How do we improve our health by engaging in policy?

Summary

In this enlightening episode of the 'A Closer Look' podcast, hosted by Dr. Robin Pickering, the focus is on the intersection of health and policy. The discussion dives into how engaging with policy can significantly improve health outcomes, empowering individuals and communities. With guests Julie Peterson and Jefferson Ketchel, experts in health policy, the conversation navigates how public policies at different levels impact personal and public health. The episode emphasizes the importance of voter engagement, understanding the role of local, state, and national policies, and advocating for a healthier environment and community.

Highlights

• Dr. Robin Pickering emphasizes the role of policy in shaping health beyond motivation and individual choices. 💪
• Guest Julie Peterson shares how early family discussions about politics sparked her interest in policy. 👪
• Jefferson Ketchel highlights the major successes in public health policies that have extended life expectancy. 🎉
• The conversation reveals how policies impact daily aspects like clean water, safe roads, and public spaces, contributing directly to health. 🚰🛤️
• Voters can influence health policy by understanding and participating in elections at all levels. 🗳️

Key Takeaways

• Understanding policy is crucial for improving health outcomes. 🌟
• Engaging in local and state health policies can empower communities. 🏘️
• Voting is a powerful tool for influencing health-related decisions. ✅
• Public health policy played a massive role in increased life expectancy in the 20th century. 📈
• Knowing your community and political representatives can enhance your self-agency in health matters. 👥

Overview

In this episode, Dr. Robin Pickering welcomes audiences to explore the compelling connections between health and policy alongside guests Julie Peterson and Jefferson Ketchel. The conversation kicks off with fascinating insights into how both guests were inspired by early family influences and experiences, drawing them into health policy. Julie reflects on her childhood experiences of discussing political issues at home and her influential journey into advocacy, setting the stage for a deeper understanding of how policies shape public health.

Jefferson underscores the critical role that public health policy has played in the tremendous strides in life expectancy observed throughout the 20th century. From regulating tobacco use to ensuring safe drinking water and sanitary health practices, these policy changes have markedly influenced public well-being. As they delve into how social determinants and policy decisions affect individual and community health, the conversation sheds light on crucial areas where voter engagement can lead to healthier societal norms and environments.

The discussion focuses on actionable insights for listeners, urging them to engage with policy matters by voting and understanding their local and community representatives. Emphasizing the significance of self-agency, the episode suggests practical steps for listeners to influence policies that affect their health directly. A shared passion from Dr. Pickering and her guests highlights the need for proactive policy understanding to bridge the gap between knowing what healthful choices are and creating environments that support making those choices the norm.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction and Host Introduction The introduction chapter of the podcast 'A Closer Look' sets the stage for exploring how our engagement with the world affects our health, happiness, and well-being. The host, Dr. Robin Pickering, is introduced as a professor of Health Sciences at Whitworth University.
• 01:00 - 03:00: Podcast Overview and Topic Introduction In "Podcast Overview and Topic Introduction," Dr. Robin Pickering, a professor of Health Science, opens the podcast episode with an engaging introduction, highlighting the show's focus on issues impacting Women's Health. She outlines the podcast's goals of education, inspiration, empowerment, and promoting action to improve health and well-being.
• 03:00 - 06:00: Guest Introductions This chapter focuses on the impact of policy decisions on health, exploring ways to improve health and agency through policy engagement. It addresses common fears and discomforts associated with discussing policy and politics, encouraging listeners to overcome these and engage actively in the policy-making process.
• 06:00 - 12:00: Personal Stories Leading to a Policy Interest The chapter titled 'Personal Stories Leading to a Policy Interest' introduces Julie Peterson, the executive director at the Foundation for Healthy Generations. Despite the transcript being brief, it implies a focus on the personal journeys and professional experiences of health policy experts. It highlights enthusiasm for engaging in health-enhancing policies and sets the stage for a discussion about the guests' pathways and contributions to health policy.
• 12:00 - 20:00: Importance of Policy in Health The chapter emphasizes the significant role of policy in health. It highlights the achievements of a notable leader in public policy advocacy, particularly in the realm of health legislation. The individual has been acknowledged for exceptional leadership and has been instrumental in securing legislation and budget funds for health initiatives. Their efforts include organizing and mobilizing statewide grassroots efforts to promote prevention measures.
• 20:00 - 30:00: Local Policy and Health Outcomes The chapter explores the intersection of local policy and health outcomes, emphasizing the role of effective advocacy in shaping public policy. Featuring insights from Julie, who has extensive experience in state and federal policy efforts, the discussion highlights the importance of public policy in influencing individuals, communities, and organizations. Julie's passion for these impacts is evident throughout the chapter.
• 30:00 - 40:00: Vaping and Public Health Challenges Introduction to Julie and her role in legislative education day.
