Campaign for Political Advocacy
Week 5: Campaign for Political Advocacy
Q1 One healthcare issue within my community is poor mental health. Mental health, in this case, refers to the social, psychological, and emotional wellbeing. It is a vital element for everybody at every stage of his/her life. Poor mental health adversely impacts a person’s ability to lead a fulfilling life and adequately deal with his/her professional and social responsibilities. Additionally, it can result in social and physical problems with profound impacts. There is a significant rise in mental health issues within my community. This rise reflects the national trend where more than 50% of the population are diagnosed with a mental health problem at one point in their lives (Plakun, 2020). Common mental health issues in my community include major depression, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder, among others. There are various causes of mental health problems in my community: alcohol/drug abuse, loneliness/isolation, biological issues, experiences tied to other chronic medical problems, and early adverse life experiences like abuse or trauma.
In my community, the poor mental health of many members in the community is compounded by the limited resources available to fight the problem. Marginalized people in the community are the ones who are most affected by this trend as they face many barriers when it comes to accessing relevant mental healthcare. This is because such people work in places that do not offer health insurance. The lack of health insurance implies that very few people can afford most mental healthcare services in the community. Additionally, many mental healthcare providers lack the cultural competency needed to adequately offer their services to the diverse people in the community. The marginalized individuals that are able to afford mental healthcare receive very poor quality services from providers who have limited skills and knowledge to interact with them and understand them.
Q2 The type of healthcare policy, which I would advocate for in an effort to change the issue is the adoption of evidence-based prevention measures. The objective would be to come up with programs, which directly deal with the issues that contribute to the poor mental health outcomes in the community (Arango et al., 2018). When pertinent risk factors for poor mental health are identified early, then it will be easy to initiate preventive measures before the situation goes out of hand. Examples of risk factors include chronic health conditions and trauma. The healthcare policy can have early childhood programs, older adults programs, and violence prevention programs. Each of these programs focuses on a specific niche in the community’s population to offer specialized interventions to deal with the healthcare issue effectively.
Q3 The type of campaign that I would need to launch in order to gather a network of support is a social media campaign. The use of social media platforms to launch a campaign focusing on the community health issue carries many benefits. For starters, social media platforms are free, which means I will not incur any cost in getting my message out to the public. Also, the social media platform allows me to get in touch with anybody regardless of location and rank. Thus, I can engage with members of the public, healthcare practitioners, and politicians in order to get the support I require to promote the healthcare policy mentioned above (Roland, 2018). I can also create a hashtag and convince like-minded people to promote my cause. This will enable me to reach a wider audience and create new networks that will subsequently push my agenda to others. By getting many engagements, policymakers will be obligated to take action and initiate the creation of the policy to deal with the mental health crisis.
Q4 Tweet that describes what I have shared with my class colleagues: “Mental health issues in my community are getting out of hand. It’s time to embrace evidence-based prevention measures to counter the menace.”
References
Arango, C., Díaz-Caneja, C. M., McGorry, P. D., Rapoport, J., Sommer, I. E., Vorstman, J. A., … & Carpenter, W. (2018). Preventive strategies for mental health. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(7), 591-604.
Plakun, E. M. (2020). The mental health crisis in America: recognizing problems; working toward solutions: Part 2. Offering hope through engagement. Journal of Psychiatric Practice®, 26(2), 135-140.
Roland, D. (2018). Social media, health policy, and knowledge translation. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 15(1), 149-152.