Read 'N' Seed 5: Fourth Quarter & Final Review of "Prevention is Primary, Strategies for Community Well-Being"

I read chapters 14 and 15, pages 313-343. 

The main topics covered in these chapters include the role of public health in violence prevention and HIV prevention. 

Overall, violent crimes have decreased in the United States. With that being said, rates among girls and younger children of smaller towns appear to be on the rise. Even though violent crimes have decreased, there are far too many injuries that occur daily that are preventable. By the end of 2004, more than 944,000 people had been diagnosed with AIDS in the United States, of whom 529,000 (56 percent) had died (Center for Disease Control and prevention, 2005). Reducing HIV infections requires more than relying on individual behavior change. Chapter 15 talked about two new directions for HIV prevention that practitioners can use. The first one is to take cues from other fields of public health, most notably injury prevention and tobacco control, which have used policy as an integral part of the strategy to achieve desired outcomes. The second method involves developing interventions that will directly affect the sexual networks that facilitate viral transmission. 

I think it is horrible how many violent crimes there are and I think it is really important that we learn about how to prevent violence. We should really reduce the level of violence that is shown on television or maybe even establish a ban on guns.
There are many different interventions to prevent HIV; however, there is a lack of understanding with which of these interventions may have greater or lesser effectiveness in different populations. We also need to consider different areas and phases of the epidemic. 

All together this book had a lot of good information about primary prevention and there was a lot of new information for me. 

Three most significant things I learned are:

1. How important primary prevention is and how it helps the health care system not to be overbooked because less people would need medical attention.
2. How effective policies are to improve people’s health.
3. The role of public health in violence prevention.  

It is really important that people learn how to prevent illnesses and injuries. It will help people save some  money because they are less likely to use health care. Policies are a very effective way to improve people’s health. For example, I think it is really good that you are not allowed to smoke in the restaurants anymore because people who don’t smoke were still exposed to second-hand smoke.
I recommend this book to everybody who wants to learn about primary prevention of unnecessary illness and injury. I think everyone who is interested about health topics and how to help people would really enjoy this book.

Read ‘N’ Seed 4: Prevention is Primary: Strategies for Community Well-Being

1. I read chapters 11-13.

2. I had three main topics that I read about:

1. Environment exposures affect on peoples health.
2. How our environment is built will affect people’s health.
3. Another thing that affects people’s health is the choices we make referring to what we eat. This is made in the context of our social, physical, and cultural environment.

3. I learned that the same environmental problems that contribute to poor air and water quality, as well as neighborhood deterioration also contribute to negative mental and physical health outcomes. Cancer, asthma, birth defects, developmental disabilities, infertility and Parkinson’s disease are on the rise, and they are linked to chemical exposures from air, water, food, and products and practices used in our schools, homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces. These health problems are widespread, affecting nearly one of every two Americans (Pew Environmental Health Commission, 2001).

I learned about the physical environment in which we live, work, and play has a fundamental impact on both health itself and behaviours that affect it. For example, the sitting of a truck depot increases diesel emissions in a neighborhood, resulting in higher asthma rates. Another example is, a community without sidewalks results in people walking less and therefore being at risk for increased rates of chronic disease.

Where foods are available, the price of foods, and the advertising and promotion of foods have an influence on the choices we make. Ideally, the food environment would support biological needs, meaning that healthy, nutritious food would be readily available, affordable, and appealing to our community. Unfortunately, the food environment in the United States today is characterized by increasing of heavily marketed snacks and sodas, doughnut shops and fast-food chains, and foods that are highly processed and supersized.

4. Government and local leaders should be doing something to rehabilitating our communities and planning for a healthier and safer environment. We should be building environments that prevent injury and illness and promote health. Ergonomists help design safe, comfortable furniture, industrial hygienists help assess and control indoor air problems, and sanitarians help control rodent infestations in buildings. The environment must be changed to facilitate healthier eating and activity patterns. Many school districts, work sites, government agencies, and health care institutions are making environmental changes to improve access to healthier, sustainable produced food and to decrease the promotion and presence of junk food, but there is still a long way to go with reaching a healthier environment.

New terminology presented:

The precautionary principle borrows from the medical oath to “do no harm” in placing the burden of demonstrating safety prior to public exposure on those who produce chemicals and other substances. (p.231)

You can read more from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precautionary_principle

Community-based participatory research is a vital primary prevention strategy that addresses the need for community capacity building and involvement of key stakeholders in decisions that affect community health.

