Health Medical Homework Help

Letter to Your Representative

– Please choose a problem in San Diego

This weeks discussion is centered on drafting a letter to your local representative regarding a position on a piece of legislation.

Communicating with elected officials is an important part of public health advocacy. Written communication to the different branches of government is often used by health and advocacy groups to ensure their perspective is considered in the debate on an issue.

Advocacy groups often engage their member advocates in campaigns to directly communicate to their representatives to assure the community voice is included in the discussions and to influence legislators and regulators. Constituents’ (you, the residents and voters) input on issues is a valued part of the democratic process and should not be underestimated. Elected officials often make decisions about voting, and even introducing bills in response to public communication. You are writing a draft letter for your primary post.

• Visit this site to find different representatives you may be interested in writing an advocacy letter to. Enter your address to find your representatives at the Federal, state and local level. Identify which level of government you wish to send a letter to and find that elected official’s address.

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For the letter (see student sample below):

• Begin your letter and include the representatives name and legislative title you are writing the letter to:

The Honorable John Doe,

US Congress, 53rd District

123 Elm St

San Diego CA 92103

• Include the constituents (your) local address, email address or web form url in the address line (this information can be created and does not have to be your actual information).
• Include an introduction and an advocacy issue appeal
  • The introduction (~1 paragraph) includes information about your personal experience, education, and interests and must include a statement of your constituency. It also introduces the issue you want to have addressed in one sentence or less.
    • Constituency means all the people (voters), served by a particular elected official, especially a legislator. In other words, a district that is representative of a specific legislator. For example, I live in Carlsbad, which is the 49th congressional district in California. It is represented by Congressman Darrell Issa
  • The advocacy appeal (~2 paragraphs) is a statement on behalf of a community asking for the issue to be addressed, thanking or expressing disappointment and/or concern for recent support of an issue. It often includes education about the issue, and is backed up by fact. For this assignment, your appeal should include a proposed solution (not a bill #) you think will address the problem.
    • Do NOT lobby (your letter may not ask for a specific bill, or a specific way to vote)
    • The topic of the issue should be discussed. Do not include a bill # or legislation name because that is lobbying.
    • Please review the advocacy sample letter in your text. This is a perfect example of a way to advocate for a cause without leaning towards lobbying. The example is in Chapter 17, p.335. Read the paragraph prior to the example letter that begins with: “There are many ways to advocate on behalf of a public health issue….”.

For more details about writing letters to elected officials, see the Community Toolbox: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/advocacy/direct-action/letters-to-elected-officials/main

Other sample letters:

• APHA: these are a bit lengthy, but helps you understand the gist of letters to congress, etc… Carefully review letters that do not include bill number or legislation name. This is a good example.
• American Lung Association: sample letters. Carefully review letters that do not include bill number or legislation name. This is a good example

Sources:

• You are required to use at least TWO sources from the textbook, government reports, peer-reviewed journal articles or textbooks. Use your OWN WORDS (e.g., do not cut and paste from a government report or article).
• Paraphrase (use your own words) to report the information.
• Include APA formatted in-text citations to identify your sources AND include full APA formatted references for your sources at the end of your post.

PART 2

Step One: Find a health or social service organization that has an advocacy web page. It is common for an advocacy group to have some kind of action you can take or a link to take action on their home page. Here are some suggestions

• If you are already working in health or social service (e.g., nursing) your professional association often takes positions on health policy you might care about. Public health professionals may want to start with the American Public Health Association, for a variety of health issues and actions you can take: http://action.apha.org/site/PageNavigator/Advocacy.Another organization that provides opportunity for the public to take action is the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. The core issues American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network is focused on are tobacco prevention, cancer research and health care access to name a few. Visit their take action page
  • For instance, on this page you can “take action” on this bill: Speak for health Fund Public health in 2019. Advocating for this bill will help to provide adequate funding for critical public health agencies and programs in FY 2019. To take action you would fill out the provided form and then submit it. Upon submission APHA will ensure delivery to the appropriate state Senators and Representatives. Once completed, you have advocated and in fact, taken action on this health issue! Nice work!
• Also, in your text, there are lists of stakeholders (organizations/groups) in chapter 4 pp 74-75; 77 that may have a website in which you could choose to take action. Further, chapter 6-14 covers public health issues and many stakeholders are described in each (which may also have an associated web page you could view and select an action).

StepTwo: Then, engage in an advocacy action (e.g. contact your elected officials, mail, email, call; write a letter to the editor) through their online advocacy site.

Step Three: Primary Post

1. In the first paragraph of your primary post, describe the organization you selected, the policy action they desired (e.g. support of a bill, policy, movement), and the action you took (e.g. sign a petition, submit a pre-filled letter, etc..).
   • Include a SCREEN SHOT of the action you took. Usually, it is a pre-written letter to a policy maker. Whatever type it may be, take the shot, save it as a .jpg on your pc and insert it into your primary post.
2. What public health issue/health problem does the policy action that you took address? Be as specific as you can, so someone else reading your post will understand the situation.
3. Identify one health communication principle, (e.g., tailoring, key messages, target audience, channels, social marketing- 4 Ps) and describe how it applies to the action you took.
4. Identify one advocacy principle (e.g. problem definition, policy solution, stakeholders, branch of government, unintended consequences of the policy, how to amplify this action) that is being applied to this advocacy action and describe how it applies to the action you are being asked to take.