‘Politics & Policy’ Articles
Written by Mark J. Kittleson on 15 January 2010
Folks,
We’ve been trying to make the HEDIR page more user-friendly and in that effort we’ve ignored the blog. So starting today I’ll start making a concerted effort to contribute. If you’ve been following the HEDIR, there has been a major discussion on the role of CHES and its importance/relevance, licensure of health educators and this has eventually led into a conversation about the role of health educators and RNs who deliver health education.
A few questions…
1) Should health education move into the licensure stage? If so, how much would you be willing to ‘pay’ for such license? If no, why not?
2) Although they may not be academically trained as health educators, are there other professions capable of providing effective health education? If so, who and why?
More to come.
Posted in Health Education, Politics & Policy | No Comments »
Written by hedir on 21 October 2009
Today’s speaker is Bill Cissell. Dr. Cissell has a long distinguished career in health education and has served the profession in many ways. Bill is recently retired from Texas Woman’s University where he was chair for many years. Bill graciously agreed to step in and provide this presentation after we had a sudden cancellation. Bill’s talked about the importance of community organization and how the recent election of President Obama has brought to line the importance of community organization.
Dr. William Cissell’s Presentation: Click to view
Tags: Health Education, Politics and Policy
Posted in Health Education, Politics & Policy, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Written by hedir on 04 May 2009
Unless one has been in hiding the last week no doubt you have been inundated with information regarding the H1N1 flu virus that has been seen in various pockets of the U.S. It seems like every day there is a more information, but as of this writing it appears (and not that the emphasis is on appears) that the flu is not as bad as been feared. Nonetheless, the U.S. is moving forward with its plans to implement strategies to deal with this potential pandemic.
For those of us in health education and public health this has been a fascinating time. Removing the human side of the issues (deaths, illness, etc.) and looking at this from strictly a public health issue this has been a wonderful case study on how to deal with an emergency. For those in educational settings this is well worth time talking about this situation. A few things that I’ve noted:
- Despite a lackluster effort in the last few years of his administration, the Bush’s Administration appears to have done exceptional preparation (based on the Avian Flu) for dealing with this sort of problem. Let’s give credit where credit is due. A few years ago we were concerned about the Bird Flu (which didn’t really pan out). Yet, efforts were made to provide a framework to prepare for this. We’re seeing the results of this plan and it appears to be working well.
- We’re seeing the importance that public health is playing in this situation. It’s so refreshing to see public health officials who are acknowledged for their expertise and knowledge rather than demonized (as we have seen in the past). Most people don’t want to pay taxes, but if they do they want to see the benefits resulting from such. I think the fact that the U.S. has the best established public health routine in the world is pretty evident with an event such as this, and most people that I have talked to feel that the money we’ve invested in the CDC is well worth it.
- We’re seeing the continuing emergence of the county public health department as the leader in emergency preparedness. I’m not sure how it is in the other states, but after 9-11 we realized that our emergency preparedness was in a real disarray. In a study that Dale Ritzel (former colleague of mine) and I did in the early 90s we found that everybody in our community (probably true with most places throughout the U.S.) had their own unique emergency preparedness plan but nobody was talking to the other players in the community. For example, here in Carbondale, SIU had a plan; the local hospital had a plan; the emergency personnel had a plan; the city had a plan, but nobody coordinated all such parties (or if they did nobody knew about it). After 9-11, here in Illinois, the county health departments stepped up to the plate and took over that control. Here in Jackson County (home county of SIU), the emergency preparedness coordinator at the health department is an MPH health educator. It makes perfect sense for this type of person to take over the lead. They have great planning and organizing skills, know how to work with various groups. What a great opportunity to show our students what health educators actually do.
