I found it interesting that this work on food and eating found the same awareness
and indetification of underlying causes that were identified in the research Nova
Scotia Women's FishNet and CRIAW-NS did with women in Nova Scotia coastal
communities.  This research used much the same processes that Glen desccribed.

This research led to the development of a Tool Kit to assist women in linking
their perceptions of the causes of stress and ill-health in their communities to
the public policies that were related to them.  Some you maybe interested in it,
so I'll paste information about it (and how toget a copy) below.

____________

The GOOD POLICY, GOOD HEALTH Tool Kit is ready!


In December, Nova Scotia Women  FishNet in partnership with the Nova Scotia
Advisory Council on the Status of Women launched Good Policy, Good Health: An
Information and Action Kit for Women in Coastal Communities.

Good Policy, Good Health helps women identify their health issues and to make
links between their health, the determinants of health and various public policies
which directly or indirectly impact health.  It includes tools to assist women in
taking action to improve their health and that of their families and communities
by influencing policy change.

The kit uses policies related to women in coastal communities in Nova Scotia as
examples for discussion and can be adapted for use in addressing many different
policy issues.

Good Policy, Good Health comes ready to use -- shrink-wrapped and ready to be
inserted into your own binder.  The Kit has five sections:

ï Section 1:  Linking Problems, Policies and Health
- What makes us healthy?
- Loss of Control
- Lack of Respect
- Financial Insecurity
- Community Breakdown
- Isolation
- Stress
ï Section 2:  Moving from Thought to Action
- What is health?
- What is policy?
- How does policy affect health?
- What can we do?
ï Section 3: How to Take Action
- ìHow to Lobbyî Sheets
- ìHow toî Sheets
ï Section 4: Facilitator Notes and References
ï Section 5:  Background Material

The cost is $35 per copy plus $10 postage and handling.

To order Good Policy, Good Health:

e-mail: [log in to unmask]

Or write to:  Nova Scotia Womenís FishNet
c/o The Nova Scotia Advisory Council on Status of Women
PO Box 745, Halifax, B3J 2T3
Tel: 902 424 8658




Glen Brown wrote:

> I just can't resist wading in to this one...
>
> I think Jacquie's note that people are their own agents is a crucial one.
> BUT that should prompt us to acknowledge their role (and our own) as agents
> for political change. Shouldn't our programming (including our health
> promotion programming) make that front and centre? Why do so many 'health
> promotion' materials, intended to educate the communities we work with, not
> even mention that poverty (and pollution, and unhealthy working
> conditions..) are the primary determinants of health? If it's supposed to be
> a secret, it's not a very well kept one.
>
> Here's an illustration from my own recent experience. I worked on a project
> a while back looking at heart health issues for multicultural communities.
> We did a literature review, some key informant interviews, and some focus
> groups with people from different ethnocultural communities in Toronto.
>
> Everything we read from the literature, and everybody we interviewed pointed
> to poverty, stress, isolation, etc as the central culprit in poor heart
> health.
>
> The focus groups were fascinating: their level of knowledge about 'good' vs
> 'bad' food was quite high. In fact, I was surprised at how frequently people
> expressed anxiety about contaminants and additives in food. (Not a concept
> the heart health literature had acknowledged).
>
> They knew about smoking. They knew about exercise. (One woman left me
> speechless when she asked why the pamphlets suggested a daily walk when the
> radio was warning people to stay inside because of smog. I wished I had the
> power to hire her as a health promotion educator.)
>
> But what they really wanted to talk about was the stress in their lives. Did
> I understand, they wanted to know, how little time they had for shopping and
> cooking? Did I understand that after a 12 hour taxi shift they didn't really
> feel like a jog? Did I understand that their kids were in danger of dropping
> out of school because the new curriculum was so daunting? That gulping a Big
> Mac down at lunch was really, really, really the least of their worries?
>
> They told us all of this with humour, patience and remarkable generousity of
> spirit. I wanted to let them know that, yes, I understood. And that the
> great group of health promoters and public health folks I was working with
> understood. (They really did - the group I was working with worked with
> disadvantaged people every day, and they understood the determinants of
> health with a passion).
>
> And then I looked at the heart health brochures. Eat your vegetables, quit
> smoking and go for a walk. Or it's your fault. Not a word about the primary
> causes of heart disease that everybody - the researchers, the health
> promoters, the service providers, the people in our focus groups;
> everybody! - knew about. I wondered if this didn't border on contempt.
>
> The person who first started this exchange, so many emails ago, asked about
> community capacity. I wonder if part of building capacity is building
> awareness (or, more accurately, validating the awareness they already have)
> that social conditions are the biggest keys to health and that communities
> can mobilize to affect those social conditions. That doesn't preclude
> messages about individual behaviour change, but I think it should preceed
> them.
>
> Glen Brown
>
> Glen Brown & Associates Consulting
> 488 Parliament Street, #1
> Toronto Ontario M4X 1P2
> T: 416-892-2286
> F: 416-966-1362
> E: [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Health Promotion on the Internet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of Jacquie Poitras
> Sent: January 8, 2003 4:36 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: community capcity for healthy eating
>
> I recognize that health and healthy eating have many social determinants.
> Every choice we make is based, in part, on societal factors, dis/advanatage,
> peer group, consumerism--you name it.  But in the end, it is us as
> individuals
> who make decisions about our lives.  We are agents who act in a manner to
> improve our health or who choose "unhealthy" options.
>
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