Health Belief Model
It’s all good and well (pun intended) to acknowledge risks to a paramedic’s health and wellbeing, but what about motivation to do it?
Irwin Rosenstock’s Health Belief Model looks at six factors we can focus on (Ragin, 2018). Motivation is very subjective so let us look at each factor using my personal experience of becoming a Type 2 Diabetic.
Perceived susceptibility.
Does the individual feel like they are at risk of the illness or catching a disease?
Or, the individual accepts that it’s likely they will.
Me: My annual check-ups (joys of being 40+) started showing indicators of T2D so I figured it would eventuate.
Perceived severity
How bad or serious could it be?
Subjectively how would the individual feel emotionally, and will it impact their life?
Me: It’s not really that serious and if it becomes a problem, I can make lifestyle changes and there is medication available too.
Perceived benefits
If being pro-active will the individual feel that they will reduce risk, onset and make a change for the better?
Me: The intellectual side of me said yes, there are definite benefits. Feel better, look better, reduction of morbidity.
Perceived barriers
What would stop the individual from making beneficial change?
Me: Partly I wanted to ignore it, I had just become one of those old, white guys, who didn’t look after himself. “Oh you have type 2, that’s the poor lifestyle one, yeah?”
It’s going to take a level of commitment to establish healthy routines. Both in time and potentially money (gym, trainer, dietician)
Cues to action
Conditional prompts to change. Acknowledging seriousness; benefits; prompting from family or friends. Public awareness campaigns.
Me: I realised that it was in-fact real, it has serious consequences to my life and the benefits to change well out-weighed the barriers.
Self-efficacy
Now that the individual is motivated, do they feel they can successfully perform the new behaviours?
Me: At first, yes. But it was not easy to interweave the changes because they had effect on my family (meals etc) and daily schedule. To keep me motivated I enrolled in the Life! Program by Diabetes Australia.
Photo by Valentin Antonucci
This unit, HFB3202, has given me several tools (models) that I was kind of aware of and used partially without knowing it.
Having the complete model and now understanding how and why each component is required I will be taking the skills and applying them in order to safely navigate my way through professional and personal decisions