screening for colorectal cancer nor for ovarian cancer. In the case of
colorectal cancer there is a screening mechanism, the colonoscopy, but
it has not been adopted due to cost. In ovarian cancer there simply is
not one.
Again, I am not disputing the value of healthy lifestyles but I guess I
am repeating myself when I say that the environment for success is a
difficult one.
Sandi


Roxanne Felix wrote:

>Sandi:
>
>While I do agree that health promotion isn't necessarily the answer to
>all of the health problems in the health care system, I think we need
>to clarify what health promotion is.
>
>Health promotion is about empowerment; mobilizing community action
>on the determinants of health.  It is not simply "advertising campaign";
>this is *one* strategy of health promotion that is often mis-understood
>to be representative of all that health promotion undertakes.
>
>In fact, health promotion practitioners recognize the most effective
>way to changing behaviors is changing environments and policies, directed
>by community action.  The results are enormous - most importantly,
>generating capacity in communities to take action on other important
>issues in their lives.
>
>And, if health promotion activities are undertaken in an effective manner,
>statistics show that 50-70% of cancers are in fact preventable.
>
>This doesn't mean that there aren't a large number of cancer patients who
>*have* led healthy lives, that still, unfortunately get struck by this
>disease.
>But there are a number of cancers that can be prevented.  Even more
>important,
>health promotion strategies can be used to increase the frequency with
>which community members get screened for cancer, and hopefully, intervene
>before the cancer is fatal.
>
>So, I think Alison's point is quite valid.  If the future Canadian Public
>Health
>Agency loses its focus on health promotion, many populations will indeed
>suffer.
>
>If you'd like to know more about where I got my statistics and the health
>promotion
>work that my unit is doing in cancer prevention, feel free to send me an
>email.
>
>Sincerely,
>Roxanne Felix
>Diversity Outreach Coordinator
>Alberta Cancer Board
>([log in to unmask])
>780-432-8884
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Health Promotion on the Internet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
>Behalf Of Sandi Pniauskas
>Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 2:03 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: FW: Weekly Health Edition focus on National Public Health
>Agency, cautions about HP
>
>
>I think that I need to address the situation of Health Promotion and
>it's efforts in the public venue specific to the cancer populations.
>Healthy lifestyle/choices are simply of minor importance to many cancer
>patients. The issue is not what they will eat that day, but whether they
>will live that day or the next. Cancer in the near future will become
>the leading cause of death in the North America's and it is simply a
>fact that a large percentage of cancers are not directly or indirectly
>related to this specific area of health promotion. Healthy lifestyle
>issues will not make an impact on many in this patient population and is
>seen as a barrier and another 'blame the Patient' advertising campaign.
>Alison wrote that certain segments of the population do not seem to
>understand that this approach is a general approach. However, as can be
>seen from the responses which were generated through  different
>dialogues, each group has a specific need. Until it is recognized that
>these groups are a rather large part of the sum of the total, then it is
>my view that health promotions which are general in nature and do not
>address these needs, will quite simply fail.
>In those populations where healthy choices are not available or not the
>priority that some would wish, please understand one item of
>significance. This also places an additional burden on certain segments
>of the population over which adoptions of these policies are not going
>to have any significant impact.
>It is interesting because I had a conversation recently with a senior
>person in a cancer centre around this very same issue. This individual
>was speaking about efforts to reduce osteoporosis and heart disease,
>through choice, to reduce the burden of health issues in persons of
>advancing age. This individual should have known better and it was a
>rather poor statement of understand given that the palliative care unit
>was only steps away from our discussion.
>Sandi Pniauskas
>
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>
>

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