Community action plan full custom essay
Introduction
Several potential factors influence health in rural areas. Rural communities’ experiences
higher prevalence of chronic diseases such as respiratory diseases, diabetes, cancer and heart
disease and Downtown is not an exception. High rates of mortality and disability rate occur in
rural areas than the urban areas. The challenges faced in rural are4as are always caused by
limited access to health promotion and disease prevention programs in rural areas. This paper
discusses the potential patient barriers to health and well-being, communication strategies in the
teamwork and missing information for the community health action plan.
Potential patient barriers to health and wellness
The poverty rates in Landville is higher rating to more than 30%, and this makes the
residents of this community have difficulties in accessing the programs and the health care
services in terms of finances. Poverty also limits the access to healthy foods, making people buy
non-nutritious food that alters the normal functioning of their body, leading ton malnutrition
diseases. On the other hand, residence limits the frequency of the food consumption due to the
inability to acquire enough food, the time when they buy the food they eat in excess. Therefore,
increasing the chances of developing obesity among children and young adults. Secondly,
cultural and social norms that the community practice influences health behaviour (McCormack
et al., 2017). Some individuals believe in using traditional medication to treat their ailments
before they seek medical treatment from a health facility or program.
The culture influence the health-seeking behaviours and the perception of the importance
of the health care services provided in the health promotion program. Besides, low levels of
health literacy and incomplete perception of health acts as a barrier to the use of the health care
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program. Therefore, the organization should work hand in hand to ensure proper education and
awareness creation among the community members on the importance of good health-seeking
behaviour. According to (McCormack et al., 2017) unavailability of resources to support
personnel, use of facilities, and to affect the operation of the program is another barrier to health
and wellness. Members of a community could have all other factors available within their reach,
but the unavailability of human resources, financial resources and technology will act as a barrier
to people being health in the community.
Lastly, the differences in language for example in Landville majority of the population
speak English, and we have 8% of the population speaking Spanish, and the education level
among the members of the community and the health care provider acts as a barrier to accessing
health care services in a facility or health program. Health care professionals should learn the
language and the culture of the community to enhance free and proper communication between
the patient and the health care professionals.
Missing information
Some of the missing information to make informed health assessment is information on
the social determinants of health is the community. Social determinants of health should be
identified to help in putting different priorities on the community health needs. Some of the
social determinants of health include lack of transport, food security, less social and family
support and unemployment (Auffray et al., 2016). This factors influence the entire health and
wellness of the members of the community and can lead to consistent readmission to the health
facility and missed health appointments, which later results in poor health. Obtaining the
information and data in a parallel and interoperable system will provide enough information for
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the health care providers to make right decisions and choose the best interventions from the
tentative interventions that will help in solving community health problems.
The information that will be obtained will further help in ensuring that the patients in the
community get the correct behavioural, social, legal and economic support that will address the
issues that interfere with the health and well-being of the community from the health team.
(Auffray et al., 2016) Argues that storing information in an electronic system will help in
identifying patients who are at risk of suffering from a particular disease because of their social
determinates. Therefore, assist in identifying resources that will prevent them from getting
exposed and acquiring the infection. It also helps in identifying the health inequalities among
individuals living in the community and potential members who can benefit maximally from the
targeted interventions.
The patterns, prevalence and inequities revealed by the missing information will help in
focusing the limited resources available in the community on the areas that the data suggest to be
of crucial need. The missing data will also help in understanding the barriers and facilitators of
health seeking behaviour the will increase the accessibility of health care services, thus improve
the health and well-being of the residences in the community.
Communication strategies
To be able to work effectively in a health care team, the team members should be able to
communicate effectively among themselves and with the patients or clients. According to (Sacks
et al., 2015) communication helps in bringing in information, knowledge and skills that will
enhance effective delivery of health care services and improve the quality of the health care
outcomes. Health communication strategies need to be developed in the health care team to help
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in promoting cooperation among the team members, coordination in decision making and in
sharing relevant information. One of the communication strategies that will be used to enhance
teamwork is consideration of health literacy, internet access and media exposure. The team
members should be able to use all the media of communications that will be used. Some of these
media include the use of computers and the internet to communicate. Having knowledge and the
skill to operate the computer and the internet will increase the passage of information from
different health professionals within the health team.
The second strategy is to implement the use of a variety of communication channels to
pass the health message. This strategy is best used to communicate with the members of the
community concerning the health care services that are being provided by the program. Posters,
brochures, radio commercials, television broadcast and newspaper article, can be employed to
convey a similar message that will help in increasing awareness among the community members
(Sacks et al., 2015). Lastly, increasing the cultural competency of the targeted population,
minding the different languages that are being used by the team members is another strategy of
effective communication among the team members. The team members should decide on a
universal language that fellow members understands and should be much concern with the
culture of every team member to enhance smooth and quick communication. Besides, they
should employ the use of both written and verbal strategies to influence and empower the team
members as well as the patients from the different social background within the community.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the community needs assessment allows the programs developed within
the community to identify suitable opportunities that enable the promotion of health and
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prevention of diseases interventions to be implemented. Once the health needs of a society have
been identified and the community factors that affect the implementation of the program have
been identified, then it is easy to do the actual action. Among the things to consider and to gather
information before action plan implementation are barriers and filling gaps to health and well-
being. To be able to provide interventions effectively, health care professionals need to come up
with effective communication strategies that enhance teamwork.
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References
Auffray, C., Balling, R., Barroso, I., Bencze, L., Benson, M., Bergeron, J., … & Del Signore, S.
(2016). Making sense of big data in health research: towards an EU action plan. Genome
medicine, 8(1), 71.
McCormack, L., Thomas, V., Lewis, M. A., & Rudd, R. (2017). Improving low health literacy
and patient engagement: a social-ecological approach. Patient education and counselling,
100(1), 8-13.
Sacks, G. D., Shannon, E. M., Dawes, A. J., Rollo, J. C., Nguyen, D. K., Russell, M. M., … &
Maggard-Gibbons, M. A. (2015). Teamwork, communication and safety climate: a
systematic review of interventions to improve surgical culture. BMJ Qual Saf, 24(7), 458-
467.
