Enhancing low-income parents' capacities to promote their children's health: Education is not enough

In 1996 the Capital Heath Region in Edmonton, Alberta integrated a primary health care component into Head Start programs. One aspect of the primary h ealth care component (PHC-HS) was a series of education sessions aimed at s trengthening parents' capacities to enhance their children's health. To mak e the education sessions relevant, 10 focus groups with 65 parents of child ren who attended Head Start were conducted prior to the sessions. Findings indicated that participants' ability to enhance their children's health and manage their children's illnesses was limited as much by low incomes, inad equate health care coverage, and lack of transportation as it was by a lack of knowledge. Results provide evidence that health education sessions alon e are not adequate to significantly enhance low-income parents' capacities to promote their children's health. Efforts to strengthen the abilities of low-income individuals and families to promote their health will be most ef fective if health education is accompanied by policy advocacy and social ac tion strategies that challenge the socioeconomic and political conditions t hat negatively affect health. Public health nursing's commitment to social justice, as well as findings about the limitations that low incomes, inadeq uate health care benefits, and lack of transportation placed on participant s' ability to enhance their children's health, underscore the need for publ ic health nurses (PHNs) to address structural conditions contributing to he alth inequities. As such, an overview of literature that details strategies and theoretical models for challenging socioeconomic and political conditi ons which restrict the ability of low-income individuals and families to en hance their health is provided.