Advocacy Letter
Assessment 2: Advocacy Letter GUIDELINES Due date: 7th November 2018 @ 5pm Weighting: 30% of Semester total This assessment is designed to develop a core health promotion skill: advocacy. Written communication skills are vital to effective health promotion practice. In this assessment, you will practice building evidence-informed arguments that are succinct and informative and written for a government official/audience or industry official. Task: Develop an Advocacy Letter intended to raise awareness about your chosen Planetary Health topic from Assessment 1. In your first assessment you used the evidence to discuss the role of Health Promotion in responding to a particular planetary health challenge. To raise awareness of your chosen topic/challenge, your task for this assessment will be to write an advocacy letter to a relevant government and/or relevant industry official. In no more than 2 pages, you will write an advocacy letter arguing for a call to action about your chosen topic. Your audience is a government official of your choosing (e.g. Minister of Health, Minister of Environment, or Prime Minister) or a relevant industry official, so your language should be formal and accessible, and your argument succinct and evidence-based. Your letter can focus locally or globally. You will need to: Explain the topic/challenge you have chosen and why it matters Include relevant evidence to describe the problem and why it matters. This may be in a defined setting/population, geographic location etc. Think about establishing a sense of urgency about this challenge. Explain the significant human health impacts of your chosen topic and why this matters OR the aspects of our society which either protect or jeopardise the health of natural systems, and by extension, jeopardise human health. This will obviously depend on which aspect of planetary health you focussed on in Assessment #1. Include the relevant evidence. You can choose to focus on a particular population or geographical location. You will need to make sure it is clearly linked with your chosen topic. Outline recommendations for the government or industry official, in terms of calls to action. The proposed recommendations need to address how governments and/or industry should go about increasing public awareness about the importance of your chosen topic and or acting on it with programs/policies. This means considering what needs to happen to raise consciousness within the population (i.e. the call to action). The proposed recommendations must be realistic and feasible, and be informed by evidence. Include relevant evidence to support proposed recommendations. Communication style and presentation An advocacy letter requires a balance of professional, accessible and evidenced-informed writing. This means that you are expected to develop rational arguments about the significance of this health challenge, drawing on credible, peer-reviewed evidence. These arguments need to be developed in a logical and coherent manner to support the broader conclusion of the letter. This means avoiding contradictory statements and ensuring all content is relevant and ultimately consistent with the recommendations. You will have limited space to make your arguments so you will need to write as comprehensively and succinctly as possible. To help, it might be useful to focus on a particular area of the problem (e.g. a particular health consequence of climate change). Remember, the audience for an advocacy letter is not interested in the research/analysis procedures conducted to produce the evidence. Instead, the audience wants to know the writer’s perspective on the problem and potential solutions or ways forward. Keep the content relevant to the scope of the letter outlined above. The Letter needs to be: Clear and coherent structure The content is structured to create a concise and informative letter. As a result of this clear structure, the arguments flow in a logical manner. The writer of the letter may use clear descriptive subheadings to guide the reader through the argument. Focussed and succinct writing To provide an adequately comprehensive but targeted argument, the focus of the letter needs to be limited to a particular problem or area of a problem. All aspects of the letter (from the message to the layout) need to strategically focus on achieving the intended goal of convincing the target audience of the significance of the problem and the importance of the proposed recommendations. Professional and accessible language This refers to using clear and simple language (i.e. not academic jargon and concepts), and also providing well explained and easy to follow arguments. However, do not assume your reader has prior in- depth knowledge of the topic so write for a professional, lay audience. Adheres to conventions of written English The word choice, grammar punctuation and spelling adheres to conventions of written English. Appropriately referenced Acknowledges sources and adheres to referencing conventions, in text and in reference list. Adheres to presentation requirements Adheres to presentation requirements and word limit (no more than 2 pages excluding references). Please note that any text over the 2 page limit (excluding the references) will not be marked. Use 12 Point Times New Roman, 1.5 spacing throughout and 2cm margins. References Please present the references at the end of your letter in either ‘Harvard’, ‘APA’, or ‘Vancouver’ formats. For guidance on the use of citation styles, refer to the UQ library on http://www.library.uq.edu.au/useit/. References are not included in the 2 page limit. Recommended readings Below is a list of some background articles you may wish to read: Chapman, S. (2015) Reflections on a 38-year career in public health advocacy: 10 pieces of advice to early career researchers and advocates. Public Health Research and Practice, 25(2). Doi.10.17061/phrp2521514 Please see examples of advocacy letters in the Assessment Folder on Blackboard. Submission instructions: 1. This assignment is to be uploaded via the TurnItIn submission link on Blackboard. This includes all EXTERNAL and INTERNAL students. Instructions are on the Blackboard site. 2. You must read the student declaration before you submit your assessment. 