Community Health Advocacy for Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the United States: Issues and Challenges for Health Education

The 1985 Heckler report on Black and minority health clearly demonstrated that minority groups suffer excess morbidity and mortality directly related to social inequal ities. Subsequently, improving the health status of minorities must go beyond personal health care delivery and address the broad issues of health policy. There is increasing evidence that wide public support is mounting to address many of the major health problems facing minority groups. In order to modify health behavior of minorities, health educators must recognize that traditional health promotion activities, focused on vol untary personal behavior change, may not be effective in reducing morbidity and mortality rates. Efforts to improve the health status of minorities must include an aggressive health policy dimension. Personal behavior change efforts without an equal or greater emphasis on policy change is tantamount to blaming the victim. As health educators become increasingly aware of the political nature of health issues, it will be necessary to examine the health status of ethnic and racial minority populations from the perspective of com munity health advocacy.