GOOD HEALTH AND CHANGING A MINDSET

Continuing with the series on healthcare, I will lay out a few things that advocacy and grassroots organization can do to help change unhealthy behaviors in our communities. If we avoid taking a myopic few of healthcare and educate communities about the simple changes families can make to increase their own quality of life, we could save billions of dollars in healthcare cost. Prevention of disease is more cost effective than treatment.

There is strength in numbers. People are more likely to change a behavior if they have a partner striving with them; group efforts promote lasting change. There also has to be an emphasis on individual responsibility for taking care of the things that is within your control. Parents have to be the responsible adults for their children. Love and good parenting means doing the right things for your family members even if it's not the most popular.

A good place to start is with diet and exercise. Vibrant Health
delivers its' healthy message through public education on nutritional and lifestyle choices.  Community organizations can play a critical role in creating a paradigm shift. Advocates and community organizations across different disciplines need to partner to address all the needs of people. The tools and best practices already exist for changing lifestyles from unhealthy ones to ones that promotes good health.

1. Broadly educate families about the symptoms of common diseases and encourage them to speak with their primary care providers about the disease, further encourage screenings, diagnoses and treatment.
   

   
    

2. Educate family members who already have been diagnosed with an illness about the importance of on-going education, utilization of local risk reduction resources vs. emergency room treatments.
   

   
    

3. Build local voluntary coalition partners and support groups that can assist families to take control and ownership of their care and treatment by utilizing "do-it-yourself" tools and guidelines that address risk factors such as obesity, smoking and second-hand smoke, improved housekeeping—habits and behaviors that may unknowingly increase their potential risk for disease.
   

   
    

4. Strive to provide outreach, education and services that are culturally competent, and indigenous to the community. There may be a need to provide services that are easily accessible for people rather than far away from their homes. Culturally competent services will require an emphasis on linguistic and language differences, as well as racial and ethnic issues. Provide training to move providers and healthcare professionals to a more culturally competent approach to service delivery.
   

 

We don't have to recreate the wheel. Use what we know works. Make small changes in the way we think and we will change our behavior. Behaviors are only a reflection of the way we view the world.