Awareness initiatives like Go Red for Women develop heart health campaigns to spread valuable information. Even with the advances in women’s health education since the turn of the century, the public conversation around cardiovascular disease in women – and even the medical community’s readiness to promptly diagnose and treat women’s heart conditions – lags the cultural awareness around heart disease in men. The reality is that the period of pregnancy and the weeks following can pose a substantially increased risk of heart-related problems in women, and because women and even sometimes healthcare professionals are often not prepared to expect heart disease in a woman of child-bearing age, the early signs can easily go unnoticed and therefore untreated. The women’s health advocates at Erin Marshall Law are committed to elevating the conversation around women’s heart health. Reach out to our team today to learn more by calling 505-218-9949.
What Is Go Red for Women?
Go Red for Women is a public health awareness initiative formed by the American Heart Association (AHA) to address the persistent underestimation of heart disease risks in women – many of whom, the organization claims, have been habituated to perceiving cardiovascular disease as a problem affecting primarily older men. Given that heart disease and stroke (often linked) combine to represent the primary killer of women in the United States, the AHA saw raising awareness and combatting misinformation around heart disease in women as central to improving the health of an underserved community representing no less than half the population.
How Do Awareness Initiatives Work?
Generally speaking, awareness initiatives of all kinds work by recruiting individuals who are willing to share information, put on “publicity stunts,” or otherwise engage in strategic actions designed to bring attention to the topic at the core of the initiative. Often awareness initiatives will endeavor to combine celebrity “star power” with grassroots activity by members of the community with no special notoriety. Celebrities, and sometimes political figures, will use their “platforms” and their comparatively broad recognizability to reach more people, faster, than a grassroots campaign might be able to do alone – but generally speaking, the assumption is that for an awareness initiative aimed at a broad, sustained goal such as women’s health education to be truly successful, it will likely need participation from individuals in all walks of life.
Events
Often awareness initiatives such as heart health campaigns will endeavor to increase the visibility profile of their core topic by holding events that are organized around a theme that has a connection to the issue on which the initiative is trying to foster a conversation. Go Red for Women has put this strategy to good effect by partnering with the Heart Truth® program (from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) to put on the annual Red Dress Collection series of combination concerts and heart health campaigns. Often star-studded events like the Red Dress Collection concerts are used to raise funds, as well awareness, to continue public outreach.
Local Connections
The heart health campaigns developed by Go Red for Women and other organizations with a focus on women’s health education would likely have limited impact if they were driven solely by events that can be marked on a calendar. Maintaining a healthy cardiovascular system is not a once-per-year event, but an everyday practice.
Recognizing the value in consistency, therefore, Go Red for Women’s heart health campaigns encompass a number of opportunities to connect locally and share support while raising awareness. The Circle of Red and the Go Red Get Fit Facebook group are just two examples that serve to connect the larger goals of awareness initiatives to the daily experiences and social interactions of individuals personally committed to promoting women’s health education.
Focusing Awareness in Women’s Heart Health Campaigns
In most cases, awareness initiatives want to do more than make people aware that a problem exists – even though, when it comes to women’s health education, simply spreading awareness that women are at significant risk of cardiovascular disease is often an important first step. Generally speaking, a major goal of awareness is to create an environment in which individuals and communities will be receptive to information and prepared to connect the information they receive to actions they can take and habits they can adopt. For these reasons, hearth health campaigns like those advanced by Go Red for Women often make it a priority to follow increased awareness with actionable information, providing practical resources like Healthy for Good™ as well as personal risk-assessment tools (collected at Know Your Risk).
Advocating for Women’s Health in New Mexico and Beyond
At Erin Marshall Law, we take seriously the risks cardiovascular disease poses to women of all ages. While the risks of developing heart disease do generally increase with age for all sexes, there are a number of periods during a woman’s life when she may be especially susceptible – including in the days and weeks immediately after childbirth. Our team is committed to participating in heart health campaigns that further women’s health education by supporting awareness initiatives like Go Red for Women – and we hope you will join us along the journey. Whether you are a woman who has been affected by heart disease, or a concerned member of the community, each of us has a role to play. If you think a medical mistake lawyer may have a role to play in your situation, reach out to our Albuquerque office at 505-218-9949 to schedule a consultation.
