Designing an In-Service for Underserved Population about Healthcare Resources - Research Paper Example

Running Head: Designing an In-service to underserved Population Paul Ackah Stevens Henager College NUR490 Capstone Project Cheryl Rules. 5/14/12 Designing an In-Service For Underserved Population about Health Care Resources An in-service that I have decided to design is an education program to the underserved population irrespective of age about the health care resources provided by the government, state, and the local authorities. This education program will mainly concentrate on the services provided about drug and substance abuse. In this in-service design public events will be used to mobilize the targeted population of underserved population of people and also incentives like gifts will be used reinforce attendance of these people to the events. Moreover, a curriculum will be designed to organize what the program will address and various stakeholders as well as concerned parties will be involved. The reason why I have decided to handle the drug and substance abuse topic in this in-service program is because majority of the underserved population lacks knowledge about the health care resources about drug and substance abuse provided by the federal and state governments. On of these resources is the information about drug and substance abuse. Another one is information about where they can find rehabilitation facilities and the services offered in those facilities. The information about the laws monitoring distribution and sale of drugs is the other resource which this group of underserved population is not aware as well as information on places where they can obtain assistance. As a result these kinds of people are not able to access such services when they need them and therefore they become victims of the drug and substance abuse. A very high percentage of the people in this underserved population that I have chosen are affected by the drug and substance abuse whether directly or indirectly irrespective of age. I also discovered that the cause of addiction among majority of these people is lack of necessary and up-to-date information about drugs and substance abuse. I also realized that a good number among these people do not know the health care resources which can be provide to them by the federal or the state government. As a result they remain trapped in this threat without knowing what to do or even where to go for assistance.This project will assist the underserved population to understand resources provided to them by the state and federal government and where they can get those resources. There are several organizations that oversee the issues relating to drug and substance abuse in this country. These organizations are either national, state or community based. The National Drug Control Administration is the national organization which is mandated to oversee the activities designed to handle the threats of drug and substance abuse. According to McCaffrey (1998), this is the organization which is charged with the responsibility of designing and developing the National Drug Control strategy. This acts as a tool to monitor and evaluate all the activities designed to handle the drugs and substance abuse threat. Moreover, each of the American states has a department in its government mandated with a responsibility to oversees alcohol and drug abuse. One example of such departments is the Missouri Department of Mental Health. This is a single state agency responsible for overseeing a state wide network of publicly funded substance abuse, treatment and recovery support services within all the clinics in the state of Missouri (MDMH, 2011). The major federal organization that oversees drug and substance abuse is the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.It works with other state, community and private organization to improve access to quality substance abuse and mental health services(Niles, 2010). It makes sure that all the necessary facilities are put in place to facilitate the fight against drug and substance abuse. Controversy surrounds the issue of drug and substance abuse. Many feel that the only drugs which can be abused are the illegal narcotic drugs. However, other types of drugs also have the potential to be abused.According to Ritter & Lampkin (2011), the prescription drug abuse has become a serious and growing problem among the Americans. The other controversy in this area is the clean needle exchange and also the use of methadone to substitute other drugs. For us to achieve our objectives regarding drug and substance abuse, we will need to undertake to completion an education project. In this project we will educate the people in the identified underserved population about health care resources provided by both the national and state governmentsto facilitate fight against drug and substance abuse. To undertake this project effectively we will need to use clinics, schools, churches, community shelter and playgrounds. In these places we have this group of people congregating and thus we can be able to get a multitude which we can address our project to. Moreover, we will need to design a curriculum about the knowledge we intend to convey during these events and also designing the methods we will use to ensure that the information we offer will be clear and understandable. As I have planned we will be able to complete the project in four weeks. The project is planned to be done in two phases. Phase one will involve planning and acquiring of necessary materials as well as designing the curriculum to be used in the project. In this phase we will plan the flow of events and identify the venues where these events will be held to maximize participation of the targeted group of the population. Moreover, we will undertake a research on this people to identify the kind of incentives which can give them most motivation to make them participate in large numbers. The second phase will carry the main events of this project and will involve the actual holding of the events and the conveying of the information that we intend to convey. This phase is planned to take about three weeks but it can take less time if we manage to achieve maximum participation from the beginning of the project. In this phase, we will make sure that we use the information conveying strategies which are the most effective among the people we have identified as our target population. There are no major barriers that we expect to encounter during the project since a proper planning will be undertaken prior to the holding of the main events of the project. However, we anticipate some minor barriers like financial constrain and a negative perception which some of the individuals in our target population might be having. To overcome the financial constrain barrier we have decided to involve various interested stakeholders and organizations and we have also decided to undertake a proper project budgeting prior to the actual project undertaking. To overcome the barrier of negative perception we have decided that we will do several advertisements before undertaking the actual project. References McCaffrey, B. (1998). National Drug Control Strategy: A Ten Year Plan 1998-2007. Washington, DC: DIANE Publishing. MDMH.(2011). Missouri Department of Mental Health: Alcohol & Drug Abuse. Retrieved from: http://dmh.mo.gov/ada/about.htm. On 13 May 2012. Niles, N. J. (2010). Basics of the U.S. Health Care System. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Ritter, L. A. & Lampkin, S. M. (2011). Community Mental Health. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Read More