Awareness is not enough- we need to take Action to bring about Change!

Watching a short clip in class about Malcolm Gladwell, journalist and author of The Tipping Point, talk about social change inspired me to dedicate this blog to social change and how it can be achieved. In the short fifteen minute presentation, Gladwell argues that we tend to focus a lot on the "knowing" and not enough on the "doing". He discusses how we have become a nation fixated on raising awareness and that we are forgetting an important aspect- ACTION.

As we look back at our history, it becomes evident that raising awareness is just as important since it has helped us tremendously in assisting several social transformations such as the womens rights movement which started with raising awareness. After all, understanding more about an issue allows us to realize the reality behind it and it often sparks our interest or raises concerns. For instance, informing people regarding unsafe working conditions led to drastic improvements in workplace safety and reduced the incident of work-related accidents among other transformations. This was largely possible because people became aware of the hazardous working conditions and the dangers associated with them, that led to increased public support. The support from the public put pressure on the industries to invest into creating safer working conditions. Getting support from the public, however, is not easy and can sometimes result in polarized responses when dealing with more controversial matters such as in the case of the pro-choice and pro-life groups when talking about abortion. It is important to realize that as humans we tend to personalize things, which is good in some ways as it allows us to empathize with others, while bad in others as we become limited by our narrow frame of reference and worldview. Becoming aware of different stand points on the same issue can lead to greater understanding and hopefully readjusting of our preconceived perceptions.

This relevant to us as future nutrition professionals as we strive to achieve positive change involving so many issues in public health and nutrition be it improving fruit and vegetable consumption, being more physically active, to reducing smoking and alcohol consumption. All these choices that we make as individuals are hard to change as there are many factors that affect our decision. Whether it is about access to the right type of foods (financially or physically), our level of understanding and knowledge, our immediate surroundings, culture, people that are part of our community. All these factors or otherwise known as the social determinants of health really play into an individuals' overall health choices and it is hard to cause changes if without working with the underlying causes. If a person is unable to make healthier choices because of their built environment, we cannot expect change without looking at their physical surroundings and working towards improving that. For change to be sustainable, and thereby meaningful, it needs to deal with whatever the underlying problem is and not be a band-aid solution. This ties into our discussion of built environment and its role into creating healthier communities. It's encouraging to see the government recognizing the importance of these social factors and working towards improving them. I am thinking in particular about the regent park revitalization project where the government has intervened for a complete redevelopment of the area in efforts to promote community development, cohesion and acceptability.

Going back to Gladwell's comment about "fetishizing awareness" raises a valid point since raising awareness without having the right knowledge or tools to know how to translate that knowledge into action can be meaningless. Consider this: if people know that they need to eat healthy but are unaware of which foods comprise of a healthy meal then they will not be well equipped to make that decision. Or maybe, a single mother does know that fruits and vegetables are healthier for her children but she simply cannot afford them. Having the knowledge but not having the means to provide a healthy meal to her family is likely to make the mother feel guilty, ultimately doing more harm than benefit. I think it is important to stress that people do not purposely make an unhealthy decision and that we are not here as health care professionals to put blame on them. But in fact, we are here to promote healthier living and to provide the appropriate tools in making the best possible decision that suits their situation. Even if accessibility is not an issue, knowledge about the healthier choice does not translate into behaviour. Many of us know the harmful effects of junk food or foods that are very high in fats with little or no nutrients yet we still continue eating them. Even with proper income to be able to afford fruits and vegetables and appropriate education, obesity is still on the rise, the fast food sector is still a booming industry. Clearly, we are in need of a paradigm shift as Gladwell suggested being the success behind the seatbelt campaign (as also mentioned in two of my classmates' blogs that I had a chance to read). I could keep talking where this topic is concerned but to keep it concise, I will provide links to the video of the presentation by Gladwell below where he talks about how getting people to buckle up was very difficult. The campaign was not being successful despite the hefty funding and vigorous campaign and this was because North American's tend to be resistant when complying with authority. Meanwhile all it took was a simple shift from asking adults to wear seat belts to gearing the campaign towards making kids wear seat belts. The seat belt usage went up from 15% to 75% after this change. Perhaps we need to re-orient ourselves and popularize healthy eating. There needs to be an action plan to bring this change of healthy eating into action and I would like to part with a famous quote to keep us motivated,

"Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do."



Gladwell lecture : http://www.tvo.org/TVO/WebObjects/TVO.woa?videoid?24640858001