Meeting the challenge of change

Although the largest improvements in the health of the public are likely to come from changing the social and behavioral conditions that influence morbidity, mortality, and functioning, public health training continues to focus more on how to bring about individual behavioral change than how to change larger social conditions and factors. A search of the on-line course catalogs of the 10 leading public health schools reveals that only 1 offers the "trifecta" of courses devoted to policy advocacy, media advocacy, and community organizing, respectively. To meet the challenge of creating large-scale change, public health schools need to do a better job of equipping our students with theoretical and practical tools in these three areas.