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"...would you want to promote homeopathy or faith healing as roads to good
health?"


Hi folks,

I don't see my job as Health Promotion Specialist as a license to dictate to
people how they should lead their lives, and the fact that they choose
homeopathic or other treatments is entirely up to them.  My job is more to
help them look at options.

For example, I think smoking is a terrible addiction, and I know that there
can be terrible consequences to those that choose to smoke.  If I tell
someone not to smoke, their reaction more often than not is to tell me to
mind my own business, they might even bring up the fact that their
grandfather smoked every day until he was 87 and smoking didn't give him
cancer.  This bit of information could be absolutely true, and if it is true
it can carry much more weight than any set of data I might produce.

This person isn't ready to think about not smoking.  I can continue to hound
this person about smoking, but the results are likely to remain the same, my
action will elicit in the same reaction.   Or I might choose to disengage
and smugly think that the poor smoker is ill informed and not being honest
with himself.

But who would that help?  Not the guy, and certainly not his children.

Change in behavior, or beliefs, is entirely up to the individual.  I can be
more effective when I acknowledge this.  Knowing that I can't force him to
change his behavior, or beliefs, lets me focus then on helping him see how
smoking impacts his health and more importantly the health of his family. 
My goal is to reduce his smoking; my tactic is to understand his world and
help him identify contradictions in his belief system that make smoking
appear less appealing.

We all know this world in a slightly different way, if you want me to see
the world as you see it the most effective way is to understand my world
first rather than ridiculing, belittling or dismissing my beliefs.

Thanks,

- Len


Len Adams
Health Promotion Specialist
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Dept.
3629 South D Street, MS:319
Tacoma, WA 98418-6813
253/798-6129


"Talent hits a target no one else can hit;
Genius hits a target no one else can see."

- Arthur Schopenhauer

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