Public Health Policy

I enjoyed Asher's guest lecture this week. I took PH Policy last year and found his brief lecture to be a terrific refresher of PH 648. I had forgotten the complexities of creating a new policy. I must say, I am thrilled that I do not work in Health Policy. I have the utmost respect for Health Policy individuals, however I know that is not where my passion lies. Policy is extremely necessary to promote health in our society. I find in fascinating to see so many variations in focus among health professionals in our industry. According to the Social Ecological Model, Health Policy is the final layer of our industry. If Health Policy is implemented correctly, it can create large scale behavior change across industries or communities.

Asher also discussed the importance of local involvement. I took this message and applied it to our group project this week. I find it easy to be confident that our group has created a polished presentation after many hours of hard work and deliberation. However, we will not know if our message/campaign is being received as intended by our audience until we "test drive" the message. The big take away message this week is that you can never assume you know your audience. You must work with your audience to create the most successful message possible. They also must want the change for it to truly be a success. Once again, communication is the key to successful behavior changes, policy changes, and community buy in.

I found it rewarding to keep this weeks message in the back our my mind while we tested our messages with our target audience. It kept me focused and more critical of our product than I may have been in the past. Our audience gave a lot of constructive feedback which will greatly strengthen our project 2.

Cody