Reference no: EM13891165

Write one original discussion about how this course changed your vision of health care. Talk about how you fit into healthcare, and what value you found this course to be regarding your understanding of healthcare in general.

Behavior Change Project

The purpose of this assignment is to focus on your own health, and realize how difficult behavior change can be. 

What is a behavioral risk? It is a behavior that puts you at risk for a bad consequence. Examples are smoking which puts you at risk for cancer, and being overweight and inactivity which puts you at risk for a heart attack or diabetes.

The following are great links to assist you trying to decide what behaviors are putting you most at risk.  Take one or more of the following surveys to determine your "real age" and/or familial tendencies to disease. Real Age : 23

Family Health History: My grandmother have hypertension

Part 1: Develop a Plan for Behavior Change

A. Gather information about your target behavior (research).  Look at your current behavior in terms of benefits vs. costs both short-term and long-term and the new target behavior in terms of benefits vs. costs both short-term and long-term. 

Behavior	Benefits / Positive Aspects	Costs / Negative Aspects
Current behavior:
Target behavior:

B. Set goals (Include intermediate goal(s) with target dates and the final goal with a target date). 

Goal	Target Date
a.        Intermediate goal
b.       Intermediate goal
c.        Final goal

C. Choose rewards (Make these unrelated to food or alcohol.  These rewards can be objects, activities and events).

Rewards for meeting goal(s):

1. Intermediate Goal(s)

2. Target Goal

E. Break behavior chains (Control or eliminate environmental cues that provoke the current behavior.  Add new cues to your environment to trigger your new behavior). Make a list of the current behavior cues and what cues you think you can use to trigger new behavior.  On your log, indicate when you relied on a cue or if a cue was a hindrance.

Behavior Cues:

a. Current behavior

b. Target behavior

Part 3: Monitor, Log and Evaluateyour behavior.   

Record your behaviors as well as your thoughts and feelings about them on a calendar or in a journal.  If you didn't practice the behavior as planned, examine what made you relapse.  Also record the milestones when you checked your progress.  If you used cues to action, rewards, etc., indicate these on your log.  If you had to adjust your plan for any reason, indicate it on your log. 

Did you meet your goal?

How do you feel about meeting / not meeting your goal?

What kept you motivated and committed?

What factors negatively affected your motivation and commitment?

What did you learn about behavior change?

How can you apply this knowledge and experience to your life?