MPH 602 Week 5 Health Advocacy Strategy Example

From Campaign to Commitment: A Media Advocacy Strategy to Win Permanent Settlement Funding for Community Naloxone Distribution

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

MPH/602: Public Health Communication and Advocacy

Week 5 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The county, its settlement council, funding amounts, coalition, rescues reported and media plan are composites written for a model paper; research findings come from the sources cited.

The naloxone campaign's results exceeded its targets: 9,000 kits distributed, 52% of adults recalling a message and peer workers reporting 186 rescues with kits from the program. But the campaign's settlement funds would run out in four months. Without new funding, vending machines would empty and the text line would close. The coalition that supported the campaign turned to advocacy. This paper presents its strategy.

The Objective

Advocacy aims at a decision. The objective: the county's opioid settlement council adopts an ongoing annual line of $240,000 for community naloxone distribution, including vending machines, pharmacy and school supply, peer distribution and a smaller maintenance campaign, in its spring budget vote.

Decision Makers and Influencers

The settlement council has nine members: three county commissioners, two city council members, the sheriff, the district attorney, a hospital executive and a person with lived experience. Five votes are needed. Early conversations suggest four supportive, two opposed and three undecided. Influencers include the county's physicians, school board members, the local newspaper's editorial page and families affected by overdose.

The Political Context

Settlement funds are limited and contested. Law enforcement agencies have requested funds for drug task forces, treatment providers for new beds and schools for prevention curricula. The naloxone request must stand out as effective, affordable and supported by the community.

Why Settlement Funds Fit

Settlement agreements with opioid manufacturers and distributors list naloxone distribution among approved uses, and the funds arrive over many years. That makes them a natural source for a recurring cost like replacing expired kits. Framing the request as an approved, evidence-based use of money the community already has also helps with members wary of new spending.

Media Advocacy

Media advocacy differs from campaigns aimed at individuals. It uses news media strategically to advance public policy, gaining access to coverage and framing issues so that the policy solution and the responsibility of decision makers are clear (Wallack & Dorfman, 1996). The campaign asked residents to carry naloxone; the advocacy strategy asks the council to fund it.

The Framing Challenge

Local news has typically framed overdose as crime. A national analysis of 673 opioid news stories found the problem more often framed as a criminal justice issue, with drug dealing the most commonly named cause and law enforcement the most commonly named solution, while treatment expansion appeared in fewer than 5% of stories (McGinty et al., 2016). The coalition's framing must compete with seizure stories.

The Frame: Rescues and Responsibility

The frame centers on rescues: 186 people alive because a neighbor, friend or bartender had naloxone, and a council vote that decides whether that continues. The message: "Naloxone works. Our community proved it. Keep it on the shelves." Each story ends with the council's decision.

The Evidence Behind the Ask

The request rests on strong evidence. An interrupted time series study in 19 Massachusetts communities found that overdose education and naloxone distribution programs trained 2,912 potential bystanders who reported 327 rescues, and communities with 1 to 100 enrollments per 100,000 population had an adjusted overdose death rate ratio of 0.73, while those with more than 100 had a ratio of 0.54, compared with communities without programs (Walley et al., 2013). More kits in more hands meant fewer deaths, and the effect grew with reach.

News Tactics

The coalition will pitch a story on a bartender who reversed an overdose, arrange an interview with a mother whose son survived, submit an op-ed signed by a physician and a pastor and hold a press event at a vending machine on the day the council's agenda is posted. A data brief will accompany each pitch.

Spokespeople

The coalition chose four spokespeople and trained them in two sessions: a physician who can speak to the evidence, a bartender who reversed an overdose, a mother whose son survived and a peer worker in long-term recovery. Each prepared three key points and practiced answering hostile questions. Spokespeople who have lived the issue are more persuasive than officials, but they need support and protection from online harassment.

Social Media Tactics

Coalition members and partners will share short videos of rescuers, a countdown to the budget vote and a simple action: email the council. The campaign's social media audience will be invited to support the ask.

Grassroots Tactics

Families, peer workers, bartenders and pharmacists will speak at the council's public comment periods. A letter signed by 60 physicians and nurses will be delivered to each council member in person before the vote. Parents will speak at school board meetings, asking the board to endorse the request.

Timing

The strategy is timed to the council's calendar. The budget draft is released six weeks before the vote, so news stories and op-eds cluster in those weeks, public comment is organized for the two meetings before the vote and the press event coincides with the agenda's release. Coverage that arrives after the vote does little for the decision.

Engaging Undecided Members

The coalition will meet individually with the three undecided members. For the district attorney, the message emphasizes that naloxone does not compete with enforcement. For a city council member concerned about cost, it highlights the cost per rescue. For the hospital executive, it notes fewer intensive care admissions for overdose.

Anticipated Opposition

Opponents may argue that naloxone enables drug use, that funds should go to enforcement or that the campaign already bought enough kits. The coalition will respond that rescued people can enter treatment only if they survive, that the request is a small share of settlement funds and that kits expire and must be replaced.

Advocacy Limits

Health department staff will provide data and testimony when asked but will not lobby. Nonprofit coalition members will stay within federal lobbying limits. Settlement funds already received cannot pay for lobbying.

If the Vote Fails

If the council declines the full request, the coalition will propose a smaller first-year amount with a review after six months, ask the hospital and pharmacies to share costs of vending machine supply and return at the next budget cycle with an updated count of rescues. Advocacy rarely ends with one vote.

Milestones and Measures

Milestones include meetings with all undecided members by week four, two earned news stories by week six, 60 physician signatures by week seven and at least 25 public commenters at the vote. Progress will be measured by media coverage using the coalition's frame, council members' stated positions and the vote.

Conclusion

The naloxone campaign proved that residents will carry kits when they are easy to get. The advocacy strategy asks the settlement council to keep them available. Media advocacy frames the issue around rescues and the council's responsibility, national research explains why that frame must compete with crime stories and a Massachusetts study shows that naloxone distribution lowers overdose deaths. Stories, voices and evidence aim at a single vote.

References

McGinty, E. E., Kennedy-Hendricks, A., Baller, J., Niederdeppe, J., Gollust, S., & Barry, C. L. (2016). Criminal activity or treatable health condition? News media framing of opioid analgesic abuse in the United States, 1998-2012. Psychiatric Services, 67(4), 405-411. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201500065

Wallack, L., & Dorfman, L. (1996). Media advocacy: A strategy for advancing policy and promoting health. Health Education Quarterly, 23(3), 293-317. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019819602300303

Walley, A. Y., Xuan, Z., Hackman, H. H., Quinn, E., Doe-Simkins, M., Sorensen-Alawad, A., Ruiz, S., & Ozonoff, A. (2013). Opioid overdose rates and implementation of overdose education and nasal naloxone distribution in Massachusetts: Interrupted time series analysis. BMJ, 346, Article f174. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f174