Read more from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-based_participatory_research

Read ‘N’ Seed 3: Prevention is Primary: Strategies for Community Well-Being

1. I read part two, chapters 5-10 from my book.

2. I had six main topics that I read about:
1. Community organizing that occurs in local settings, to empower individuals, build relationships, and create action for community change.
2. Public health and social justice.
3. Collaborative work for achieving preventive health success.
4. Policy formation can be an effective tool for prevention.
5. Public health educators should use the media more to advance healthy public policy.
6. How primary prevention efforts can be evaluated.

3. Community organizing is defined in my book as a dynamic process that encompasses a wide range of community engagement strategies. I learned that effective organizing leads to the community engagement and empowerment that are very important for successful primary prevention efforts targeting environmental determinants of health. I learned about how important it is that we work together and coalitions provide the opportunity to generate broader support to improve prevention efforts. I read about how policies are a powerful tool for prevention and an effective way to improve people’s health. For example, my book talked about how raising the price of tobacco products and prohibiting smoking in certain public places decreased youth smoking as well as a decreased number of smokers. Another important thing I learned was that public health educators should use the media more to get out the healthy public policies. Health practitioners need to learn how to use the media effectively to protect and promote peoples’ health. One last thing I read and learned about was how primary prevention efforts can be evaluated. I think this is very important because then you can actually see the success of primary prevention.

4. I think community organizing is really important and a good way to improve primary prevention. Community organizing is about people defining their community and identifying common problems or goals that they wish to address. I read about coalitions and how to develop effective coalitions. This is a very important skill in all fields because major improvements require a variety of resources and perspectives. Coalitions can accomplish objectives faster and better than any single organization. Policies are a very effective way to improve people’s health. I think it is really good that you are not allowed to smoke in the restaurants anymore because people who don’t smoke were still exposed to the secondhand smoke.

Read ‘N’ Seed 2: Prevention is Primary: Strategies for Community Well-Being

1. I read the first four chapters.

2. The first chapter is called The Imperative for Primary Prevention. It talks about how important primary prevention is and how it helps health care system not to be overbooked because less people would need medical care. Also, the chapter presents individual-based prevention and treatment model, as well as shows recent and historical examples of prevention successes.

The second chapter is called Achieving Health Equity and Social Justice. This chapter talks about how health differences are primarily the result of social structures and processes, rather than individual genetic factors. It also discussed how making the community environment healthier can decrease the number of people who become ill or injured.

The third chapter is called Gender, Health, and Prevention. It focuses on how gender affects health outcomes.

The fourth chapter is called The Hope of Prevention: Individual, Family, and Community Resilience. This chapter talks about how strong social networks and partnerships, caring relationships between community members, and education and literacy are protective factors and help people grow stronger. These factors also prevent illnesses and injuries.

3. I learned that primary prevention should generally be aimed at populations, not just individuals. A goal of primary prevention is to eliminate unnecessary illnesses, injuries, and even deaths.

I learned about health disparities and health equity. Health disparities are defined as “differences in health that are not only avoidable and unnecessary, but in addition unjust and unfair.” (Margaret Whitehead, 1990). Health equity is defined as “providing all people with fair opportunities to attain their full health potential to the extent possible.” (Braveman, 2006).

You can read more about health disparities and health equity from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_disparities.

I learned that we should consider gender differences when we want to improve individual’s health.

Also, I learned about resilience research and practice which provides the prevention field with nothing less than a fundamentally different knowledge base, one offering the promise of transforming interventions. Resilience is defined as “a class of phenomena characterized by patterns of positive adaptation in the context of significant adversity or risk” (Masten & Reed, 2002).

You can read more about resilience from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_resilience.

4. I think we should pay more attention to the primary prevention and try to prevent people from become ill or injured. I think it starts with health educators to teach people in communities how to prevent diseases and eliminate health disparities.

Read 'n' Seed 1: Prevention is Primary: Strategies for Community Well-Being

The title of the book I chose is Prevention is Primary: Strategies for Community Well-Being. This book is about primary preventions and how we can build health and equity in communities. It also includes what people can do to prevent health and social problems before they occur. I chose this book because it seems interesting and I want to learn more about primary prevention.

There are three parts and fifteen chapters. I am going to read one part for first quarter, the second part for the second quarter, and the third part I am going to divide in half so I can write the third and fourth quarters.

There are three links where you can get more information about my book.

Publisher description for Prevention is primary: strategies for community well-being:

                      http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0740/2007005823-d.html

You can buy and see the book at amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Prevention-Primary-Strategies-Community-Being/dp/0787983187#reader_0787983187

At this web site you can read the description, see the table of contents, and get authors information:

http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787995630,descCd-description.html

Welcome to Heidi’s Healthy Environment!

My name is Heidi Pelttari. My blog is going to be about what I am learning in my Environmental Health class.

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