A Local Health Promotion Project White City Food Cooperative - Assignment Example

Health Promotion Marie Magne Number: M00471958 Assignment: Analysing a local health promotion project White food co-op (Buywell) Module Code: PHC3610 Module team members: Daryl Evans This paper will be analysing a local project in White City known as the White City Food Cooperative, which was introduced to help access healthy food. The program is involved in maintaining the distribution of healthy farm products to the locals and schools in the surrounding (WellLondon). The paper will focus on the effectiveness of the project in terms of its operations, processes and relevance to the local community. Further, an assessment of the needs of the community will be carried out and compared to the goals and objectives of the project, this will explain whether the project addresses the inequality agenda. Finally, application of theory to practice will be used to analyse various theories and their relation or application in the project. The rationale for choosing this project is because, White City is considered as one of the most disadvantaged areas in the country. Limited socialisation within the community can be blamed for the area’s untapped potential for an extended time. Inadequate access to fruits and vegetables by the locals is a serious health concern; in addition, the residents also have limited access to dietary information hence putting them at higher risk of health-related complications (WellLondon). For this reason, the paper will be used to assess the different strategies that the project organizers are using to drive the project successfully forward. According the business’ background, White City Food Co-op was introduced, not only to supply nutritious meals to the locals, but also to serve as a good project to enhance intercultural community cohesion. The farm vegetables brought by White City Food Co-op are important in ensuring that the society has access to a balanced diet that is essential for ensuring that the population is healthy. The program is managed in partnership with Phoenix High School Farm that is involved in supplying the farm products. Other patterns involved include Leading Zone Corporation along with the Staying Put Services that are essential for ensuring smooth running and operation of the program (Andrews, 2008). The provision of farm products is essential to the society as it makes them readily available and accessible to the locals thus; it becomes easy to prepare a well-balanced diet to promote optimal health. It is important to understand that the collective health of the population is key to the overall well-being and growth of a society. It is for such reasons that the main aim of the project is to promote the health awareness among the locals, and its main outlook is to provide the best quality services and foods to the society in an effort to improve their health. Factors such as disease, injury, and disability are all health factors linked to nutrition, hence the addressing nutritional needs of the community is the best course to take as far as prevention is concerned. The motive of the food cooperative project is to analyse the nutrients factors of the human body and provide the correct nutritional food content to the locals in an effort of maintaining optimal body health. It is through active awareness campaigns that the program achieves its stipulated objectives. Creating awareness of the link between nutrition and health is an important factor in the success of the project. According to Watson and Platt (2000), the success of a program is highly dependent on its marketing objectives, and this can be achieved by creating significant awareness among the target audience. The main objectives of the health promotion program (White City Food Cooperative) include: 1. To improve the availability of the fresh and healthy foods with proper nutrient contents among the residents of the White City Food Cooperative through volunteers. 2. To create health awareness, encourage and motivate the community to eat healthy meals and adopt a healthy lifestyle such as engaging in physical activities. 3. To engage the residents of the White Society SOA in health campaigns, and to take full advantage of the programs benefits. Looking at the current report, about 40-50 people use the co-op on a weekly basis. The majority of volunteers are also from the locals, and Phoenix high school is determined to continue funding the project (WellLondon). From this information, it is reasonable to admit that the project has managed to achieve its aim and most of the stipulated objectives. Moving on to the issue of Health inequalities, the project has been able to address this issue to a significant extent within the community of White City. According to WHO (2015) Health inequalities of simply inequalities, refers to the disparities in health outcomes that arise between different groups, individuals and countries. They are because of differences in economic and social conditions that influence individuals lifestyle choices, as well as their behaviours. The inequalities in these social determinants are inevitable and are considered avoidable and unfair. In Europe, the inequalities between the rich and the poor are on the rise (Arnold, 2013). According to the health promotions, the citizenship status of the individuals holds the most significant factor of health inequality among the people. Just like in the case of White City, the poor people of the nation are devoid of the facilities of the health promotion in certain instances and by the economic miss-balance of the family, the nutrition quotient degrades with time resulting to ill health (Kandala 2011). According to Marmot (2012), reducing health inequalities is a matter of social justice and fairness. A social gradient in health exists and the lower an individual’s social position, the worse his or her health becomes. Therefore, action should be taken to reduce the existing gradient in health provision. This is why the program has been set up in a bid to reduce the existing health inequalities within this community. In an effort of maintaining the balance, the program distributes fresh, healthy products across all the population. The fresh farm products are available for all and at affordable prices that are essential in health promotion. From a theoretical perspective, Tannahill’s (1985) model provides a relevant framework that can explain the connection between three key aspects of health promotion in this project. The model represents an overlapping sphere of activities that include health education, prevention of diseases and health protection. Figure 1: The Tannahill health promotion model After a much attention was focused on the Tannahil’s first model, a number of scholars criticised it for its focus on medical factors with insufficient attention towards the community. For this reason, Tannahill came up with a new model that covered seven domains which holistically addressed the community’s needs. Figure 2 provides a clear outline of Tannahills updated model that seeks to address health promotion and sustainability. Figure 2: Tannahill’s updated health promotion model The program supports the health promotion model as it is involved in educating the people on the importance of adopting healthy lifestyles. The implementation of the health education in the program is essential as it enriches the minds of the people with adequate knowledge about their health and the importance of changing their dietary behaviours in order to facilitate optimal health. Disease prevention in the program is through the provision of healthy