Glenn, excellent example of the critical need for health planners to discuss
Heart Health from an integrated micro-meso-macro perspective. Hope you can
attend our Heart Health Forum, Feb. 20, 2003. I've attached a copy of our
flyer.
Joe
--
Dr. Joseph Levy
Professor
School of Health Policy and Management
Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies
and Director, Wellness Centre at York University
274 Vanier College, 4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
Phone: 416-736-2100 ext, 33898
email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Fax: 416-736-5899
www.yorku.ca/wellness <http://www.yorku.ca/wellness>



Quoting sherryl smith <[log in to unmask]>:

> Bravo Glen. I will enjoy passing this along to some nursing students!
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Glen Brown <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 5:59 PM
> Subject: Re: community capcity for healthy eating
>
>
> > 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.
> >
> > Send one line: unsubscribe click4hp to: [log in to unmask] to unsubscribe
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> subscription
> >
>
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