Encouraging healthy commUnity
Public health is often lumped together with medicine. Despite these two fields working together, they are two vastly different subjects that have different goals and objectives. This was made incredibly clear to me during HPEB300: Introduction to Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, in which we studied the three levels of prevention. Levels of prevention refers to strategies used to reduce morbidity and mortality within a population, the difference between the three being the time in which they are enacted. The primary level of prevention are actions taken before the onset of disease while health status is good. These are typically largely regulated and widely accepted preventative measures, for example vaccines or no-smoking policies. The secondary level of prevention refers to acts taken early during the onset of disease to prevent it’s progression, for example receiving scans, examinations, or prescribed medication. The tertiary level of prevention is treatment of a disease with the intention of preventing mortality, for example rehabilitation programs or support groups. As the main topic of our course focused on health promotion and education, we discussed how understanding how the levels of prevention should be used to tailor interventions to the priority population. An example of this is seen in Artifact 1, my HPEB300 project that focused on program planning to encourage positive public health outcomes. Interventions cannot be successful if they do not fit the needs of the population nor acknowledge all three levels of prevention.
Throughout my collegiate career I have volunteered with the Gamecock CommUnity Shop in various capacities: beginning as a Unity Pal and eventually becoming the Volunteer Coordinator and later the Executive Director. The Unity Shop is a one-stop basic needs hub for all USC affiliates, as food, clothing, toiletries, and school supplies are all offered in our space at no cost. As I attained higher positions, and thus greater involvement with the Unity Shop, my tasks changed from once only checking out customers at the storefront to large program planning tasks for the Unity Shop.
As I assumed the role of Executive Director at the beginning of my senior year, I knew I wanted to make a difference in the community but I wasn’t sure how. From the previous director, I was told that my role was largely to organize donation drives, answer emails, and essentially represent the CommUnity Shop when presenting to those higher up in the university and outside institutions. Though these tasks were mildly enjoyable, they were not fulfilling. I knew that answering emails was not making a difference in my community.
The semester progressed on, and I was instructed by my supervisor to begin planning for Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week (H&HAW), a national week in which institutions come together to organize efforts to reduce hunger and homelessness through volunteering, donating, and educating themselves and others. As I went through the steps of planning a week full of volunteering and education events, I thought back to the three levels of prevention we discussed in HPEB300. I wanted to focus the events I planned for H&HAW at the primary prevention level, seeing as health education on topics such as eating healthy and exercising regularly can help reduce unhealthy behaviors that could later lead to poor health outcomes. My full planning document for H&HAW can be seen in Artifact 2.
Photos depicting my experience throughout the years with the Gamecock CommUnity Shop.
Two of the events that garnered the most interest, thus having the biggest population impact were our sustainability-focused event, Scrap-to-Sprout, and our community pickleball tournament. Scrap-to-Sprout was an event focused teaching participants how to grow their own vegetable scraps. When planning this event I thought back to HPEB300 and our discussion on how many people don’t eat healthy because they don’t know how. This event focused on a primary prevention strategy of health education on proper eating habits through a hands-on lesson about growing healthy foods. Similarly, we hosted a pay-to-play pickleball tournament. This event, though initially focused on raising money for the CommUnity Shop, encourages physical activity, another primary prevention strategy. Both of these events had large turnout from both individuals involved with the CommUnity Shop as well as outside community members. It was so encouraging to see so many people excited about these events and in turn, excited about participating in healthy behaviors to improve health outcomes.
Along with actively impacting the community through primary prevention, my time with the CommUnity Shop has allowed me to see both secondary and tertiary levels of prevention as well. Through week-long events such as H&HAW, the Unity Shop held an event focused on disseminating information about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to event attendees. At this event, we handed out SNAP QR code screeners. These screeners allowed participants to check if they were eligible for SNAP based on their current income and other life circumstances. Looking back after the event had occurred, I realized that this was a form of secondary prevention because it provided people with a chance to test for their level of need in terms of basic needs. If people use this screener and find out that they are eligible for SNAP benefits, then they will be able to prevent further basic needs deficits that they have.
Artifact 2. HPEB300 PPP project, showcasing the the use of the levels of prevention in public health programming.
Artifact 1. Program planning document for Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week 2024.
Tertiary prevention, often considered the closest form of public health to medicine, has also been prominent during my time with the Unity Shop. Giving out food to clients is the prime form of tertiary prevention I participated in. Tertiary prevention focuses on preventing a condition or disease from getting worse, and even taking steps in the direction of recovery. In this case, food insecurity is the disease, and food is the medicine. Working the front desk at the CommUnity Shop, restocking the shelves, and processing the incoming donations are all ways that I was able to experience tertiary prevention first-hand.
As the semester closed out, the CommUnity Shop executive board had one final meeting to reflect on all we had accomplished during the semester. This allowed me the chance to realize that the events and accomplishments from the semester were more than fun ways for people to learn about and engage with the CommUnity Shop, they were levels of prevention that aid in positive health outcomes. As the next semester started and I began to plan the semester programming, I kept this in mind. The three levels of prevention can be easily included in many event plans, and setting the framework for positive health outcomes isn’t as difficult as it may initially seem.