• 40:00 - 45:00: Encouraging Public Engagement in Policy The chapter titled 'Encouraging Public Engagement in Policy' begins with a personal anecdote about the speaker being impressed by someone who navigated marble floors quickly while wearing heels. This person is also recognized for their passionate speaking at a conference about health, leading the speaker to become a super fan of their commitment and enthusiasm for the subject.
• 45:00 - 50:00: Misinformation about Policy and Health The chapter titled "Misinformation about Policy and Health" seems to focus on a discussion involving Julie and Jefferson Ketchel, who is introduced as the executive director of the Washington State Public Health Association. He has a background in policy studies and public health, including a Master's degree from the University of Washington and being a registered sanitarian, as well as being a graduate of the CDC's environmental public health program.
• 50:00 - 53:00: Conclusion and Encouragement The chapter titled 'Conclusion and Encouragement' appears to be discussing a program or initiative related to national preparedness and leadership, associated with the Leadership Institute and Harvard University's Executive Education Program. A key figure mentioned is someone with a significant 28-year background in public health, who previously held administrative roles in Snohomish and Grant County Health districts. Additionally, this person has served as the president of the Washington State Association of local public health. The chapter likely emphasizes the importance of leadership and experience in public health preparedness and may conclude with encouragement for continued development in this field.
• 53:00 - 55:00: Outro Jeff, who is affiliated with the Washington State Board of Registered Sanitarians, has played multiple roles for the narrator, including being a Shark Tank judge, a speaker, and a podcast guest. The narrator expresses gratitude and enthusiasm for Jeff's willingness to participate and contribute in various capacities.

How do we improve our health by engaging in policy? Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] foreign [Music] welcome to a closer look a podcast that explores the ways in which the world we live in and how we engage with it can impact our health happiness and well-being now here's your host Dr Robin Pickering professor of Health Sciences at Whitworth University [Music]
• 00:30 - 01:00 foreign [Music] you for joining us today on a closer look I am your host Dr Robin Pickering professor of Health Science on this podcast we will take a closer look at issues that impact Women's Health we'll focus on inspiration on education empowerment taking action to improve our health and our well-being on today's
• 01:00 - 01:30 episode we're going to explore ways in which our health is impacted by policy decisions how we can improve our health how we can improve our agency by engaging in policy and even if we know nothing about policy and politics even if we're afraid of that and and want to disengage and feel uncomfortable talking about those things we're going to talk today about
• 01:30 - 02:00 how we can engage in ways that are Health enhancing I am so excited to announce and introduce our guests today who are both experts in health policy and I want to talk a little bit about how I met them and what their path is but I'm super excited so Julie Peterson I'll start with you Julie Peterson is the executive director at foundation for healthy Generations
• 02:00 - 02:30 she's received numerous Awards She's been publicly recognized as an outstanding leader in public policy advocacy and legislative work by many partners and during her time at healthy Generations she has successfully advocated with Partners helped them to secure legislation and budget funds organized and mobilized Statewide prevention Grassroots efforts and has
• 02:30 - 03:00 been involved in numerous state and federal level policy efforts Julie is passionate about the impact on individuals communities and organizations and the way in which public policy issues can be shaped through the use of effective advocacy skills Julie thank you so much for being here and I'll say I've been a huge fan
• 03:00 - 03:30 of Julie for years and have sort of followed her around I first met Julie in Olympia we were doing some work with um legislative education day and we were talking about I believe it was vaping and I specifically remember you knowing all the people knowing the right people to talk to and very vividly remember I was wearing heels you were
• 03:30 - 04:00 wearing heels and I was literally chasing after you the whole time because I've never seen anyone navigate marble floors as effectively as you did and as quickly as you did so I that was my first the first thing I remembered about you and then I saw you speak at a conference and I am just have become a super fan of your passion for health and
• 04:00 - 04:30 um so I am so happy that you're here thank you for joining us Julie um I also want to introduce Jefferson ketchel and he serves as the executive director of the Washington State Public Health Association he possesses a master of arts in policy studies from the University of Washington and is a registered sanitarian and you'll have to tell us what that means he's a graduate of the cdc's environmental Public Health
• 04:30 - 05:00 Leadership Institute and Harvard University's national preparedness leadership initiative Executive Education Program it's a mouthful he's worked in public health for over 28 years and he was previously the administrator of the note Snohomish and Grant County Health districts Jeff has served as the president of the Washington State Association of local public health
• 05:00 - 05:30 officials and chair of the Washington State Board of Registered sanitarians oh I got my workout this morning thank you Jeff and I first met Jeff not that long ago and since then I have asked you to do so many things yeah happy to do it he's come he's been a shark tank judge on my class contest he's been a speaker and now today he's on the podcast I am so tickled that you are willing to join
• 05:30 - 06:00 us thank you Jeff for so happy to be here Robin policy I will admit that early I was so intimidated having these kinds of conversations because I started out as an aerobics instructor as a personal trainer and everything that I did and even through getting my masters in exercise science was all about working with individuals