3. Please make sure you have received your submission receipt. Tanya Casey Assessment 1: Role of Health Promotion in responding to Planetary Health challenges – Written Research Report. The Effects of Environmental Pollution on our Health – Air Pollution and Diabetes Introduction What an amazing world we live in! Let’s hope we can keep it that way. Planetary health can be described as protecting the world’s population and surroundings by ensuring an advanced level of health is maintained while defending our Earth’s environmental composition. Yet the continuing detrimental effects of environmental pollution on our planet are devastating us everywhere. Our precious resources of water, air and land mixed with assorted pollutants make up environmental pollution. We still have a huge smog issue in so many countries. We continue to mine and this leaves our land spoiled with soil degradation, erosion and toxic waste issues. We have come so far yet we still have a lot to learn. What aren’t we doing right with pollution? What can we do better? We need to be doing as much as possible to educate the world on improving environmental pollution. The air we breathe is essential to life and we need to learn more about how environmental pollution it is affecting us on a global scale. The effects of air pollution on our health can cause a number of issues including breathing difficulties, coughing, asthma, increased risk of heart attack and irritation of the eyes, nose and throat. But who would have thought it could lead to type two diabetes. More and more research is emerging that air pollution and diabetes are responsible for millions of deaths globally.[endnoteRef:1] So if this research is correct we need to be proactive with health initiatives now and in the future. Our future generations and their education really need to be adamant in response to keep preventable disease at bay. This report will look at the areas of air pollution linked to diabetes, air pollution regulation limits and what we can do to improve outcomes. It includes information on studies done on air pollution and its direct affects. Air pollution isn’t going away, it’s increasing at a disturbing rate and we need to make it our priority. [1: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322358.php ] Body Hopefully by now we are all well aware that by not working out and eating poorly can influence our chances of getting diabetes. But recent research has come into light that air pollution released by cars and trucks could now be a factor. Diabetes is caused when the body struggles to produce enough insulin and this leads to high blood sugar levels. Air pollution has been linked to 150,000 new cases of diabetes per year in the United States.[endnoteRef:2] The studies are showing a relationship between particulate matter (PM)- or traffic related air pollutants and diabetes.[endnoteRef:3] It’s too soon to compare between type two and type one diabetes but generally patients are type two so the outcome of type two diabetes is anticipated. [2: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/29/health/air-pollution-diabetes-study/index.html ] [3: http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/61/12/3037 ] In 2011 the International Diabetes Federation reported that diabetes had affected at least 366 million people globally. By 2030 this number is predicted to rise to 566 million people.[endnoteRef:4] The endothelial function in humans is now changing due to increased air pollution. This thin membrane (the endothelium) inside our heart and blood vessels emits materials that activate vascular relaxation and contraction. Because our arteries can’t dilate fully, we are susceptible to not only diabetes, but also heart attacks and strokes.[endnoteRef:5] Not only are we seeing a rise in diabetes from poor diet however it also seems to be influencing us from our environmental conditions – chronic air pollution. [4: http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/61/12/3037 ] [5: https://www.cedars-sinai.org/programs/heart/clinical/womens-heart/services/endothelial-function-testing.html ] The recent studies of air pollution-mediated cardiometabolic disease only analysed outdoor pollutions. The studies compared environmental pollutants, stress, cultural and socioeconomic variables and chronic low-grade infection. The report highlights type two diabetes but the emerging evidence is directly linking environmental pollution with cardiometabolic diseases. The correlation between insulin resistance and type two diabetes was confirmed by the exposure of organic pollutants and toxins. The evidence suggests pollution is lowering insulin production and causing inflammation. The main outdoor air pollution analysed was particulate matter, airborne microscopic pieces of dust, dirt, smoke, soot and liquid droplets. Due to the large amounts of infrastructure occurring in developing countries, the heavily affected areas of of air pollution on humans is evident in Asia, Latin America and Africa. The small particulate matter (PM) observed in these studies is only 2.5 microns or less in diameter (PM2.5).[endnoteRef:6] PM2.5 comprises of dangerous toxic metals and because of its tiny size it’s able to pass into the bloodstream via the lungs. Generally, cars and trucks are responsible for the production of PM2.5 in our atmosphere. [6: http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ambient-(outdoor)-air-quality-and-health ] The following table below (provided by the World Health Organization (WHO)) list the top countries for particulate matter (PM) air pollution in the world: * [endnoteRef:7] [7: http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/61/12/3037 ] The results are quite