farm products to the local community. Another relevant theoretical approach to the project is the Health belief model. It is by the implementations of the health belief models of the health promotions that the peoples of the country can be made more and more susceptible. Meaning they can analyse the risk, and the health issues in the coming days. They can also perceive the severity of the conditions that may experience any addictions, analyse the barriers to their well-being and assess the side effects of those habits. Additionally, the can analyse the time and the cost that they will incur in order to neutralize the effects of the diseases (Marquis, 2006). This particular model applies to the health education offered by the White City project, as it aims at educating the people on the risks and dangers of their poor eating habits. Figure 3: Presentation of the Health Belief Model (HBM) Unfortunately, several criticisms have been directed towards this model, with many claiming that the models indulge negative impacts over the motivation aspects of the peoples in the health promotions. The model does not promote the change of the factors change over the course of time. Perhaps this could explain the situation in Phase 1 of the model whereby there was no evidence to link the objectives of the project to the overall outcomes in terms of health promotion within the community. The other complaint is that the model is individual based, and it lacks the necessary factors to promote health vastly in terms of socio-economic and environmental aspects. There have been mixed reports on the effectiveness of the project. However, a report of the project dubbed phase 1 report by Phillips et al., (2014) done within 2007-2010 indicated that there was no evidence that the intervention improved health behaviours, well-being and social outcomes. Despite these findings, it was also noted, “However areas, where there were higher levels of exposure to the intervention, showed some significantly better outcomes at the wider population level” (Phillips et al., 2014). Within the period that phase 1 evaluation was being carried out, several researchers also came up with their reports on the effectiveness of the project. In their reports, a general theme that was evident is that this project provided a good basis for reducing poor health within the community through cohesion in the community (Watts et al., 2011; Bertotti et al., 2011); Wall et al., 2009; Phillips et al., 2013). Creating awareness on the importance of adopting healthy behaviours is essential, and it will be generated effectively if the locals adopt the program. Despite the negative results in phase 1 report, I believe that the persistence of the project has generated some long-term benefits to the community in terms of health inequalities. This is because volunteers have been recruited from the community encouraging more people to adopt and support the program. Health trainers have been incorporated in the activities of the program that is crucial in energizing the performances of the program towards achieving the stipulated goals and objectives. With the current state of the project, its effectiveness will be imminent in improving the health outcomes of the society by encouraging them to adopt healthy lifestyles to enhance optimal health. “Well London is now in its second phase of development and new strategic partnerships and plans for scaling up in a 3rd phase are being established as part of the research and development pipeline for the framework” (WellLondon). The activities performed by the Phoenix Schools Farm are totally focused on the needs of the society. The food co-operation launched a school event and over 200 residents enrolled as members in support of the program. The event was again re-launched on Saturday 12th January 2013 to increase numbers of members supporting the program. The activity involves distribution of leaflet, healthy eating recipe cards, healthy eating tastes along with the soups and stir-fries as well as bulk buying options in an effort of educating the people on the importance of adopting healthy habits of eating. A bag scheme was also launched among the elderly and vulnerable members of the community to support them in attaining optimal health. Pre-order and pre-pay system have also been introduced (Snelling, 2009) in an effort of supporting the program. Basing on the findings that were represented in phase 1 evaluation, it was clear that the poor results were because of low participation rates. Additionally, the researchers also agreed on the fact that population churn was a significant factor in compromising the impact of the intervention. The data collection and analysis of the researcher was also faced some limitations such as inaccurate estimation of the results, and a sample bias could have also contributed to the findings as clearly noted in the report. The researchers however gave some recommendations for future evaluations stating, “There is a need for greater investment in refining such programmes before implementation; new methods to understand, longitudinally different pathways residents take through such interventions and their outcomes, and new theories of change that apply to each pathway” (Phillips et al., 2014). In this case, an action plan would involve a focus on the activities that are being performed by the Phoenix Schools Farms in addressing the needs of the peoples. It is identified that the food co-operation has launched a school event and over 200 residents enrol as members of the activity. It was again then re-launched on Saturday 12th January 2013 to increase numbers of visitors to the activity. The activity involves leaflet distribution among the members, healthy eating recipe cards, and healthy eating tastes along with the soups and stir-fries along with bulk buying options. Pre-order, pre-pay systems are being introduced among the peoples in an effort of supporting the program (Snelling, 2009). The recommendations that can be given in analysing all the aspects of the project is that, a need for good suppliers that can offer competitive prices should be addressed. Improving the tastes of the foods along with the recipes is needed to earn the attraction of the customers along with maintaining the health and the hygienic factors of the body (Oppenheim, 2009). The volunteers should be given more and more support in the time of the health promotions, which will energize the approach, as well as the action plans. The effective health promotions will surely increase the awareness of the peoples in monitoring their health in the greater prospects. The Tannahill model offers an important framework that can be used in terms of improving the lifestyles, knowledge and attitudes of the community towards health promotion. Therefore, the program sponsors can make good use of Tannahills health promotion model. Because of the various limitations with the Tannahill model, the Health Belief Model can also be used especially in fostering understanding and knowledge of the community’s health. To conclude, just like the White City Food Co-Operation program, more health promotion programs need to be introduced to enhance health promotion in the society. Through creating awareness and education, individuals can be able to gain self-empowerment on measures of improving their health. If a healthy population has to be, realized individuals have to adapt to the healthy behaviours and lifestyles for optimal health to reduce the occurrence of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity that result from unhealthy lifestyles. 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