Cultural Empowerment Among African American Women - Essay Example

This problem has not been discovered or described recently but has been there since time immemorial. Many reasons have been given and discussed but none seems to offer the solution on how to tackle the problem. According to the PEN-3 model, there has to be a plane where solutions to health problems and the underlying problems have to meet. In this regards, the plane or platform can only be arrived at after health promotion programs put into consideration the cultural values of the targeted communities as well as their behaviors.

Culture and behavior or habits of people with regards to some things are highly correlated which then means that when these two factors must be considered. In the event that they are not considered during the development of a program, then success of the program in achieving its intended goals is also limited (Parker, 1996). The morbidity rate among African American women is high which is an indication that underlying cultural influence is largely a factor to be considered. Within the PEN-3 model of health promotion, there is a domain referred to as the cultural empowerment.

This domain underscores the possibilities and importance of cultural influence which can be conceptualized within the lattices of being positive, negative and existential. As such, this domain is quite important in the development of appropriate health promotion programs as well as the intervention modalities (Gaston, Porter & Thomas, 2007). This paper will therefore discuss Cultural Empowerment with regards to promotion of healthy eating habits among African American Women. Positive During the development of programs geared towards health promotion and intervention measures that are culturally sensitive, cultural empowerment plays a central role.

In this sense, promotions should be based on the positive side of a culture such that good habits are promoted. It is a common knowledge that every culture has both good and retrogressive habits which need to be either promoted or discouraged. It is therefore sacrosanct to health promoters and educators to be very conversant with cultural practices of the communities that they deal with (Hargreaves, Schlundt & Buchowski, 2002). Every culture has got its unique characteristics and which should be the center of focus.

Cultural empowerment is deemed positive when it advocates for traits or behaviors of interest that are well informed according to cultural practices within a community. For example, among many ethnic communities in US including the African American community, eating balanced diets is a well cherished practice. This practice is in tandem with goals and strategies of health promotion in the community. Praying and playing together in a community is also encouraged which in the long run encourages other positive habits such as physical and spiritual healthy (Williams, Auslander, de Groot, Robinson, Houston & Haire-Joshu, 2006).

Existential The second element of the cultural empowerment domain is the existential aspects of a culture. This element revolves around the normal daily undertakings of individuals within culture. These undertakings have no bearing or harm on the health or quality of life and therefore they should be tolerated or encouraged. It follows then that such habits or behaviors should not be earmarked for change and their existence in a community should be regarded as deterrent