*** The story (at least a version of it) is attributed by John McKinlay to
his friend Irving Zola (two famous american medical sociologists) in a no
less famous (if a little old) paper appropriately titled: " A case for
refocusing upstream: the political economy of illness" in American Heart
Association, Applying behavioral sceince to cardiovascular risk,
Proceedings of a conference, Seattle, 1975, pp.7-17. If I recall well, the
paper has been reprinted later in several textbooks. It will be interesting
to see the other sources of the "founding myth" that will probably pop out
in the next days or so !!!. ***

>Hi Health Promoters
>
>I'm looking for the original source of the popular health promotion story
>that is told about two villages by a river.  It goes something like
>this.....
>
>The villagers from the downstream settlement noticed one day that bodies
>were floating down the river.  At first there were one or two, then more
>and more, until the villagers were spending all their time diving into the
>river to rescue the bodies and resuscitate them if they could.
>
>After some weeks of this, the villagers noticed some of their community
>members walking away, following the river upstream.  The rescuers were
>angry and called to those people who were walking away to stay and help.
>One of the travellers replied 'You can spend all your lives pulling these
>people out.  We're going up stream to see if we can stop them falling in.'
>
>It's a good story, hey?  I've read that it was written by Maccoby of the
>Stanford Heart Program - but that is the only detail that I have.  Can you
>refer me to an original source or provide me with any more detail?
>
>Thanks.
>
>>From Monica Bensberg
>
>Department of Human Services
>122 Thomas Street
>Dandenong 3175
>Victoria Australia
>Ph: 9213 2055
>Fax: 9213 2160


Une tres bonne journee.

Michel O'Neill, Ph.D.

**************************************************************************
Professeur titulaire et Codirecteur, Groupe de recherche et d'intervention
en promotion de la sante (GRIPSUL), Faculte des Sciences infirmieres,
4108-J Pavillon Comtois, Universite Laval, Quebec, Qc, Canada, G1K 7P4.
tel: +1-(418)-656-2131 #7431; telecopieur: +1-(418)-656-7747
Courrier electronique: [log in to unmask]

Codirecteur, Centre quebecois collaborateur de l'OMS pour le developpement
de villes et villages en sante / Quebec WHO Collaborating Center for the
development of healthy cities and towns,
2400 D'estimauville, Beauport, Qc, Canada, G1E 7G9.
tel: +1-(418)-666-7000 #461; telecopieur: +1-(418)-666-2776
Courrier electronique:[log in to unmask]
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