Spiritual_Wellness_Holistic_Health_and_the_Practic

The Role of Health Education Advocacy in Removing Disparities 327
Environment
A number of efforts have been made by health educators and others to use advocacy to
bring about community - based political change and support for environmental policies.
These have included health education advocacy and community coalitions to reduce
lead poisoning in New York City (Freudenberg & Golub, 1987), improve the housing
conditions in an urban, low - income neighborhood through community development
(El - Askari et al., 1998), and prevent urban arson at Halloween (Maciak, Moore,
Leviton, & Guinan, 1998).
Tobacco Control
Recent tobacco control initiatives in several states, including California, Minnesota,
Texas, and Florida, have been the result of intense advocacy by public health groups.
These initiatives have stimulated activities at the local, county, and state levels through
community coalitions and partnerships, which have resulted in legislative initiatives
supporting the regulation and control of tobacco products. Such advocacy efforts have
led to public information, building community awareness of the tobacco problem, and
policy and ordinance development within establishments (Blaine et al., 1997), as well
as media advocacy related to cardiovascular disease risk reduction (Schooler, Sundar,
& Flora, 1996).
Alcohol
Advocacy has been especially effective in a number of health education efforts to promote
responsible use of alcohol and to prevent alcohol - related motor vehicle deaths
(DeJong, 1996) and alcohol - related violence against women (Woodruff, 1996). This
work has demonstrated that media advocacy can be an effective means by which to
increase public awareness of alcohol - related issues and to advance the cause of
alcohol - related prevention efforts in the community (Holder & Treno, 1997).
Elderly
One of the first advocacy efforts in health education was Minkler ’ s work to reduce the
poor health conditions, social isolation, and powerlessness of low -income elderly residents
living in single - room occupancy hotels in the Tenderloin section of San Francisco
(Minkler, 1985, 1992; Minkler, Franz, & Wechsler, 1982). The Tenderloin Senior Outreach
Project utilized individual and community empowerment strategies to build self - reliance
and community cohesion among inner - city disadvantaged elderly. Subsequent work by
Roe and Minkler and their colleagues has extended the use of concepts of community
organizing and advocacy that proved so successful with grandparents in this project
(Minkler, Driver, Roe, & Bedeian, 1993; Roe, Minkler, & Saunders, 1995).
HIV/AIDS
Advocacy efforts have been utilized for more than two decades to inform the public
about the risk of HIV/AIDS and to foster public support for prevention programs in