Policy activism is now gradually appearing in the public health lexicon. Though still embryonic in professional practice, there appears to be a modest conceptual foundation that supports many of today’s public health policies and programs designed for expansive community engagement. Like many newly minted Masters in Public Health (MPH), I was also lost when I first heard the concept and only through unlearning and re-learning did I get a hold of it as I walked through the exciting field of community health. I have a feeling too that global health work may be fertile ground for health policy activism in the near future.
Boston is known for its progressive policies and the level of activism in the community may have something to do with it. In this beautiful port city, policy activism goes beyond the deafening noise of angry protesters but instead is a distillery of ideas that shapes voices into doable policies. At the heart of it are the enduring public health professionals who are collaboratively working with neighborhoods and political leaders. But what really constitutes health policy activism? Is it just about people, voices, action, violence, anger or consensus?
Sometimes but not always I like to think like a nerd and so maybe digressing a little to give way for a bit of gedankenexperiment (thought experiment) will be helpful in examining health policy activism in its granular form. As I previously learnt and lived, activism had fascinated me as a student who was schooled in a progressive left-leaning liberal environment. But we change our views and we should not be afraid of challenging our limitations while we experience discovery learning and professional growth. As I am maturing with wisdom, I take activism as a by-product of increased understanding that our passive emotions (or passions) may become active. For sure this adds to the confusion! To carry this line of argument one step further, passions exist when we are in disagreement primarily due to different interpretations of reality. Consider working in a policy world, like a fractural field, where dynamic interactions of people’s interests tend to have disagreements and through open dialogue we arrive to a consensus. In Boston, town hall meetings are essential in enabling passageways for our passions to transform into knowledge-based policy activism. On most occasions, discussions are evidence based that yield strong consensus for everyone. Along this process, collective understanding translates into activism that we are deriving power to advance public health. Through the intricacies of the activism process, we attain wider ownership with greater accountability of health policies and programs, hence more sustainable results and of higher impact.
I passed by the red-painted Boston Tea Party Museum situated at the banks of Fort Point Channel one late summer afternoon. This iconic landmark constantly reminds me of how disparaging policies can ignite chaos, in fact a revolution. As Fellows, we are bound to change policies so they may respond to the evolving realities of time; however we have to fill ourselves first with knowledge so that we become more robust to stand passionate criticisms and achieve those winnable battles through dialogue and sustained collective action.