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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Laura Rasar King, MPH, CHES and Amanda Slagle, BA. Environment and Health Programs, Physicians for Social Responsibility, 1875 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 1012, Washington, DC 20009
Advocacy is an area in which health educators and other health professionals are often uncomfortable and lack formal training. It is however, an essential part of communicating health and health education needs, concerns and resources to policymakers. The ability for health educators and other health professionals to take an active role in advocacy has increased tremendously in the past several years with the escalating use of Internet technology to help them be more educated and effective advocates. The Environment and Health Outreach and Education Program at Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) in Washington, DC has recently launched a Web-based education and action center designed specifically to increase the participation of health care and public health professionals in environmental health issues. EnviroHealthAction (www.envirohealthaction.org) is an education and action center with a comprehensive database and Web interface where members can log on to participate in activities including downloading issue briefs, patient brochures and other educational resources, adding their names to sign-on letters, or e-mailing and faxing members of Congress. After completing a personal profile, members of the network are proactively contacted by PSR to take action on timely issues that are tailored to the member’s specific interests. Through the network, PSR tracks the participation of its members and follows up with notification about the result of an action taken. This presentation will outline the process of creating and managing such a system including the cost and implementation as well as the benefits, caveats and lessons learned. Results of an external evaluation of the system’s effectiveness will be presented.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Advocacy, Internet
Related Web page: www.envirohealthaction.org
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Physicians for Social Responsibility
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.