A Forgotten Condition: Pediatric Pain and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

first posted on LinkedIn April 2023 For the last 10 years, Donna Sullivan has advocated for children with complicated health conditions who suffer from chronic and sometimes extreme pain – including her own children.  She is part of a nationwide group of mothers united through the nonprofit, The Coalition Against Pediatric Pain (TCAPP), looking for a way to take …

Meredith Hurston, #HCHLITSS Guest September 17, 2015

We are very excited to have as our guest on #HCHLITSS Thursday September 17, 2015 Meredith Hurston. Here is a short bio. Meredith Hurston is a native of Flint, MI and finished her undergraduate studies at The University of Michigan-Flint. After completing a graduate degree in healthcare administration, she now works at the nation’s top …

Trying to Change the World for the Better: Meet Medivizor

“Medivizor’s vision is to improve the lives of people with serious medical conditions and those who care for them and to effectively apply software and the social web in the field of health for the betterment of humanity. This might sound like a lofty goal, and indeed, it is. We want to change the world for …

Bringing Back the Story: Wellbound Storytellers and Health Empowerment

The Navajo Sugar Monster Long ago the Holy People predicted that a monster would take over the Navajos. Our mothers and fathers would change...No longer were man and woman together. One after another this monster ate away their faces. It gnawed away Navajo identity....Everything turned from light to dark....Words ceased to exist. The Holy People …

Reporters: Give ‘Em A Break

The people of Boston, like the marathoners, are resilient and resourceful. We cannot be broken by a cowardly act of terror. We will come back from this. Senator Elizabeth Warren Patriot's Day is a holiday in Massachusetts celebrating the anniversary of the April 19th Battle of Lexington and Concord during the American Revolution. It is …

From Outrage To Action: Dian (CJ) Corneliussen-James and METAvivor

“I started METAvivor out of outrage.” Dian (CJ) Corneliussen-James Co-Founder of METAvivor Research and Support, Inc Born from the outrage of four women, METAvivor Research and Support, Inc. is a non-profit with a purpose--To increase research funding for metastatic cancer. Dian (CJ) Corneliussen-James  is one of those women.   A self-described shy child, Ms. Corneliussen-James  (or …

How-to Health Communication: Crisis Public Relations and the Susan G. Komen For the Cure Foundation

Crisis communication has to be a part of any organization’s make-up.  Why? The same reason the words “I’m sorry” are part of human vocabulary:  humans make mistakes.  Being able to effectively deal with a blunder,  can tell a lot about an organization. So, what can be learned about the Susan G. Komen For the Cure …

Responding to Komen’s New Awareness

MBNCBuzz just posted this advertisement by the Komen Foundation.  It is the first time that the Komen Foundation has acknowledged metastatic breast cancer, Stage IV, in a marketing campaign. The irony that Susan Komen died of metastatic breast cancer is not lost on those who live with it.   Recurrences of breast cancer are not uncommon.  Close to …

Cancer Language: Erasing Reality

culture:  the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts and depends upon the human capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations  Merriam-Websters. The first  Sunday in June is set aside as National Cancer Survivorship Day. It is described on the website as “an annual, worldwide Celebration of Life,” …

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This is an incredibly well written commentary on the language of cancer. Yvonne brings us round to face our society’s efforts through the “language of detachment” to make those with cancer feel like “the other” A must read….

considering the lilies

“I read the news today, oh boy . . .” and prompted by Marie’s questions: who are cancer survivors and is it really necessary to celebrate survivorship on the first Sunday of June, I began yet another interminable trek through the unfiltered Internet. I found no answers for Marie. Just more questions. Admittedly, before today, I was completely unaware that such a “treasured worldwide celebration of life” was on the calendar and has been for twenty-five years. I wonder would I have been any the wiser had I not been diagnosed myself. So who is a survivor, and who do I think I am? At best, I am ambivalent. According to the National Cancer Survivors Day website:

a “survivor” as anyone living with a history of cancer – from the moment of diagnosis through the remainder of life. National Cancer Survivors Day affords your community an opportunity to demonstrate…

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Awareness Months

In Action:  Beyond Awareness I broached the subject of Awareness Months.  Because there is some confusion, I am going to discuss the Transtheoretical Model to clarify. Prochaska, Norcross, and DiClemente developed the Transtheoretical Model.  It is used extensively in developing behavioral change programs for individuals.  The model describes the series of stages that an individual goes through in …

Action: Beyond Awareness

In the 80's and 90's I watched public broadcasting shows and tired of the environmental documentaries. Why? Because the documentaries left me depressed.  All the terrible changes were and still are occurring.  Man wasn't sharing the world but dominating it.  I was made aware but left hopeless with every documentary because there were no actions I could take to …

Begin With the End In Mind: Let Evaluation Lead

http://youtu.be/LeUs77fK7dQ Nothing says success better than provable results! So it is easy to see why the folks at Health Literacy Wisconsin are smiling from ear to ear. This past fall they put together a winning health communication campaign by sticking with the fundamentals: they did their research. Erin Aagesen, MS, MSPH, the Health Literacy Coordinator …

Bullying and TV

Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this …

The Power of Play, Part 2

Children will put in over 10,000 hours of video gaming before the age of 21.  How do the video game producers keep people playing?  Can health communicators harness the power of gaming by applying game mechanics to our campaigns? These two questions have been nagging at me and I have found some answers.   Following up …

The Power of Play

Why do gamers spend hours amassing points for rewards that don’t really exist?   Because games are fun.    What does this have to do with health communications?  Health communicators are trying to use game mechanics to hook people into doing things that will improve their health.  That’s right:   instead of being preachy, there is …

Post Three–Bringing Targeting, Tailoring and Engagement Together

Ok…the first post in this series called Targeting versus Tailoring describes the difference between the two.  To summarize, a targeted message is created for a specific group of people.  A tailored message is directed to one individual, created specifically for that one person.  Both strategies of reaching the audience require formative research. Post two is …

Part Two: Engagement…or how to make it matter

For a long time cognitive scientists have been studying how we receive and process messages.   Petty and Cacioppo are the big names in this area of study, coming up with the Elaboration Likelihood Model or ELM to describe what they observed.  In a nutshell they found that we process messages in two ways, via  central …

Part One: Targeting and Tailoring Messages: What’s the difference and why should I care?

Think about doing a little target practice.  Imagine the target board…concentric rings coming to a small bull’s-eye in the center. What kind of gun would you choose to hit the mark?  A sawed off shotgun or a rifle with a scope?  The choice is obvious. Airing PSAs or producing health websites with messages crafted for …