Discussion Question: week3 What are the processes and the criteria you will use to select your target audience (your target audience is the group/age group/characteristic group that you are targeting

Response 1: Due to Covid my target audience has gone from the mental health community to focusing on presenting to my family. Being blessed with a healthy spouse and three healthy children I selected the most vulnerable group my parents and my mother-in-law. Both of my parents are 72 and my mother-in-law is 69 years of age. The three of them together all are teetering on the edge of obesity and could benefit the most from a better diet and more exercise. The problem that I have is that when I talk about the dangers of obesity all three of them can say I have no heart disease, respiratory issues and no diabetes. So, I not only do I have to go over the issues they know about I had to find an issue that obesity is related to that would make them reconsider their thought process. The other challenge is trying to educate people that taught you and instilled values in you over the most important developmental years of your life.

In my research I discovered an article on obesity that related obesity to a decline in cognitive performance (Nutritional and metabolic diseases, 2017). The research not only showed that obesity was directly linked with cognitive performance in older adults, it also showed that cognitive improvement increased with lower BMI’s (Nutritional and metabolic diseases, 2017). With this information I can really grab my family’s attention and provide them with information that they have heard about, but have no symptoms of. The study also showed that obesity that begins at middle age was shown to increase an individual’s chance of developing dementia, which is information I can uses to capture the younger family members that I will be presenting to (Nutritional and metabolic diseases, 2017). The thought of losing any mental functioning at any point in an individual’s lifetime is a huge motivational factor to encourage better eating habits and healthier lifestyles.

My personal connection to my target audience is obvious, they are my family and consist of the most important group of people in my life. My parents and my mother-in-law helped my wife and I become the people we are and they did a damn good job. My goal is to show everyone within my household is that we can all learn from each other. My wife and I have become the primary healthcare proxies of everyone within my target audience, making everyone’s general overall healthcare an everyday subject for me. Educating my household and parents isn’t just a project to me it is my duty to my family.

References

Nutritional and metabolic diseases and conditions - obesity; older adults with obesity less

responsive to memory training than those with lower BMIs. (2017, Jan 23). Mental

Health Weekly Digest Retrieved from

https://search.proquest.com/

Response 2: 

For my community education project, I have decided to speak about the importance of breastfeeding a newborn baby. There are many health benefits when the mother decided to breastfeed, not only for the baby but the mother as well. Breastfeeding helps fight infection in the newborn, lowers the change of breast cancer, as well as improves the bond between mother and baby. My compassion for breastfeeding has made me feel the need to teach on this topic in hopes of helping the community. With the coronavirus still at bay, local facilities that offer educational seminars are postponed or mobile-friendly in hopes of fighting the spread of the infection. The presentation will take place in my own house on a Saturday morning free from work and church times. The number of people that will be attending the presentation will be limited due to stipulations from the coronavirus. The amount of people that will be attending is ten, the audience that has reserved a spot at the presentation range from ages 20-32 and are female. Six out of ten of the individuals are childbearing and four out of the ten are first-time moms. An article from the CDC states that “In the United States, many new mothers do not have direct, personal knowledge of breastfeeding.” (CDC, Breastfeeding 2020) This is unfortunate due to the benefits of breastfeeding, lack of education from the community is hindering this outcome. When I was a first-time mom breastfeeding was foreign to me to say they least therefore having someone to talk to was life-changing. After having a baby your body is completely drained and retaining information is nearly impossible not to mention the sleep-deprived nights! With this being said, it is imperative that the community offers education prior to childbirth in hopes of the mother being as well as feeling prepared. The presentation will be roughly an hour long and will involve a variety of different people. There are many ethnic groups consisting of African Americans, Caucasians, and Hispanics this allows for a great diversity to be present. When creating the Facebook page, I decided to let the individuals reserve a spot and allow the first ten members to be selected, I did not have a certain age or ethnicity in mind and was open to whoever would like to join the presentation. One aspect the individuals all have in common is they reside in the same neighborhood as I do.

References

Breastfeeding. (2020, August 14). Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/index.htm