don's report archive

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Empowering Consumers Is Not So Easy!
Tuesday April 3, 2001

Any parent knows you can't talk a child into doing the right thing; similarly, adults are highly resistant to reason in the form of listening to good advice about what you know is good for them. People have to make a commitment to well-being for their own reasons, for their own purposes and ends, not simply to please or conform to the desires of others. Unless someone takes responsibility for needed changes upon himself, healthy and other reform efforts are not likely.

Imagine how much more difficult it is to try to convince adults to take up self-management practices when they are at a disadvantage in the sense of having obstacles in the way of healthy reforms. It's a lot easier to embrace wellness values when you are financially secure, for example, than when you don't have a job and struggle to find rent money. Which leads me to wonder: What can we do to help those who don't have essentials to choose healthier lifestyles, to think and behave in ways that are in their own interests? How, for instance, can we promote wellness values to someone who struggles to get enough food on the table for him/herself and dependents, or pay the rent each month? Is it possible to convince such a person to make needed changes to better himself personally, via wellness concepts?

Since becoming interested in the wellness concept in the mid-seventies, I have had discussions along these lines with many people, and read about the issues and wondered how to make some impact that could benefit the less advantaged. Answers have never come easily -- this issue is a variation on larger concerns of public policy makers, such as how can society in general help the disadvantaged overcome poverty, gain a decent education, and in so many ways have fair access to the good life? Wellness, that is, improved lifestyles marked by increased acceptance of personal responsibility, better food choices, greater stress management, personal fitness, and all the rest, can hardly be addressed separately and apart from these larger challenges.

Regrettably, while we who have advantages can reach out and try to be of service, dramatic and near-term changes that matter are seldom seen. We can volunteer at schools, teach adult programs and so on, but the fact is wellness issues are likely to remain a low priority for the poor and undereducated. You might recall Abraham Maslow's famous hierarchy of values, the Pyramid of Needs that showed how important basic issues were to the attainment of so-called higher values. In brief, the hierarchy suggested that until security and safety concerns were met, fulfillment, self-actualization, and meaning and purpose might have to wait. Just so.

Of course, it is true that many poor and/or undereducated people would be better off if they made wellness commitments for themselves, assumed more responsibility for improving their situation, and did all the right things, but who among us would manage such a challenge if in their situation? Most disadvantaged people simply do not have the skills, cultural support, background upbringing, or much else to prosper at self-management. They do not, for example, usually have access to computers that would enable them to read this article or otherwise benefit from the kind of information available at this Wellness Center and elsewhere on the Internet. If they did they probably wouldn't be quite so poor, without a job, and unable to pay the rent.

There are many partial answers, and what anyone will favor will depend somewhat on his/her politics. All of us who have advantaged circumstances serve ourselves, as well as others, if we ask how we might reach out, in some little fashion, to be of service to others less fortunate than ourselves. Even if we don't have the answers.

All the best

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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