Moving Beyond Raising Awareness: Addressing Barriers

Awareness of issues and health concerns can prompt individuals to change their lifestyle behaviors. In fact, awareness is typically one of the first steps towards behavior change. However, awareness alone does not necessarily initiate or sustain behavioral changes. Specifically, many individuals experience significant barriers that prevent behavior change. Providers can address such barriers through ecological models of behavior change. Including concepts from an ecological model in health care settings can support positive lifestyle behavior change post-diagnosis. Moving beyond awareness alone and addressing barriers to change is an important goal that ultimately increases the probability of change for patients.