• 06:00 - 06:30 motivation at the individual level getting people to change their behaviors through just trying to inspire them and to me Health was all about just getting individuals excited about their individual choices and um strangely enough I saw this commercial and it was it was when we were really pushing diet pills it was kind of around that time that
• 06:30 - 07:00 um there was all these ads about changing your health through diet pills and there was this commercial that was it showed this woman rollerblading I think and it said there's a gap between knowing what to do and doing it and in my mind even though I was a person with a master's degree in Behavior change and all of these things I always just assumed hey people just
• 07:00 - 07:30 aren't doing what they're supposed to do for their health because they don't know and surely once they know how good exercise is or how bad smoking is or how much nutrition can change their life surely once they know they'll just do it and I saw that commercial and I just thought that is it's so true that the gap between knowing what to do and actually
• 07:30 - 08:00 doing it is so vast and then when I later learned about the social determinants of Health about the role of Health policy I thought oh my gosh that's that's the key here is is what's in that Gap and then I just start to get really excited about what creates the gap between the knowing what to do and the doing it and since then I've just gotten more and more excited about how
• 08:00 - 08:30 policy how our environment how all of these things really in many ways have a lot more to do with our health than things like motivation I would love to hear your take on that what what got you excited about policy and its relation to health what was your path to getting there maybe I'll start with you Julie
• 08:30 - 09:00 uh thanks Robin and so that's a great question and I have to thank my parents for getting me excited about policy and uh this might sound like a little strange of an upbringing but my mom always liked having a round kitchen table and in the corner when we had meals uh especially dinner the TV set was on and we first watched local news the national news and we talked about
• 09:00 - 09:30 what was going on in the world and then when uh growing up that's when we still had the old voting booze and as a child we always talked about who we were going to vote for as a family and so election day uh first my mom would take us all after school and we'd all get to go into the election Booth together put our hands on the lever pull the lever push the curtain and then my mom would let us pull levers to vote for
• 09:30 - 10:00 our unfortunately at that time it was all our guys and so then we get to do that and then you know pull the lever and my dad worked for the local Municipal Beltline so we'd wait for my poor dad to get home cold you know he hadn't had dinner we'd all wait for Dad and then jump in the station wagon and he'd drive us like thank God five blocks away and then we'd repeat the the process right push the lever then pull the lever so boating became really part of what was expected in my family
• 10:00 - 10:30 um and then the really big exciting thing happened a long time friend of the family A woman Kathy Purcells um stiffic uh ran for election uh for the state legislature and I actually you know this was the time where you could go out as a kid in a neighborhood with literature and I didn't realize our um District was so Democratic it you know that I wasn't going to get any pushback and of course people were polite so I actually went doorbelling
• 10:30 - 11:00 um and people were polite and of course you know it was the neighborhood ruled by the mother Network so everybody knew where I was a few blocks away people are calling Rose down here Rosie she's over here um but Kathy won and uh we just got to celebrate her 90th birthday this summer it's fantastic earlier in the summer but uh she was in the state legislature and then went on to run for the County Council and then um she was also our local auditor so you can see I really
• 11:00 - 11:30 got to see that women can make a difference and she was making difference in education policy is where it started so I and then the connections around health because her son had a a disability so that and I began to see this connections with health oh so even as a kid you're going door-to-door talking I can I can picture that happening that's fantastic Jeff what about you so I had a similar story with my my dad
• 11:30 - 12:00 taking me down to the polling station to vote and he would let me poke the holes and and our next door neighbor was running for Precinct uh chair and so I remember voting poke in the hole for my for a neighbor but uh registered sanitarian is is an environmental health credential and so uh just like you are a registered nurse in our end if you want to be a nurse or a PE professional engineer if you want to be an engineer if you want to work in the environment field of environmental health the RS is the standard and that environmental health is anything in the environment
• 12:00 - 12:30 that can impact human health so I got my start as a restaurant inspector and then I did septic systems and drinking water wells and I eventually ended up in hazardous waste this is what I was working in Seattle and uh I got into the field of chemical policy and what a massive failure chemical policy was in the United States and so chemical policy dictated you know how much you knew about the chemicals you were putting on your body like this hand sanitizer or your lotions or your personal care products the things you took care of
• 12:30 - 13:00 your babies with to all the things to all the chemicals that went into our products that we use our cars our houses the air that we breathe the you know that new car smell and just how little we knew about the effect of those chemicals on your health because we had bad policy in the United States and and so I started I and I knew I was going to go get a master's degree I knew I needed to needed more schooling for where I wanted to go career-wise and the University of Washington had this
• 13:00 - 13:30 Master's in policy and I loved it it was so much fun and um it really launched a lot of a lot of our colleagues in public health have Masters in public health and that's sort of the standard in in the public health world but I like I like that I want a little bit of a different direction and uh and it understood policy and um anyway one thing that's really interesting to me that both of you grew up having such open conversations about policy and how it impacts health and impacts all these different I was
