Advocacy and Policy  

Advocacy and policy are both elements that must be integrated into  effective health education. Your post will consist of the following two  parts:

Part I:

• Examine the differences between advocacy and lobbying.
• Explain why health educators focus on advocacy rather than lobbying

Post Part I in the discussion forum’s text box and attach your document from Part II.

Part II:

• Select a public health concern from this list which you desire to research and address:
  • Ban texting while driving.
  • Ban the sale of cigarettes.
  • Stop synthetic drug creation and abuse (prescription or nonprescription).
  • Improve public health’s reach regarding mental health options.
  • Place tighter restrictions on who can purchase a firearm.
• Using the following scenario, advocate for one of these issues for a nationwide law. 
  • Scenario: You are working for your  state’s health department and are advocating for a nationwide law to  accomplish the goal you selected from above list. As part of your  campaign, you must write a letter to one of your federal legislators.  For Part II of this discussion, you will be drafting that letter. You  are limited to no more than two pages of single-spaced type (12 point  font), so your letter must be succinct and follow the protocols outlined  in your reading for this week. Refer to the Sample Letters to Legislators for additional information on how to format, address, and compose a letter of this nature.
• Do the following: 
  • Research and identify one federal legislator from your state who you  feel should have an interest in your chosen issue. Every state has its  own federal legislators in both the House of Representatives and the  Senate. Therefore, the individuals to choose from will be different for  each state. Make sure the address line and your salutation properly  addresses your selected individual.
  • Compose your letter and state your case in favor of a nationwide law  to address your chosen health issue. Formal letters such as these  generally do not include APA-cited references, so you do not have to  include in-text citations within your letter. However, you must clearly  reference major statistics and other documents within your letter as  your chosen legislator will want to know which law or issue you are  addressing. For example, “The Institutes of Medicine found that…” or  “According to the National Transportation Safety Board…”
  • Save your letter as a PDF (.pdf) file so that all of your classmates  may view it regardless of what computer system they are using. Please  be considerate of those who do not have Microsoft and cannot open .doc  or .docx files.

Your entire post will consist of

• Part I: typed into the text box of the discussion forum.
• Part II: attached as a formal letter to your discussion post.