Discussion: Addressing Behavioral Risk Factors

“It is unreasonable to expect that people will change their behavior easily when so many forces in the social, cultural, and physical environment conspire against such change”
(Kovner and Knickman, p. 139).

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When seeking to lessen behavioral risk factors in different populations, one of the greatest challenges is addressing the systemic issues within the population that enable the risky behavior to occur in the first place. Consider the health risks of school-age children not being immunized or drug users sharing needles. As Dr. Beilenson discussed in the Week 4 media program, these risky behaviors led to increases in individual and population health problems. Thus, when planning health prevention programs, it is important to consider how to effectively address risky behaviors at both the individual and the population level.

The Discussion this week focuses on the use of the Population-Based Intervention Model outlined in the course text Health Care Delivery in the United States, as well as how this model can be applied to strengthen advocacy programs.

To prepare:

• Select one of the behavioral risk factors from the Healthy Population 2010 Objectives (listed in Table 7.1 on p. 122 of the course text) that is of interest to you.
• Using the Walden Library and other credible websites, research how this risk factor is affecting your community or state.
• With your selected risk factor in mind, review the information on the Population-Based Intervention Model on pp. 132-137 in the course text, Health Care Delivery in the United States. In particular, focus on the concept of downstream, midstream, and upstream interventions. Consider at least one intervention that could be put into place at each stage.

Reference:
Knickman, J. R., & Kovner, A. R. (Eds.). (2015). Health care delivery in the united states (11th ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing.

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Application Assignment 2: Part 2 – Developing an Advocacy Campaign

The following application, Part 2, will be due in Week 7.

To prepare:

• Review Chapter 3 of Milstead, J. A. (2016). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
• In the first assignment, you reflected on whether the policy you would like to promote could best be achieved through the development of new legislation, or a change in an existing law or regulation. Refine as necessary using any feedback from your first paper.
• Contemplate how existing laws or regulations may affect how you proceed in advocating for your proposed policy.
• Consider how you could influence legislators or other policymakers to enact the policy you propose.
• Think about the obstacles of the legislative process that may prevent your proposed policy from being implemented as intended.

To complete:

Part Two will have approximately 3–4 pages of content plus a title page and references. Part Two will address the following:

• Explain whether your proposed policy could be enacted through a modification of existing law or regulation or the creation of new legislation/regulation.
• Explain how existing laws or regulations could affect your advocacy efforts. Be sure to cite and reference the laws and regulations using primary sources.
• Provide an analysis of the methods you could use to influence legislators or other policymakers to support your policy. In particular, explain how you would use the “three legs” of lobbying in your advocacy efforts.
  • Summarize obstacles that could arise in the legislative process and how to overcome these hurdles.
  • Paste the rubric at the end of your paper