Advocating for Public Health Policy
Create a Powerpoint
Imagine that you have been chosen to represent a public health advocacy group as they begin a campaign to get legislation related to a health issue passed in your state legislature. You have been tasked with the role of presenting a proposed policy to the legislature and advocating that the legislature vote for the policy.
You have been told that you will have 10 minutes to present to the legislature. Your presentation should be informative, but also persuasive. The legislature will need to make a decision about whether or not to vote for the policy based on your presentation. Your presentation should be structured exactly as if you were "live" in front of the legislature advocating for them to adopt the policy you are proposing.
For your assignment, you will need to select a public health topic of interest to you (you are encouraged to choose one related to your academic major or intended field of work) and a public health policy related to addressing the topic. You may select an actual proposed policy or create one that you think would effectively address the topic.
Your presentation should provide enough information about the topic and the proposed policy that a reasonably educated legislator should be able to make an informed decision. Be sure to consider the various questions that a legislator might have about the issue and proposed policy, such as long-term costs and benefits, potential effects on business and industry (especially those that support politicians' campaigns), and how the policy will support the health and productivity of state residents.
For this assignment, you should create an approximately 10 minute presentation* that addresses each of the following points in a powerpoint:
• Discuss the public health issue that your proposed policy is intended to address.
Questions to consider:
o Who does this health issue affect?
o What is the impact of this health issue on the community?
o Why does this health issue need to be addressed?
• Explain the proposed public health policy.
Questions to consider:
o Who will be affected by this policy?
o How will this policy address the health issue?
o What will change by enacting this policy?
• Evaluate the impacts of the proposed policy.
Questions to consider:
o What are the costs and benefits of the policy?
o What are the risks of enacting or not enacting the policy?
o How will the lives of people who are affected by the health issue change if this policy is enacted?
• Create an influential presentation that affects voting behaviors of legislators.
Questions to consider:
o What information about this policy would potentially affect the voting behavior of legislators from across the political spectrum (eg. conservative, moderate, liberal, progressive; particularly those who might not support the policy based on political orientation)?
o What are the most important messages that legislators need to hear about this policy?
o How would the constituents of the legislators voting for this policy feel about this policy and a legislator who votes for it?
o What information would a legislator need to "sell" the policy to consitutents who were perhaps not in favor of adopting the policy?
The Advocating for Public Health Policy assignment
• Must be an approximately 10 minute long formal presentation recorded as a video, screencast, or using the voice recording functions in a presentation program.
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
o Title of paper
o Student's name
o Course name and number
o Instructor's name
o Date submitted
• Must use at least three scholarly sources in addition to the course text.
• Must document all sources in APA.
• Must include a separate reference page that is formatted according to APA style.
Discussion 1 :Public Health Disasters & Preparedness
Read through the emergency disasters below. Select one of these scenarios and then complete the following steps:
• Scenario No. 1: "Dragon/Volcano Emergency Response"
• Scenario No. 2: "Vaccine Gone Awry Emergency Response"
• Scenario No. 3: "Tornado Scenario"
• Scenario No. 4: "Tropical Cyclone and Flooding"
• Scenario No. 5: "Zombie Apocalypse"
Imagine you are the director of FEMA using NIMS when this disaster occurs.
• Develop a PSA (using either Screencast or video) that informs the population of what will be done to resolve the issue. Address these elements in your video:
o Describe the nature of the situation.
o Explain what FEMA and others are doing to mitigate the situation.
o Explain what people need to do to stay safe and/or to get help in order to reduce panic.
• Your vocal tone should be one that is meant to reduce panic and provide a solid explanation of the above elements.
• Copy and paste the URL to your video or screencast within your discussion forum response. If you are unable to create a YouTube video for this discussion, you may use a screencast program. However, you do not need to develop a PowerPoint presentation. This discussion is meant to assess your communication abilities, therefore, the audio portion of the video and/or screencast is essential. If you elect to use the screencast option, you may simply use a picture of yourself reporting the above information in lieu of a PowerPoint.
Questions to think about while formulating your response to the public:
• What are the issues you will address first?
• Which organization is responsible for what? Where will you allocate your resources?
• What public health concerns are the results of each of these events?
• Which populations might be most at risk?
• What are some of the long-term health effects of these events?
• What other health concerns may arise from these events?
• What will you say to the people, who are desperately awaiting your direction?
Scenario #3: "Tornado scenario" The Scenario:
It is calm day in the city of Moore, Oklahoma, a suburb of Oklahoma City, OK.
It is October 4th, 1998 and people are going about their everyday lives. At approximately, 8:37 PM CDT a tornado develops about a half mile north of 19th Avenue. The tornado is two miles wide and tears through the center of the city. The damage is tremendous, as tracts of homes are destroyed and cars are piled atop of one another.
The tornado is powerful EF4 on the enhanced Fujita Scale with wind speeds of 200 miles per hour. This tornado is a part of series of tornados that have developed over the past two days, devastating other cities in the area. Hundreds are injured and unfortunately there are 70 deaths that have been confirmed. There are reports of families being trapped under debris in the northern parts of the city.
Two schools have been leveled along with one of the main medical facilities. City resources are overwhelmed and the U.S. president has declared this area a major disaster area, allowing federal aid to support local and state efforts.
Moore is a city of only 56, 315 people. The city has continually grown over the past decade. Moore has three high schools and a local community college that serve as there major educational centers. The nearest big city is Oklahoma City which has a population of over 200,000.
There are three medical facilities that provide medical care for the general population. The Community Hospital offers acute care and other emergency services while Oklahoma Heart Hospital and Oklahoma Center offer similar services. Moore has three fire stations located in various parts of the city (North, East, and West). Interstate 35 is the only major highway that travels through the city. Weather in the area ranges from the low 70's and mid 90's during the summer to about The low 50's and low 30's in the winter. This particular area of the country is known for tornados and Moore has had a history of damaging tornados.
Your Review: What do you tell your public? Factor out the issues and follow protocol to formulate your response to the discussion question and public service announcement.
Source for background information: Mannette, A., (2013). Oklahoma Tornado 2013Devastates Moore, Kills Dozens.
Discussion 2 : Allocating Public Health Resources
Imagine that you are standing on the bank of a river and injured people start floating down the river towards you. There is no end to the floating people...they just keep coming and coming. You are alone and you do not have cell service to phone for back up. What do you do? In your discussion post, discuss what type of assistance you would want to provide.
Explain where you think it would be best to focus your energy assisting (ie. should you stay where you are and pull people out of the river, or should you go upstream to find out why injured people are ending up in the river?)
Determine what proportion of assistance should go to aiding injured people versus preventing the cause of the injuries in the first place. Justify your reasoning for why you would allocate your resources that way. (There is no right or wrong answer to this; it is a matter of determining the priorities between treatment vs. prevention.)