Serving Vulnerable Populations and Disease Prevention Teaching – Assignment 1 Solution

Serving Vulnerable Populations and Disease Prevention Teaching

In this assessment, you will explore your community’s resources for people who live in a food desert, develop a meal plan that fits the medical conditions, consider the culture of the community members, and explore how to help community members maintain health.

Part 1: Serving Vulnerable Populations

Imagine you are a community health nurse assigned to care for family with a newly diagnosed type-2 diabetic member. The diabetic family member, JK, is a 66-year-old Black woman with hypertension and asthma. JK lives in a food desert and does not drive. JK’s family visits her weekly, but they have complicated lives and are unable to provide daily care for her.

Evaluate the following community health resources and summarize them in a table:

United States Department of Agriculture

• Food Access Research Atlas
• Food Access Research Atlas Map
• Characteristics and Influential Factors of Food Deserts

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• A Systematic Review of Food Deserts, 1966-2007
• Small Food Stores and Availability of Nutritious Foods
• Data & Statistics

Create plan detailing opportunities for JK to gain adequate access to appropriate foods for one week.

Your plan must address:

• Appropriate and realistic estimated budget
• Shopping locations
• Transportation means, routes, and timing
• Support services

Compare JK’s community to your county census data.

Format your assignment as a 10- to 15-slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes.

Part 2: Disease Prevention Teaching Project

Step 1: Choose a community health agency (day care, church, school, clinic, homeless shelter).

Step 2: Review Table 1-1 (p. 49) of Community/Public Health Nursing and the results of your windshield survey completed in Week 2.

From the results of your windshield survey, you will identify a health issue facing the community. You will prepare an outline for a teaching project surrounding the issue, which you would present to your selected agency about this issue.

Assess the community for:

• Healthy food option
• Boundaries
• Housing and zoning
• Open space
• Commons
• Transportation
• Social service centers
• Stores, businesses, and industries
• Street people and animals
• Condition of the area
• Race, culture, and ethnicity
• Religion
• Health indicators and morbidity
• Politics
• Media
• Signs of decay
• Crime rate
• Employment rate
• Schools
• Environmental factors
• Public services (fire, police)

Step 3: Recommend an appropriate disease prevention teaching project that could be offered by your chosen agency for the local community.

Prepare a 750-word summary of the teaching project. Include the following:

• Summarize the public health issues facing the selected community.
• Select 1 issue and prepare an outline of the problem or issue faced.
• Explain how your selected agency could address the issue.
• Prepare an outline of a disease prevention teaching project that could be offered by your agency.

Solution

Part 2: Disease Prevention Teaching Project

Community Health & Education, Inc. is a community health agency located in Chicago. The agency participates in the revitalization of the community. It offers health education and partners with groups, including the Infectious Disease Physician group, to promote healthy communities.

The agency will offer a disease prevention teaching program to address some public health issues the Chicago Lawn community faces. Compared to other neighborhoods in Chicago, Chicago Lawn has more and better infrastructure, public spaces, foot, and cycling paths, well-organized public transport, plenty of social services, including parks, libraries, and churches, excellent medical resources, such as hospitals and other health centers, policing department and several fire stations, and great quality daycares and schools.

It is safe, quiet, and has an abundance of services available to the community. It is a good neighborhood for individuals and families, with fewer public health issues.

Public Health Issues in Chicago Lawn

Although not as prevalent as other parts of the city, Chicago Lawn still experiences homelessness and substance abuse as some of the public health issues. Homeless people and peddlers can be found in the streets.

Still, it is critical to address these issues because they have health implications directly and indirectly to the community. It is also vital to address homelessness and substance abuse to make the neighborhood healthier and more conducive.

Homelessness is a public health crisis because affected individuals are at increased risk for infection, transmission, and death (Sleet & Francescutti, 2021). Substance abuse is also a public health concern because it engages human biological and physical functioning and involves psychosocial demands, cognitive and spiritual needs, and environmental formulations.