• 13:30 - 14:00 definitely raised in a very different environment where um that was not polite conversation that talking about policy talking about politics was was not appropriate to talk about in in in public company and um so I I really wasn't exposed to it until much later in life and I think that a lot of people maybe reside in that boat where I think especially now
• 14:00 - 14:30 there's a lot of heated discussions around a lot of policy issues including those that pertain to health vaccination and and even chemicals and and the things that we were talking about there but I think a lot of people are almost afraid to engage in those conversations because they can be polarizing and one of the things that I talk to my students is about students about instead of avoiding conversations about policy maybe we can get better at those
• 14:30 - 15:00 conversations so I would love to pick your brain in this conversation about how to do that but I know oh Julie when we spoke before you had mentioned the role of self-agency and how policy plays a role you know here in this podcast we talk about how we can advocate for our own health how we can be as healthy as as possible through empowerment through education all that thing all of those things but I I think self-agency is such
• 15:00 - 15:30 an important part of that from an individual level but also from a broader level can you talk a little bit about that I'd be I'd be delighted to I have a lot of um friends and other folks that I've been talking to especially the last few months given what's happened nationally uh people often feel overwhelmed by by the news what can I do and so what I try to remind people about what health is
• 15:30 - 16:00 all about is know your numbers you know so with our physical health we're always reminded to know you know your what's your blood pressure what's your cholesterol what's your heart rate and just like that I remind people well what what are your political numbers and so by that I mean starting out first of all are you registered to vote and that's very easy to do we're here in Washington state so you have until October 31st if you want to do online or mail voting to register to vote or you can actually go
• 16:00 - 16:30 to the county auditor's office your local County auditor until November 8th register to vote and vote the same day right so if you're not registered to vote that you can you can do right so that's the first thing the next thing to do is figure out where which legislative district am I in who are the people that are running who who are my city council County council members and then who's my member
• 16:30 - 17:00 of what congressional district am I in all of that you'll learn when you register to vote so those are your numbers and they're all easy to do and when you get your voter registration card that's all going to be on there so from there once you get your ballot um and again the the boaters pamphlet is really very informative it looks intimidating there's a lot of information in it but again once you know the numbers then you know who you're voting for and those statements
• 17:00 - 17:30 are very informative some people that read the voters of the pamphlet said I can't believe those people are really running well they put those statements in for a lot of reasons those aren't jokes but you can also look at who is running who endorses them and um sometimes people will say well then how do you you know it's intimidating to make these decisions I I get together with different friends my sister and I make it regularly a time where we sit together we do our ballot together I
• 17:30 - 18:00 have a group of friends we do ballots together so knowledge is power it takes away the fear and then that becomes self-agency and you can do that in Little Bits right you don't have to you know take a big bite of the whole Apple you can do it in three minutes five minutes small all of that can be done in small chunks and it doesn't have to be overwhelming okay question for either of you let's say I'm listening to this podcast right now
• 18:00 - 18:30 I I have have really kind of avoided politics or I feel like I'm not a political person I maybe haven't actually voted before but now I kind of feel self-conscious about that and I I don't even know what questions to ask or I don't even know necessarily how would voting for ex-person over y person how would that impact me and my health can can you talk a little bit about how
• 18:30 - 19:00 does policy impact me and what do I even need to know and look for if I get this if I get this voter's book and it tells me all this stuff about these people what do I look for what what matters how do I know so I'll kick it off here but if if health is what you're interested in so just to take a look back in time in the 20th century life expectancy in the United States in 1900 was about 48 years
• 19:00 - 19:30 at the end of the 20th century it was over 76. so over the course of the 20th century life expectancy in America increased by almost 30 years for the average American so why is that well we can talk about the advancements in health care and the access to health care and that played a role but really Public Health policy had the biggest impact and people were elected into office that put this policy into place and say well what kind of policy well safe food and water you know
• 19:30 - 20:00 you have this reasonable expectation that you drink water out of your tap or you eat a meal you bought at the grocery store it's going to not make you sick or what about uh smoking and indoor air quality laws where it used to be common for people to smoke in their offices uh and that's not allowed anymore you think about uh motor vehicles and workplace safety um the Advent of the seat belt and airbags and design standards for cars or or the fact you have to wear a hard hat
• 20:00 - 20:30 or the things that you're exposed to a work are limited and so all all these things came from policy and people were elected into office that passed these laws at the federal state and even local level that really increase life expectancy in the U.S so it's a huge impact so I could say let's say I'm a person who is on Medicare or on Medicaid that's something at a federal level well federal and state level that may mean
