Planning Better Health for the Future - Essay Example

Focus areas for the Healthy People program were: Arthritis, Osteoporosis and Chronic Back Conditions, Access to Quality Health Services, Cancer, Diabetes, Chronic Kidney Disease, Educational and Community-Based Programs, Disability and Secondary Conditions (Sutocky, 2006). Others were: Family Planning, Environmental Health, Food Safety, Heart Disease and Stroke, Health Communication, HIV, Injury and Violence Prevention, Immunizations and Infectious Diseases, Maternal, Infant, and Child Health, Mental Health and Mental Disorders and Medical Product Safety.

Finally, Occupational Safety and Health, Nutrition and Overweight, Oral Health, Public Health Infrastructure, Physical Activity and Fitness, Respiratory Diseases, Substance Abuse, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Vision and Hearing and Tobacco Use were also among the focus areas. The top ten areas, however, that seemed vital were: Overweight and Obesity, Physical Activity, Tobacco Use, Responsible Sexual Behavior, Substance Abuse, Injury and Violence, Mental Health, Immunization, Environmental Health, and Access to Health Care.

These leading health indicators echoed the essential public health distresses in the United States. They were selected based on their capacity to motivate accomplishment, the availability of information to determine their progress, and their significance as regards broad public health. The United States had been aiming to incorporate its citizens into its health insurance program (Healthy People, 2012). . Access to Health Care would make sure that every American was insured. Environmental Health is meant to ensure that the number of people exposed to atmospheric pollution lessened (Healthy People, 2012).

This would be in line with the health-based regulations by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Responsible Sexual Behavior would seek to increase the number of persons who are sexually active and use condoms. This is needed to help reduce unplanned pregnancies and the number of people infected by sexually transmitted diseases. Immunization was to boost the number of children who obtained the recommended vaccines such as 3 Polio, 4 DTaP, and 3 Hepatitis B to 80%. Injury and Violence is to reduce the deaths arising from motor vehicle accidents to 9.

0 deaths per 100000 people. Mental Health, on the other hand, is to provide treatment to more adults suffering from depression (Sutocky, 2006). Finally, Tobacco Use would seek to ease the number of cigarette smokers in the United States. Question 3 In order to develop a program, a person has to clarify the project plan to vital stakeholders and discuss its essential components. If key stakeholders buy into the project’s ideas, they will certainly support the program. It is also vital to define the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders (Sutocky, 2006).

Stakeholders in any project are the vital factors of that project. In the Healthy People plan the key stakeholder such as those funding the project and those who ensure that every task will go on swiftly. They are constantly informed of their roles so that the program also is implemented swiftly. The program needs to have a scope statement. For instance, a scope statement for a program like Healthy People can read as “enhancing health for the Americans”.