The Problems Related to Tobacco Uses in the East Rutherford - Coursework Example

Community Assessment Paper Introduction This paper makes an approach to understand the needs of the local population in East Rutherford, New Jersey of USA, in order to plan effective intervention, treatment, control and prevention of diseases associated with smoking behaviour. To be precise, the paper intends to address the problems related to tobacco uses in the East Rutherford, identifying the segment that has been mostly affected by the occurrence, importance of prevention program thereafter and the adverse effects associated with its failure. Accordingly, recommendations will be provided by identifying the goals along with the behavioural objectives to justify strategies that should be used in order to provide best prevention to the problem. Discussion Tobacco is a major cause of death observed in the worldwide context and in East Rutherford as well, where 6.8% of the people of the community are noted to be under the poverty line. This has adversely affected the development of social as well as economic conditions of the community at large. Due to growing use of tobacco in the city, healthcare issues have also aroused as a serious concern for the authority, wherein the major diseases include Cancer, Stillbirth, Premature birth, Heart disease, Low birth weight, Lung diseases, and Infant death. Data reveals that during the year 2012 to 2013 in New Jersey, correspondingly in East Rutherford, smoking increased by 3% from 16.8% to 17.3% respectively (United Health Foundation, 2014). In the major city of USA, use of tobacco can be observed in almost every segment of the society. As per the governmental reports, every one out of five adults is identified to have smoking habit. Making the issue a more serious concern, approximately 38.9% of high school students (i.e. teenagers) and 18.9% middle school students (adolescents) constituted the segment having high rate of smoking habits. Data further concluded that four out of five adults who take tobacco had started smoking before the age of 18, making the minors of the society vulnerable to the negative effects of the issue (New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, 2001). According to the report of US Surgeon General’s (2013), smoking remains one of the major courses of death in the nation with more than 43 million American’s continuing with their habit, which has further been projected to cause 4 lakhs death every year increasing heath related diseases in manifolds. Cessation in the tobacco consuming will have following benefits to the community: Improve longevity in life Reduction in the respiratory diseases, cancer causes, stoke and coronary artery diseases Prevention of low birth-weight babies’ case Overall, these positive effects shall enhance the stability and growth of the community in a more sustainable manner. If the problem is not resolved, the community at large will be adversely affected owing to the damages caused to its long-run stability and healthy growth. It is likely that such failure will create serious health related issues with increasing rate to death and heart diseases. In order to eradicate the tobacco uses, voluntary and charitable organisations shall play a crucial role in generating awareness and combating the issue, making health benefits accessible at a greater rate to the population. These partners may include the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association, NJ Breathes, New Jersey GASP, the New Jersey Medical Society, the Communities against Tobacco, and local health departments working with New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS). Generating public awareness through media may also be helpful in stimulating a more responsible attitude amid the community people regarding the pros and cons of using tobacco (Schmidt, 2013). In order to eradicate the probable use of tobacco, the goal can be determined as: “Prevent and reduce illness, disability, and death of tobacco consumers” (Healthy People, 2014) Correspondingly, the major behavioural objectives to achieve the above mentioned goal and their strategies have been planned as follows. Motivate the youth to quit smoke as they are the major victims of tobacco users in United States Creating and facilitating non-profit anti-tobacco organizations and co-operations Use of campaigns and media advertisements as to create more awareness Strategies to attain the behavioural objective of motivating the youth towards not to smoke will be as follows. Proper guidelines with regular workshops in the school and colleges to motivate the youth Getting involved in other important subjects will divert the mind of youths and keep them busy in the other activities through enhancement in their educational curriculum Setting examples by predicting the future effects will let them know the negative consequences of addiction of using tobacco upon their healthcare Strategies to attain the behavioural objective of creating and facilitating non-profit organisations and cooperation in order to achieve the above-mentioned goal will be: Provide regular training and technical supports related to the adverse effects of using tobacco, which also increases risks of other healthcare diseases Pressurise the governmental bodies to increase the taxes and other related norms, by which selling of tobacco related products would get minimised These organisations and local departments of health care should develop some control policies and activities including tobacco control regulations Strategies to attain the behavioural objective of promoting campaigns and media advertisements to create more awareness will be: Funding mass media intervention campaigns to provide education and reviewing the adverse effects Providing free medical campaigns with remedial solution advices to the individual Promoting the alternatives products that minimises the uses of tobacco related products Besides implementing the above-mentioned strategies to minimise the consequences of use of tobacco products, cooperation of communities with other human and government resources will be needful. Corporation a various Non-profit organisations, antisocial bodies and local bodies who play a major role in creating awareness will also be crucial in this plan. Accordingly, adequate funding from the governmental bodies will be necessary to do the needful in the due course. In addition, sufficiently knowledgeable and trained staff will help to lead the community to provide worthy awareness regarding the healthcare issues due to tobacco products. As to evaluate the effectiveness of the above-described intervention plan, quantitative as well as qualitative data will be used as attainable from various primary and secondary sources. These sorts of data will help identifying the increase or decrease in the habituation of using tobacco product, which will further be compared with the previous facts and figures to observed the difference and determine the effectiveness of the strategies. Conclusion From the foregoing discussion, it can be comprehended that tobacco is one of the major issues in today’s era, wherein the growing use of tobacco in East Rutherford has been causing major healthcare issues, commonly including Cancer, Heart disease, Lung diseases and other saviour health diseases. To be concluded, it can be asserted that many measures have been adapted to minimise the adverse consequences of smoking. However, the rise of smoking rates depicts the failure of those measures to an extent. Hence, it is suggestible that along with those measures undertaken, regular evaluation of the smoking rates in order to monitor effectiveness of the same. References Healthy People. (2014). Tobacco Use. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/overview.aspx?topicid=41 New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. (2001). New Jersey Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program. Retrieved from http://www.state.nj.us/health/as/njreport.pdf Schmidt, L. (2013). Benefits from quitting tobacco use. Retrieved from http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0246.pdf United Health Foundation. (2014). New Jersey Overall Rank: 10. Retrieved from http://www.americashealthrankings.org/nj Read More