• 20:30 - 21:00 something to me as a person maybe I I care about you know Pharmaceuticals and and if that stuff is going to be covered but one of the things that I found really interesting and Julie you mentioned this is that a lot of our health impacts come from state and city level decisions and you know I think of how often here in Spokane how often I use the
• 21:00 - 21:30 Centennial Trail and how how much of that contributes to my personal health and in a lot of really direct and indirect ways the Centennial Trail contributes to my health there's a lot of policy decisions that go into creating spaces like that can can you talk a little bit Julie about what you mentioned about how those more local and Statewide decisions impact our health and really direct and indirect ways sure and I'd be delighted
• 21:30 - 22:00 to so I'm someone that sees health and all policies and I think local budgets uh they're also they're also policy right so we put our values in budgets and I I I'll give you a little example that was interesting we all go usually to get twice a year get dental cleanings and I love it um during the legislative session my dental hygienist always wants to ask questions and of course it's when all the instruments are in your mouth about what you're doing and um so I she
• 22:00 - 22:30 wanted to know and I was trying to explain to her because it was legislative session and what I was trying to do and um she said wow that sounds like taxes those people are always about taxes and I don't get anything from my taxes and so I had to have her take those instruments out of my mouth and I said really you don't get anything for your taxes so so let's let's talk about that for a minute so I said what did you and your family do last night and she said well you know we went to the library we got some books
• 22:30 - 23:00 there's some great DVDs we're watching a series on National Parks um I said well that we just passed a bond measure to support the libraries and those are property taxes so she was quiet I go it sounds like you got benefit right you didn't get charged for that right free library card just just asking yeah it was all free okay just check just checking about that so then what did you do when you got up this morning and she said well you know
• 23:00 - 23:30 I made coffee and I said so I assume you you know turned on the water and she said yeah and I go were you worried about that water she goes no we have great water it tastes great yeah so again um when you turn that water on obviously you pay for it but we have a great local health department and that's because it's clean water we have a great water system uh taxes support that so she's now kind
• 23:30 - 24:00 of getting a little suspicious every time I started to ask a question but then you drove work um did the stop lights work where the roads I I know we had a little bit of a pothole issue it's been freezing you know unfreezing yeah but it's a really all the roads were connected you came from outside into the city you know no the roads were great stop lights worked all of that was good okay again taxes you were your kids today well they're at
• 24:00 - 24:30 school okay school so let's talk about school um or yeah oh we love our school great teachers kids are doing great uh-huh bond issue state taxes again so by the time we got through most of that you know again talking about health and again all of that relates to their her family's health education is a huge role and health so I don't want to belabor it but I think people are you
• 24:30 - 25:00 know listening because they're very intelligent folks get the connection and especially with health so I mean that's what I would say and it's important to know who are you voting for that again you know are making those Investments yeah yeah and then I'll just I'll just add to that I mean money is always going to be spent on things like like roads and and other infrastructure but how how that money is spent smartly how is the healthy choice made the Easy Choice and
• 25:00 - 25:30 so you know if you're going to build a road and a sidewalk and things like that are you making it easier for somebody to say walk or bike to the store or the post office or where they need to go versus the necessity to have to get in a car and drive there so I was on I was I won't say where but I was on a trip in another state and for me to get anywhere in that in that Community I had to rent a car and drive around because it was impossible to walk anywhere because of freeways because of lack of sidewalks
• 25:30 - 26:00 because it just wasn't safe to do so and so looking around your community has has have the decision makers allocated that money in a way that made it easy for me to be healthy oh and I love this about a lot of the public health messaging as of late and you just mentioned it is the healthy choice the Easy Choice and there are so many ways in which that plays out every day are there healthy
• 26:00 - 26:30 stores around us or is it all fast food are there safe ways that are lit that are separate from where the cars are that we can walk to places are there places to safely park a bike I think there's so many things that we can do with our infrastructure with our environments that encourage us to do in an easy way the Healthy Choice even things like
• 26:30 - 27:00 staircases that are attractive and well lit will encourage people to use the stairs instead of the elevator so again I talked about how so much of my career was about like how do I motivate people to exercise how do I motivate people to eat healthy but the the drive-throughs and and the quantity of fast food restaurants really play a role if you every day you're driving past fast food and you have to work two jobs it's really easy to go through a
• 27:00 - 27:30 drive-through and I love this kind of instead of decision making instead of motivating people to do extra how do we create spaces that make it really easy to be healthy and I think some communities do a great job with with creating safe places to walk creating even neighborhoods where you can know your neighbor it's the nice wide sidewalks so you can go on walks and talk to people but I I have found that
• 27:30 - 28:00 really exciting and thinking about okay how do we make policy decisions that make it easy for the healthy choices to be available to everyone and um again that's been one of those things that fits in that gap between the knowing what to do and the doing it and then making it really easy to do the healthy thing and I think Julie you outlined so many good examples one of the things I was just looking through this and it was a recent report so April