Substance Abuse

Substance abuse is a set of associated conditions related to consuming mind- and behavior-altering substances with adverse behavioral and health outcomes (Healthypeople.gov, 2022). Substance abuse is one of the complex public health issues to address because of the social attitudes and political and legal interpretations of consuming alcohol and illicit drugs.

Substance abuse issues are evident in the streets of Chicago Lawn, especially among homeless individuals. Substance abuse is also prevalent among the poor, youth, and the LGBTQ community. It is linked with mental health issues, particularly depression, that these populations face. Addressing substance abuse in Chicago Lawn would help protect the health, safety, and quality of life. Substance abuse significantly impacts individuals, families, and communities because the effects are cumulative and contribute to other social, physical, mental, and public health issues.

Substance abuse contributes to teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, STDs, domestic violence, child abuse, motor vehicle crashes, physical fights, crime, homicide, and suicide (Healthypeople.gov, 2022). Community Health & Education, Inc. will offer community health education in the form of a disease prevention teaching program addressing substance abuse in Chicago Lawn.

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Addressing Substance Abuse in Chicago Lawn

Health education is one of the most effective strategies for addressing substance abuse. Research shows that most people consuming drugs are unaware of the adverse effects of such substances or have a misguided perception of costs and benefits. Also, most people consuming drugs do not perceive it as a problem, even when they experience health issues related to substance abuse. Spreading awareness about the problem would help change the community’s perception of substance abuse and its impacts on individuals, families, and the community (Malick, 2018). Health education will promote lifestyles and environments to enhance health, wellness, and quality of life for individuals, families, and communities. The process of community health education and promotion involves a detailed introduction to vital information, perspectives, and competencies required to address substance abuse. The agency will:

• Raise community collaboration to reduce substance abuse
• Heighten and align community substance abuse prevention messaging
• Increase access to skill-building opportunities for individuals and parents working with the affected populations
• Support pro-social and youth development activities
• Inform local policies to reduce substance abuse
• Support brief intervention and treatment for affected populations’ substance abuse

Disease Prevention Teaching Program

Process of substance abuse prevention teaching program:

• Needs and capacity assessment

The agency will conduct a needs and capacity assessment for health education and health promotion. It will survey individual, family, and community needs associated with substance abuse. It will assess the community’s resources to determine its capacity to address the individual, family, and community needs linked to substance abuse. The assessment will help decide what is needed, where to start, and what to focus on.

• Community health administration

The agency will provide leadership and management of health education activities. It will work with other community-based and human rights organizations, health agencies, mental health centers, homeless shelters, research and development centers, national health departments, and hospitals settings involved in the substance abuse prevention teaching program.

• Community health information

Effective communication is critical during health education, especially on substance abuse. The agency will employ communication strategies that include posters, pamphlets, and notices, media such as print, TV, and radio, health department notices, sensitization of private doctors, rural camps, organizations’ websites, law/police department notices, and social media.

• Advocating for neighborhood health needs

The agency will advocate for substance abuse to encourage individuals, families, students, and the community to avoid substance abuse and refer the affected people to the appropriate resources. An advocacy campaign will include activities that share messages to encourage the community to practice safe and healthy behaviors.

• Resources access and management

The agency will increase access to and availability of people in the community, organizations, volunteers, health care facilities, school-based awareness programs, youth groups, women self-help groups, religious heads, local government bodies, local public health centers, and local NGOs. These resources can offer health information and support, professional help, and spread awareness (Malick, 2018). The agency will also connect the affected people, especially the homeless and the poor, to people and organizations in the community that offer job opportunities.

References

Healthypeople.gov. (2022, February 6). Substance abuse. https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/substance-abuse

Malick, R. (2018). Prevention of substance use disorders in the community and workplace. Indian journal of psychiatry, 60(Suppl 4), S559–S563. https://doi.org/10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_24_18

Sleet, D. A., & Francescutti, L. H. (2021). Homelessness and Public Health: A Focus on Strategies and Solutions. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(21), 11660. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111660