Communicating Health Information Once you have reliable health information, you can advocate for, or support, the health of your family and community by sharing it with others. This is called health promotion. For example, if your mother smokes, consider encouraging her to quit. Research the health risks of smoking and present the information to your mother. If your mother decides to quit smoking, support her effort. Help your family access health information. For example, if your family members have questions about a health-related topic and do not understand English, help them by researching the topic on the internet and translating the information you find. You can also advocate for community health. Suppose your state has a high rate of obesity. Begin by learning about existing public health services and write to your elected officials about supporting a healthy eating program. advocate to take actions that show support health promotion process of advocating for the health of families and communities by sharing health information Case Study Health Resources: What Are Available and How to Access Them Jasmine knows her poor diet contributes to her difficulty maintaining a healthy weight. She knows the basics: fruits and vegetables have many nutrients, while fast food and sweets have far fewer. Beyond that, she feels a bit lost about what needs to change in her eating habits. Jasmine tries to search for nutrition information online, but worries the information might not be accurate. She finds a lot of information about fad diets and companies selling their products. Instead, Jasmine turns to her school’s library media specialist, Practice Your Skills Communicate with Others In a small group, choose one of the scenarios given and write a role-play in which the teen talks with a trusted adult to get help. In your role-play, the teen should seek to resolve the issue that is hindering health and get support adopting healthy behaviors and using health resources. The teen should state the issue clearly and discuss possible courses of actions with the trusted adult. Use reliable resources to find good advice the trusted adult can give. Perform your role-play for the class and then discuss how effective the conversation was. What, if anything, could have made the conversation more effective? who helps her find reliable information on the US Department of Agriculture’s MyPlate website. Daniel lives with his grandparents, who are retired. Their only source of income is his grandparents’ retirement fund. Money is tight, so Daniel’s family is often unable to purchase enough nutritious food for three people. Daniel is not old enough to work, but wants to contribute. One day after school, he visits his state’s local Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) website and finds information about food stamps. Daniel talks to his grandparents about applying. His grandparents decide to sign up for the SNAP program the following day. Kamal worries about how much fast food his family eats. He knows the portion sizes are often too large and the meals are not that nutritious. Kamal’s neighborhood does not have a grocery store. The closest one is about one hour away by car. Kamal’s family eats fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy for a few days after they shop. Once that food runs out, they rely on nonperishable or frozen foods and fast-food restaurants until they go to the grocery store again. eggeegg/Shutterstock.com Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. 48 Unit 1 Promoting a Lifetime of Health and Wellness