• 28:00 - 28:30 1st 2022 and it came from um the let's see the assistant Secretary of planning and evaluation office of Health policy and the document was called addressing social determinants of Health examples of successful evidence-based strategies and it talked about and this is a direct quote here from that report and it says studies estimate that clinical care
• 28:30 - 29:00 impacts only 20 percent of county level variation and health outcomes so we talk a lot about you know the availability of health care and our our healthy decisions and our our exercise our eating all of that stuff actually I think that's probably high it's it's a high estimate and it goes on to say well social determinants of health so things concerning where we live where we work um affect as much as 50 percent
• 29:00 - 29:30 agreed So within the social determinants of Health socioeconomic factors like poverty employment education have the largest impact on health outcomes so this idea that half of our health is really determined by some of those social factors living in poverty or our employment conditions our education and those things are so closely linked to
• 29:30 - 30:00 policy but I think it's really interesting that we seem to focus so much on individual health and not like we can really collectively make some big decisions some some policy decisions that impact our health in bigger ways so let me a number of years ago in Washington state the there was a citizen citizens initiative to prohibit smoking in bars and restaurants and it was very controversial uh and it passed and and to look at the public health impacts of that citizens initiative it's called
• 30:00 - 30:30 smoking in public places so if you were a bartender and you smoked and you wanted to quit smoking how hard would it be for you to quit smoking knowing you're sitting behind this bar every day slinging drinks watching people drink and smoke in front of you um and that's the environment that you're in you could have the most powerful willpower in the world and it's still going to be near impossible for you to quit smoking now all of a sudden you're in the smoke-free environment and you don't have to watch people smoke in front of you all day while you're doing
• 30:30 - 31:00 your job your your mission your your vision of quitting smoking just got a little bit easier and so the environments that we're in and a lot of those environments are set by policy and and in this case it was a citizen citizens initiative if but has huge impacts on your health so I can I do agree with that part of that article well and I think it's really interesting when we talk um so Behavior change theory when we look at what we call health behavior um now I'm going to blank on what it's
• 31:00 - 31:30 called health behavior Theory no something like that it talks about all of these things that kind of have to happen for us to change a health behavior and part of that has to do with do I believe I'm personally vulnerable how bad is the potential impact so if if I do smoke how how bad is the thing going to be that results from the
• 31:30 - 32:00 smoking but part of it has to do too with with the environment how easy is it for me to have access to something so if you grow up in a household where your parents both smoke it's not going to necessarily be a hundred percent sure that you are going to be a smoker but it sure makes it a lot easier to smoke because your environment you have easy access to it and so I think it's important that we don't discount that we have personal
• 32:00 - 32:30 agency over our choices we are able to think for ourselves and and be active play an active role but our environment matters it makes a difference and it is certainly part of the equation well and is that also the norm I mean I I think that's what really makes it difficult and we're talking about self-agency but you're also if you're a child or you're a teen and and you know what are we communicating you know that our community Norms are what what are we
• 32:30 - 33:00 communicating that the home Norm is and when you're looking at the I think it was either the healthy youth survey or the code student survey what was concerning to me the recent data we just saw is that we we saw a tick up on the question it's okay to drink at home with my parents um so you know again when we're looking at the these norming behaviors that we're communicating um I don't want that to be the easy
• 33:00 - 33:30 choice but we want that we want the healthy choices to be the Easy Choice so and I'm I'm so glad that you brought up this idea of norming or social norming or um to those maybe that aren't familiar with that it's this idea that the things that you think are normal the behaviors that you think are are actively practiced as as sort of normalized behavior are going to be more likely to
• 33:30 - 34:00 be engaged in because it feels like what people are doing and um and I am not going to remember the exact numbers but since we were talking about smoking I I talked to students about this that if you ask someone who smokes what do you think the portion of the population is that our smokers oftentimes they'll say a really high number like oh 75 70 of adults maybe smoke and then you ask a non-smoker that same
• 34:00 - 34:30 question you often will see a big difference in you know and really it's around 17 or so of the U.S population adults smoke um but people like to be part of the norm so if you think that a lot of people engage in this Behavior if you think a lot of people don't get vaccinated if you think a lot of people aren't exercising regularly then it
• 34:30 - 35:00 makes you feel more comfortable to be part of well I'm just kind of doing what everybody else is doing so I know that in public health one of the things that we do to influence behaviors is to let people know accurate social norms you know this is this is what what what people are actually doing and I think that's a big and it's an important point that if we can normalize and let people know that no actually most people do X or most people most people are
• 35:00 - 35:30 non-smokers most people engage in these behaviors that it makes it easier for folks to be part of that group but I think we can use that um that rationale in a lot of different contexts most people got vaccinated um for covid most people um engage in these Health enhancing behaviors and I think a lot of times we've sort of gotten in this especially in media where we want to present both
