Reflection Post: Week 9 & 10

Week 9:

In the ninth week of Environmental Health we discussed Advocacy in Health Education. As a class we got into three different groups and gave a short presentation. Our groups topic was Advocacy which by definition is active promotion of a cause or principle, it involves actions that lead to a goal, a way to approach a problem, and can be used as part of a community initiative. Advocacy is not a direct service and does not always involve conflict or confrontation. Therefore, our group got up and showed the class one example of advocacy and one example that was not advocacy. Our example of advocacy was people blocking a forest from a bulldozer, in order to save the trees. Our example of what advocacy is not was people building a house, such as what you might see on Extreme Home Makeover. We also discussed what we will be doing for the rest of the semester for our advocacy projects.

Week 10:

In the tenth week of Environmental Health we watched a movie called Unnatural Causes - In Sickness and In Wealth. This movie talked about the connection between health, money, and race. The movie had many interesting facts such as the United States is the 30th country of life expectancy, this means that our country is behind many other countries in living longer lives. It would seem that with all the technology and medicines that our country has available we would be closer to the top ten. Another fact given from the movie was that college graduates live on average two years longer than high school graduates. Another interesting fact was that our country spends $2 trillion on medical care per year. There are 47 million people in the United States without health insurance, although some chose this option but others simply cannot afford it. Overall, I found this video to have a lot of useful information that helps me to look at things from many different perspectives. It is always important to understand that data is interpreted in many different ways and that you should look at the data and interpret things for yourself.