Active Cognitive-Change Model

Olaudah Equiano, known by many other names such as, Gustavas Vassa, Jacob, and Michael was kidnapped from his family, home, and childhood at an early age and was sold into slavery. Equiano never knew what to expect from day to day, as his circumstances were always changing. During his captivity and slavery there were times he longed for death to come for him and thought of being in Heaven as a comfort. However, his captivity was not all bad, as he learned how to speak English, read and write, and how to become a successful merchant. Equiano later chose to write about his ordeal in his work titled, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African, written by Himself”.

The Transtheoretical Model of Change has become popular over the past few decades in explaining health behaviors like substance and alcohol abuse, dieting, and smoking cessation. It has four parts to it, the first being the stages of change. The Stages of Change Model gives explanations for different points on the path to intentional behavioral change (Vilela, Jungerman, Laranjeira, & Callaghan, 2009). Intentional behavioral changes are changes in the habitual patterns of behavior that are related to issues such as substance or alcohol abuse. There are six steps in the Stages of Change Model: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and

In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne explores the idea of personified passion using the character, Pearl. The story is about the guilty sin of two lovers and how their lives play out in their Puritan settlement. Pearl, their child, is shown as a being unlike any other, due to her parents’ sin, through her lively charisma. Throughout the novel, one can see how she evolves as her parents’ relationships change.

As per Healthy People 2020 most Americans do not consume healthy diets and are not physically active at levels needed to maintain proper health. As a result of these behaviors the nation has experienced a dramatic increase in obesity in the U.S with 1 in 3 adults (34.0%) and 1 and 6 children and adolescents (16.2%) are obese. In addition to grave health consequences of being overweight and obese. It significantly raises medical cost and causes a great burden on the U.S medical care delivery system ("Healthy People 2020," 2014, p. 1).

Prochaska and DiClemente(1984)  deals with intentional behavioural change and views change as a process rather than an event.The change process is characterised by six stages of change.These include the precontemplation,contemplation,preparation,action,maintenance and relapse which can occur at any stage in any part of the cycle.

Health care professional, patients, families, and policy makers all struggle to understand how health is affected by behavior, economic and social structure and provided the knowledge to improve the health status of individuals and populations. Our health is affected by behaviors, economics, and social structure. Many behaviors and lifestyle patterns affect our health, such as: exposure to violence, vehicular accidents, alcohol, drugs, and infectious agents (Williams/Torrens). According to our textbook (Williams/Torrens), alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use creates several of problems that affect our health and society.

About 40 to 50% of adults in America are at risk for diseases such as stroke, kidney failure, heart attack, heart failure and obesity. Most of these diseases are brought on by hypertension which is brought on by unhealthy eating choices, poor diet and little to no exercise which has devastating effects on the body. Approximately 7 out of 10 Americans is prescribed or takes a prescription pill daily, half of those are diet related illnesses such a diabetes and one third of those individuals is obese. Two trillion medical-care costs are because of chronic diseases most of which are lifestyle habits/choices. Obesity in America costs about taxpayers about $123 billion via Medicare and Medicaid. Now that obesity has risen at an alarming rate, in some cases obesity is considered a disability for those that are physically or mentally impaired by it. Debatably a preventable disease with proper education on food, diet and exercise

Prochaska & DiClemente’s (1984) research suggests the Prochaska & DiClemente’s model of change is effective and has an impact in health promotion. The Prochaska & DiClemente’s model of change is becoming a more popular and widely used resource for health promotion; this is because it can be applied with a number of addictive behaviours such as smoking, drug use and alcohol abuse (Whitelaw, et al, 2000). The Prochaska & DiClemente’s model of change has six stages these include, Pre contemplation this is when the patient is not seriously considering change, Contemplation This is when the patient is thinking about change, Preparation when the

Our life is something that is so precious. Every choice we make impacts our life wether it be physically or mentally. When we choose to make poor life choices, it will reflect on us as individuals. Poor choices in what we consumed or how active we are will lead to a life that can lead to an early death. Obesity is an epidemic health problem that has been one of the leading causes to death. The disease itself causes sever health conditions as well as mental health issues.no one wants to become obese, but in today’s society we have been given the perfect recipe that will land us in a fight for our life. Obesity is not something that simply happens, but a lifetime of poor choices. We must discover the source of obesity and attack the health issue from the primary leading factors. We start with the source in order to help improve the lives of people everywhere who are battling this disease, as well as those who are predisposed to a higher chance of developing it.

Today in America obesity has become a horrific epidemic and Americans are trying to find the cause and a solution for it. For the first time ever in America obesity has become such a big problem that is said to be big as the dealing of drugs in America. It seems that in America today obesity and overweight Americans have become the new normal.  Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death in America and type 2 diabetes goes hand in hand with obesity. Obesity causes heart disease, cancer,and high blood pressure which are also some of the leading causes of death in America. Obesity doesn’t just happen to people it happens because of the unhealthy foods being eaten and the lack of exercise on top of that. This obesity epidemic is not only the fault

The American health efficiency won 't be achieved through the increased consumption of fast foods, the American population should adopt better-eating habits and exercise approaches to ensure a healthy environment. Poor health habits are the leading causes of premature death among children and adults as indicated by WHO (2009). These habits increase the chance of health risks especially in cancer, heart diseases, and excessive weight gain. Fast foods consumption and lack of efficient physical activities inhibit the body 's performance by increasing or decreasing necessary nutrients to levels the body cannot operate efficiently.

Apart from healthcare issue, the country has adopted the fast-moving life style, which has pushed most of our citizens to succumb to obesity as a result of fast foods. In fact, a recent report by the UN has ranked the United States as the most obese country in the world. Parramore (2012) outlines that, “Obesity is currently being considered as a national crisis in the United States and that it contributes 100,000 to 400,000 deaths per year. Statistics at the CDC and Prevention in 2010 indicate that 35.7% of the American adult is obese.” Many input trends exist in the American society, “First and foremost, people are highly used to fried foods, sugary drinks, and processed meats among others. There is also the sedentary lifestyle that has been adopted by many,” (Huffington Post, 2013). In fact, most of us love relaxing without exercise and too much television watching. These are some of the factors that contribute to obesity. The result is health complications problems such as diabetes, stroke, and heart disease just to mention but a few. These affect the longevity of life.

According to Mason et al., chronic conditions are the number one cause of death in the United States (Mason et al., 2016 p. 275). These chronic illnesses include pulmonary disease, arthritis, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurological disease, alcoholism, mental health disorders, gastroenterology conditions, lupus, liver disease, cancers, and many more. While some conditions have uncontrollable risk factors such as age, genetics, gender, and race, society has a large contribution to these poor health conditions as well. Tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use, physical and emotional stress, lack of exercise, sleep deprivation, and poor dietary choices all increase the chance of developing a chronic illness.

“Symbols can be so beautiful, sometimes” (Kurt Vonnegut). A mockingbird is an emblem of grace and virtue, and to kill one is a sin on account of their pure design. This can be seen in daily life in Maycomb through prejudice leading to the persecution and slander of the entirely guiltless. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses the symbol of the mockingbird in order to portray the tragedy in the destruction of innocence, and the fight against the injustices of racism and discrimination, which shows the harsh reality of judging a book by its cover.

AZARI, R and BERTAKIS, K, D (2006) The Influence of Obesity, Alcohol Abuse, and Smoking on Utilisation of Health Care Services. Family Medical - Health Services Research [Online] Vol. 38; No. 6; June 2006: Ph 427-434