• 35:30 - 36:00 sides and and sort of act like those are equal perspectives but I think that is is really problematic in a lot of different ways that reminds me of we made this great advances in tobacco and smoking and chewing and then Along Came vaping and suddenly vaping started to create this new Norm around nicotine use where for one thing for a long time it was it was legal to vape inside the bars and
• 36:00 - 36:30 restaurants where we had the the we had banned smoking and so uh locals and state had to mobilize quickly to say well um we don't know what's in that in these aerosols we don't don't necessarily think it's a good idea to be breeding them second hand but also was a renorming of the behavior meaning um you know families walking down the street would see you know people vaping in the restaurant or vaping at the park and saying oh this is what normal people do on a normal Saturday afternoon and uh
• 36:30 - 37:00 and then we saw this huge up the uptick in vaping and it was especially appealing to Youth and of course we now know that it was marketed to youth um and so Public Health it's like okay here's our here's our new thing that we got to work on because we don't want vaping to become the norm like uh cigarettes were 50 years ago and it's interesting because cigarettes smoking and sort of the the cessation of that has been considered to be one of those great Public Health achievements that
• 37:00 - 37:30 has extended life like you were talking about we're living you know 20 years longer 30 years longer whatever it was and a big part of that is recognizing tobacco as a health hazard and so we went from you know about 45 percent of the adult population smoking to now about 17-ish percent and that's his major victory but now we've got this whole new sort of group of people vaping you know we see a lot of legalizing of cannabis Across the Nation and that's
• 37:30 - 38:00 kind of creating potentially this this this new Public Health Challenge and I think we've learned a lot of lessons from that from recognizing tobacco as a health hazard now how do we kind of apply that to some of the things that we're seeing um so you mentioned that that we live a lot longer now that um our policies shape some of those Public Health sort of things that have
• 38:00 - 38:30 made us live longer that we continue to really need to focus on policy to stay healthy to get healthy um can you talk a little bit about both of you what do we need to know what is the average person need to be focusing on now if I'm if I'm this person that okay I'm excited now I coming out of this the pandemic really with this Renewed Energy about being healthy maybe I'm maybe I'm
• 38:30 - 39:00 cutting back on my drinking maybe I'm working on losing some weight maybe I really um saw that health is a fragile thing and now I'm really excited what policies should I be caring about what should I be watching what matters for me and my family so I would I always like to say You're only as healthy as your neighbor and the thing is the same thing that's going to make your neighbor ill or injured um is the same things that are going to
• 39:00 - 39:30 do the same to you and your family so just because something is not necessarily happening to your family it could because maybe your neighborhood or your community it's difficult to get exercise or it's difficult to get healthy foods or there's uh you don't have access to good health care or um you know there's there's lots of smoking or whatever it might be um and so I think the only thing about what's going to impact your family but what's impacting my community and who am
• 39:30 - 40:00 I going to vote for and who are those folks in elections who are going to prioritize health for my entire Community okay so what would that look like so without saying specific candidates or specific parties yes but if I really wanted to to kind of have this evidence-based approach to how does policy trickle down to health outcomes what specific things are happening in
• 40:00 - 40:30 the legislature right now that I should have my eye on well a couple of things that I'd be looking ahead towards is what's important to my community so one of the things I'm excited about uh is that the legislature's forming a cancer caucus where they're going to be looking at issue all issues related to cancer and a caucus um it's quite simply is a group of legislators that work together and it doesn't matter party affiliation right I
• 40:30 - 41:00 think we can all agree cancer doesn't it's a disease that it doesn't care what party you are it doesn't care how much money you make it it's an equal opportunity disease unfortunately so I'm really encouraged about that and I'm I'll be interested to see what issues they prioritize and so that's something that's just starting um this summer they had a summit July 14th and started to kick um that off I I think what I would be
• 41:00 - 41:30 um doing I just in fact had this conversation with a friend on Sunday who was grappling with these issues and what I encouraged her about is she's on a local neighborhood Facebook group candidates are having Forums on Facebook if you're not comfortable going in person I might be asking questions about um so what is your vision for a healthy Community
• 41:30 - 42:00 um what what kinds of ways do you see um helping us get you know better access whatever the issues are for your neighborhood you know better Parks um better the legislature just passed a big Transportation package so some of that is still rolling out but I I'd be asking so if there are things not completed in your neighborhood you know do you have good Parks um what about grocery stores uh I'd be
• 42:00 - 42:30 asking about all of those questions tons of local city city council County Council and legislative candidates and now that the primaries are over they'll continue to have open meetings they do coffees they do Facebook oh you know town halls and you know they're interested in having those conversations they want to know what's on the minds of Voters they're also out doorbelling and
• 42:30 - 43:00 so when they knock on your door I'd open the door you can ask them to be socially distanced and and then talk to them about you know those kinds of issues you know one of the things that I so appreciate I don't even know if I've told you this one of the things that I so appreciate about you is your work with healthygen you put out a website and a a regular email that says here's the bills to watch here is here's what's going on in