I’m also privy to a very special situation. My wife, also an MPH trained health educator also works at the local health department (Division Director of HIV Services) who is also a key person in the emergency preparedness scenario. In addition to her regular work expectations, she also has key roles in emergencies. I can’t go into detail because of security (and probably because I don’t know them myself), but she has played a key role in receiving medical supplies to deal with the H1N1 outbreak. Last week she was awakened at 2:00 am to receive the drop of supplies. Besides carrying a cool badge she also gets to boss people around (she’s had plenty of practice with me—the difference is that most of these other people listen to her).
Earlier on the HEDIR blog there was a discussion on the terms community health public health. I think this recent event further supports the term that the health education profession needs to affiliate themselves much more with the term public health more and to identify themselves not as community health educators but rather public health educators. Public health has received great attention and it’s becoming a much more revered and respected term.
Tags: H1N1, Public Health
Posted in Generally Speaking, Politics & Policy, Thoughts | 3 Comments »
Written by hedir on 12 March 2009
According to the Wednesday, March 11, 2009 issue of USA Today, “The biggest problem the country has is the cost of health care.” This is a mantra that has increased in volume throughout my lifetime. There have been many efforts to fix all or parts of the problem, but the most recent effort to put in place a national system of health care, which occurred in 1992-1993 during the Clinton Administration, failed.
Some of the data about the current status of the problem presented by USA Today includes that 52% of those unable to pay for health care and/or medicines over the past 12 months do not have health insurance. It helps to be married or widowed. While 15% of married and 16% of widowed could not pay for their health care and/or medicines, 24%, 29% and 32% of singles, divorced and domestic partners, respectively, suffered the same problems. There are disparities. Asians fare best with 13% unable to pay, while larger percentages of other groups, including whites (17%), African Americans (30%) and Hispanics (31%) were unable to pay.
As one would expect, those of low incomes are most likely to be unable to pay for health care and medicines. Thirty-nine percent of those earning less than $2,000 per month were unable to pay. The percentages dropped to 24% for those earning from $2,000 through $3,999, to 12% for those earning from $4,000-$7,499 and to 7% for those earning $7,500 or more. It seems very likely that those earning $7,500 or more per month who had problems were clustered near the bottom of the this category and that they faced catastrophic health problems.
Our health care crisis has grown to the point that many of the stakeholders who helped defeat the efforts of the Clinton Administration’s bill to reform health care are now proclaiming a desire to help the Obama Administration to succeed in bringing about the long needed reform. How optimistic should we be that the diverse interests will actually cooperate in a politically bi-partisan effort to establish a robust national health care system? Maybe it will happen this time. Optimists are hopeful. Pessimists remember how often over the past 60 years we got less than a robust national health system from efforts to address the costs of health care and medicines in our country.
Posted in Politics & Policy | 1 Comment »
Written by hedir on 25 February 2009
When the “Hillarycare” healthcare reform proposal of 1993 went down in flames, there were many prognosticators who speculated that it would take 20-25 years before another serious healthcare reform proposal would be offered by a presidential administration. Based on Mr. Obama’s address to Congress on Tuesday, February 24, 2009, and the forecast published by major media on Wednesday, February 25, 2009, which forecasts the impending budget proposal will call for $634 billion for healthcare reform, we are getting that healthcare reform proposal a few years earlier than predicted.
How about a president calling for a serious investment in preventive care and appearing to know something about what he is proposing? I had often wondered whether I would hear the words spoken by Mr. Obama coming from a seated president in my lifetime. Public health professionals and health educators employed in all settings should be thrilled with the commitment of President Obama to improve the health of American citizens and gain control of the escalating costs of healthcare insurance. Based on an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal on September 16, 2008, David J, Cutler, J. Bradford DeLong, and Ms. Marciarille state that health insurance premiums doubled during the period of 2000-2007.
No wonder the support for Mr. Obama’s performance jumped from 63% approval to 80% approval following his speech on Tuesady evening. He plans to take action in areas that have been greatly neglected for far too long. I suspect that approval of Mr. Obama’s performance among professional health educators is even higher.
Posted in Politics & Policy, The health education profession | No Comments »
