Peer-to-peer health

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

This is a great example of peers helping peers:

Humans of New York (HONY) is a blog and Facebook page that features portraits of New Yorkers, each paired with a caption in the subject’s own words. With over 11 million followers, HONY is adept at bringing into focus the experiences that shape people’s lives. A recent post made me stop in my tracks and think. The subject said:

My children’s father was physically and emotionally abusive, so by the time I left him I had very low self-confidence. I needed something to boost my ego. One day I saw some firefighters handing out recruitment material on the street so I decided to give it a try. All the female recruits trained together, because we had to work harder than the men to pass the test. We trained for six months, three hours a day. I’d go straight from my job to the training sessions. I’d bring my kids with me, and when it was my turn to do the drills, the other women would take turns passing them around. At the end of the six months, I was 120 pounds of solid mass, and I passed the test easily. I never became a firefighter, but those women are still my friends.

I love a lot of things about this story. I love her determination and resourcefulness and resilience. And I love how other women gave her a boost. Their practical and emotional support helped her get fit and gain the confidence she needed to turn her life around. Really, it was in large part because of these other women that she was able to access the determination, resourcefulness, and resilience inside herself.

As someone who has been studying health creation, it also struck me how much health was created in this story, without a single health care professional or facility taking any part. She’s fit. She found a sustainable path out of an abusive relationship. She has lifelong friends. Is there any clinical intervention that could replicate this kind of impact on a person’s wellbeing?

Post external references

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    http://maternityneighborhood.com/centeringpregnancy/
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