Lobbying for Change

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Write a letter to an official in your state or local government. (Choose the individual in the level of government that will best address your issue). The purpose of this letter is to advocate for action with regards to your chosen health care environment issue.

As health care leaders, it is important to understand strategies for advocating and lobbying elected officials. This can lead to the development of policies or laws that can help drive improved equity and outcomes for all participants in the health care environment as well as a more sustainable financial future.

 

Background and Context
As a master’s-level health care practitioner, you may be expected to implement plans to ensure that initiatives designed to take advantage of economic opportunities for the organization are rolled out successfully and can be sustained over multiple years. Additionally, it is important to be able to envision how an initiative could be implemented in different contexts and for different purposes to ensure the investment remains a viable and positive asset to your organization or care setting.

As a master’s-level practitioner, you will often be challenged to influence the health care environment in a variety of ways. This influence can occur on a micro-level (implementing change on your unit, institution, community, or local organizations) or at a macro level (implementing change via state or federal regulations and policy). One way you can influence the health care environment is by lobbying an elected official at the local, state, or national level to adopt policies or legislation that would support positive economic and health outcomes for patients, practitioners, and organizations within the health care environment.

develop a letter to an official in your state or local government (choose the individual in the level of government that will best address your issue). The purpose of this letter is to advocate for action with regards to your chosen health care environment issue. Remember, when writing the letter, you must use your personal address and telephone number unless you are exclusively representing a group or your organization.

Summarize the health care economic issue that you are addressing.
Keep this brief but try to include details about how the issue is currently impacting the elected officials’ constituents.
Explain the positive outcomes that will occur if the issue is addressed and the negative outcomes that will occur if the issue is not addressed.
Tailor this messaging to focus on the impacts in the communities and organizations that are relevant to the elected official you are writing to.
Summarize key information from scholarly sources to support the importance of addressing the issue; the issue’s overall impact on health care at the institutional, local, state, or national level; and proposed changes or actions to address the issue.
Cite at least five current, scholarly sources that support your argument and help provide the elected official (who may not have a detailed knowledge of the health care environment) with an understanding of the issues, changes, or actions that you are proposing to drive improved outcomes.
Identify the impact your issue has on health care institutions and health care providers at the local community, state, or national level.
Make sure to include information from both a health care and an economic perspective. An elected official may be more responsive to one perspective than another.
Incorporate social justice, structural racism, and inequity principles when picking resources and making recommendations for change in your assessment.
Explain how personal, professional, and organizational experiences have informed the resource planning and risk analysis for working toward addressing the economic issue.
Think about how your experiences (the experiences can be personal, professional, or from your team’s perspective or experience) affect how you have planned for the resources needed to implement your desired changes or actions. How did this impact your approach to conducting a risk analysis on the project?
Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly communication standards.

 

Sample Solution

Here is a letter to a state government official, advocating for action on the economic issue of adolescent mental health challenges exacerbated by technology overuse. This letter incorporates all the elements you’ve outlined, including scholarly support, economic and health perspectives, social justice principles, and the influence of personal and professional experiences.

[Your Name] [Your Street Address] [Your City, State, Zip Code] [Your Phone Number] [Your Email Address]

July 25, 2025

The Honorable [State Senator’s Full Name] State Senate [State Senate Address – e.g., State Capitol, City, State, Zip Code]

Subject: Urgent Action Needed: Addressing the Economic Burden of Adolescent Mental Health Challenges from Technology Overuse in [Your State]

Dear Senator [Senator’s Last Name],

I am writing to you today as a master’s-level healthcare practitioner and a concerned constituent of [Your District Number or County], to bring to your urgent attention a growing public health and economic crisis impacting our state’s youth: the escalating mental health challenges among adolescents, significantly exacerbated by pervasive technology overuse. This issue is not only devastating for our children and families but also imposes a substantial and unsustainable economic burden on our healthcare system and communities.

In your district, as across our state, we are witnessing a concerning rise in adolescent anxiety, depression, and social isolation. Data suggests a clear correlation between excessive screen time, social media engagement, and the deterioration of youth mental well-being (OECD, 2018). This crisis directly impacts your constituents through increased family stress, strain on local school support systems, and overwhelmed community mental health services. If left unaddressed, this trajectory promises a future of escalating healthcare expenditures, a less resilient workforce, and diminished overall societal well-being. Conversely, proactive intervention offers the promise of healthier, more productive young citizens, reduced long-term healthcare costs, and a more vibrant future for our state.

To support the urgency of this matter, scholarly research underscores the profound economic implications. A 2023 study highlighted that adolescent mental disorders affect one in five adolescents globally, incurring billions of dollars in healthcare costs, lost productivity, and lowered quality of life (Research Archive of Rising Scholars, 2025). Specifically, the direct costs include increased demand for mental health services, higher emergency department utilization for crises, and rising pharmacotherapy expenses. Indirect costs manifest as decreased academic performance, higher school absenteeism, and long-term productivity losses, all of which directly impact our state’s economic vitality and the future of our communities.

The impact on healthcare institutions and providers at the local and state levels is profound. Our hospitals and clinics are increasingly strained, facing longer wait times for mental health services, staff burnout, and financial pressures from rising demand that often outpaces reimbursement. Healthcare providers, including myself, are witnessing firsthand the struggle to provide timely and comprehensive care amidst these overwhelming needs. From an economic perspective, this translates to inefficient resource allocation, potential for uncompensated care, and a system struggling to cope, ultimately affecting our state’s healthcare budget and overall economic health.

To address this critical issue, I advocate for the implementation of a comprehensive “Digital Well-being Program for Adolescents” within our state’s healthcare infrastructure. This program would focus on educating adolescents and parents about healthy technology habits, developing critical digital literacy skills, and providing accessible counseling for technology-related mental health challenges. Such preventative interventions have shown significant promise; studies on preventative mental health interventions for adolescents estimate benefit-cost ratios ranging from 4:1 to 18:1, driven by reductions in medical costs, academic improvements, and increased lifetime earnings (ResearchGate, 2025).

Furthermore, it is imperative that such initiatives are designed with principles of social justice, structural racism, and inequity at their core. We know that existing structural inequities disproportionately affect marginalized communities and racial groups, who often face greater barriers to accessing quality mental healthcare and digital literacy resources. A state-supported digital well-being program must actively work to bridge these gaps, ensuring equitable access and culturally competent interventions for all adolescents, regardless of their socioeconomic background or race, thereby driving improved equity and outcomes for all participants.

My personal, professional, and organizational experiences have deeply informed this perspective. As a healthcare practitioner, I have observed the direct correlation between escalating technology use and the mental health struggles of young patients, often seeing families

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