Teach the Grownups Well About Children, Mental Health, and Loving Bees
Harvard Medical School’s Joshua D. Sparrow, M.D., offers his thoughts on how to support a child's mental health and shares the remarkable...
May 6, 2013
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Bravo Kristen! The English language is a treasured resource that is treated with disrespect by many of its users. Your voice is much needed and appreciated.
I love this idea and wish my own agency did more in this area. I think there's a struggle to continue this kind of research with increasingly tight budgets. I understand the value of this information in crafting a campaign to make it the most effective one possible. However, it can sometimes be a hard sell to leadership, who isn't ready to commit the money and time to do testing of campaign messages and materials. I think it would be really interesting to hear about ways that we might get this feedback "on the cheap" and using that information in a way that might hopefully help us build the business case for future projects.
* In the session on storytelling the presenters emphasized the importance of talking "in the audience" voice. "What is our story and why would anyone listen?"
*In a session examining "Putting Prevention to Work" HHS grants the recommendation was "focus on one compelling fact that offers a solution."
*In a session by IDEO Design Lab the big idea was to learn from "sacrificial projects"... these are projects that don't require great amounts of money and time to implement..., so you don't get so big an investment that you can't let go of them. These are projects that can be implemented fast, with minimum resources, which you can learn from and let go of easily.
*In a session on electronic gaming I learned that cost isn't a direct correlation with success of a game. It is ok to develop and produce a low budget game if it meets a need for your project. It might succeed and add significantly to you project. The example was www.pillsvscandy.org which uses simple game playing to educate parents and kids about how much many medications look like candy.
*In "Designing for Change" the recommendation was that we need to draw more heavily on design thinking when we want to create change and the recommendation was a book by Warren Berger called "Glimmer" which I'll be getting soon.
The overall theme of the conference was "Listening for Change" and the message that carried throughout was that all to often we focus too much on talking and not nearly enough on listening to what our audience is trying to tell or ask us.
Ray--Thanks for your comment and your compliment! I agree that there are a number of challenges in terms of organizations adopting social media--and valid ones at that. It definitely "depends" as they say on what an organization or person wants to achieve when it comes to the use of social media. What I've found, is that understanding helps drive effective use. And for many (including myself), understanding often starts with personal use. So, I applaud you being a change agent in your own organization/community in working to understand social media and how it can be applied best to improve public health.
Hopefully--we'll be able to connect in person at one of these public health events. Thanks for sharing the post with others!
Best, Alex
I think a lot of non-profits are hesitant to engage in on-line advocacy because of the political connotations. The bright-line how project time and resources are used reminds me that I should change the email and web link for this comment, although I'll keep the ideas for future reference.
Thanks Alex for your summary that I could pass along to my colleagues!
I think social media will a big part of how health reform will improve the publics' health, but is still at a fairly early stage without strong evidence of promoting change, and not strongly supported by organizations that cannot monitize it's value. Your blog is a concrete example of how leading ideas and practices can be shared widely and in a timely manner.
Thanks Alex for summarizing in a format I could share with colleagues.
I think social media will a big part of how health reform will improve the publics' health, but is still at a fairly early stage of development and not strongly supported within organizations that cannot monitize it yet.
Highlighting case studies of effective uses in supporting change needs supporting evidence, so your examples from the conference is a concrete example of timely learning from the cutting edge.
Youre a real deep tihnker. Thanks for sharing.
Allow me to add that exercise (does not matter the age, intensity or frequency), not only is a preventive measure against the vascular disease, (i.e. stroke or heart attack), but also it has been demonstrated that it reduces and even delays the onset of the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, illnesses that not only cause severe incapacity and disability but also severe emotional and social effects. Fitness equals health equals economy.
Excellent article! Too many men take their health for granted and do not take action until they are struck with one (or more) of the above health conditions. Many times, these conditions can be prevented with simple lifestyle changes such as exercise. Thank you for bringing this to the forefront!
Encouraging men to take better care of themselves is so important. Individuals who are in career fields that request them to be physically fit, i.e. military, police, fire fighters etc., may be motivated by complying with their employer. Individuals who appear at the gym in order to receive the physical attribute(s) of working out, but do not follow through with current information on health by their primary physician nor an awareness of proper nutrition consumption. A committment to self regarding a health regiment is a wise investment.
Meredith--This is quite an inspiring experience and perspective that you share. Thank you for honoring us with your story!
This is a great post about designing for women.
Hi, I like the new IQ Soutions web site redesign. Nice work!