• 43:00 - 43:30 policy and the ways in which it impacts health and hear from a public health lens is is what we're supporting as a as an agency correct me if any of that is is misstated but I have my students my health policy students sign up for that so that we can just kind of really watch what's happening in the legislature what some of those conversations are and really direct ways in which that can impact health so if someone wanted to
• 43:30 - 44:00 get that information how would they do that so you could go to our website which is healthygen.org healthygen.org and you can go to the policy page and sign up for health policy news and the the issues that we're supporting we actually support a Statewide Coalition called the prevention Alliance and the prevention Alliance is a list of it's a group of organizations and our agenda is the if you will the social
• 44:00 - 44:30 determinants and where they intersect uh with primary prevention and that you know it's quite quite simple so we have a broad agenda uh across the social determinants of health and it goes all the way from Behavioral Health to gun violence prevention uh we look at parks issues uh transportation you know we had a 48-page report that's
• 44:30 - 45:00 on our website that talks about all of our successes across bills and budget so yeah I'm very proud of the work um we do and and big part of that is supporting Public Health funding also so it's so great too because and I know probably a lot of folks listening are are maybe just not have an Engaged in public policy and maybe don't know where to start and I can um you you gave a lot of really good information about how do I find what district I'm in how do I register to
• 45:00 - 45:30 vote if I haven't been engaged in that before how can I do it now especially knowing that kind of half of our health status status is really determined by these social determinants of Health that can be really impacted with policy and if I wanted to get engaged in that and that newsletter is really helpful I think especially for people who don't have a background at all if they just want to get started learning about it and learn about how do I even know who
• 45:30 - 46:00 to vote for or know what to to be interested in is as it relates to health so that's a really great tool so I always like to end so we've talked about you know how what got you interested in in public policy and how it connects to health we've talked about how we can actually improve our self-agency through getting involved in policy we've talked about you know why should I care where do my taxes even go how does that even
• 46:00 - 46:30 impact me and sort of that connection with our health outcomes in ways that don't necessarily involve motivation um you talked a little about the cancer caucus and how we can learn more about those connections with cancer health but I like to close every episode with okay I am I am committed to decrease the amount of misinformation about health that exists in the world disinformation misinformation I'm committed and I am so
• 46:30 - 47:00 excited about having these experts on and so my question that I've ended with each time is what do you need to clear up so what's sort of that thorn in your side in your field that you know people there's there's rumors or there's misinformation disinformation what do you want to clear up to folks that are listening today Jeff maybe I'll start with you I talked about vaping earlier uh there are no regulations regards to
• 47:00 - 47:30 what manufacturers put in the juice that people vape and so if you think there's some cloaked uh government agency that's making sure that the stuff's going into those liquids that you're inhaling into your lungs is somehow regulated or evaluated or studied not true um you sort of go with God uh on on when you vape and so um the FDA has been very slow to regulate these types of things and um I
• 47:30 - 48:00 would say that that's one of the pieces of misinformation I would like to get out there whether you're talking about yourself or you're a loved one or or or a child um it's really not just water vapor that you're inhaling into your lungs oh oh man that's such a good one I'm so glad you chose that I have heard from so many people vaping is a safe alternative to smoking or vaping helped such and such quit or
• 48:00 - 48:30 um it's only water vapor and at least you don't have the second hand smoke so it's a safe alternative and if it's purchased on its shelf it must be safe I think we have this idea that you know our country just wraps its loving arms around us all the time and makes sure that only safe things are available and I'm so glad you mentioned that that's a whole other show there's a whole other show Absolutely yeah and the only thing I would add is ditto to that and that it
• 48:30 - 49:00 also includes nicotine a lot of nicotine so which is yeah and none amount which is still very addictive um I think that when I would add that's always um frustrating to me is my vote doesn't matter my vote doesn't count uh and I'm here to tell you votes matter uh very much and we're just coming off
• 49:00 - 49:30 um some very close uh the primary was uh last week and we're still having vote counts uh because that's how much votes matter so I encourage people to vote your vote matters every time oftentimes people will say well I vote one way and my spouse votes another so it cancels each other out but remember you're not the only two households voting you're lonely not two people voting right there's a lot of people voting and your vote matters oh such a great point I
• 49:30 - 50:00 um I'm so excited that you were both able to join today I think that part of creating a healthy Society is figuring out all the ways in which we can have agency all the ways in which we can advocate for our health kind of dispelling this myth that everything is is about motivation but really the environments that we create really through public policy can have makes such a difference for our community
• 50:00 - 50:30 health our personal health our family health so uh thank you for being part of that solution today and for joining us um I look forward to seeing you all soon and continuing our conversations and empowering us all to make healthy choices thank you thanks for thanks for having me no thank you so much this has been a great conversation thank you [Music]
• 50:30 - 51:00 thanks for listening to a closer look visit us on social media and wherever you go to find your podcasts be sure to join us next time as Dr Robin Pickering and her guest take a closer look [Music]
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