A number of issues that relate to health promotion - Essay Example

? Health Promotion Health Promotion Introduction The World Health Organization refers to health promotion as the process of increasing health control by an individual. According to the Lalonde Report from Canada, health promotion is a science of helping people change their lifestyles to move toward optimal health. This concept focuses not only on individuals but also on a wide range of ecological and social interventions. Deteriorating health seems to be a worldwide concern. Majority of individuals tend to neglect their health until it is late to make amends. Few people go for screening services to enable them detect chronic diseases in their early stages, ignoring the idea that prevention is better than cure. This could be partly because of high charges or inaccessibility of the services. A number of scholars have attempted to find ways of promoting health. In Australia, schools are being advised to adapt a vegetable and fruit policy, nurses are requested to take up a responsibility in advising individuals on tobacco smoking. Various approaches have been designed to explain adaptation processes by individuals like the Gibbs and Atkins & Murphy models as well as campaigns are being identified to help promote health. This paper focuses on a number of issues that relate to health promotion. Task 1 This practice involves the exploration of experiences by an individual with an aim of identifying what happened and the role one played in the experience. An individual’s thoughts and emotions play a major role in this practice, which in turn enables one to look at changes in similar events occurring in the future. Honesty is paramount in this aspect if one aims at improving their performance. Critically analyzing a situation and considering the actions taken at the time enable one to come up with a better approach to the situation in case of future occurrences. Two major types of this practice have been identified as reflection in action which is often compared to clinical reasoning where it occurs when an individual is involved in a situation. It involves observation, touch and listening to solving a problem with an aim of acquiring a new perspective. Reflection-on-action is the other form of reflective practice which involves a stepping back from the situation. It occurs after the situation usually demanding time commitment which is often a challenge. The two types of practices differ in terms of when they occur. There are several models that have been developed to describe the reflective practice; among these is the Gibbs model (1988) where an individual describes what happened after an experience and looks into the feelings involved in the situation. After which, one evaluates whether the experience was good or bad and makes an analysis of the sense of the situation before concluding on the varied actions they could have taken. Following this, an individual develops an action plan by considering what they will do if the same situation came up again. This model differs slightly to the Atkins and Murphy’s model (1994) where an individual is aware of a situation which they try to describe including thoughts and feelings. They then engage in an analysis of the thoughts and feelings that relate to the situation by identifying the challenges and exploring alternatives. An evaluation of the relevance of the knowledge by asking if resolving the problem would help and the completeness of the use of knowledge follows. After which an individual identifies the lessons learnt from the experience. I would opt for the Atkins and Murphy model because, it offers a prior evaluation to a situation where one analyses a new experience and indulges their thoughts and feelings by considering the challenges that relate to the situation and exploring alternatives before engaging in the resolution of the problem. It also provides for the identification of lessons learnt from the experience. Task 2 There are a number of areas that have been identified as successful in global health promotion. In an attempt to fight poverty which is considered the greatest determinant of health, three areas have been identified to be successful. Immunization of children to help control the spread of diseases is one of the major areas that affect health promotion. According to a random trial on the immunization conducted in India to determine what works and what does not work, it was identified that the use of incentives contributed positively in convincing people to get their children immunized. By making it easy for people to obtain health care through creation of health camps contributes to health promotion, use of incentives increases the number of people accessing health care making inventions on health promotion applicable and worth funding. Spread of bed nets to control malaria infections in areas infested with mosquitoes is another. Majority of the deaths in developing countries is because of this infection, children below the age of five are the ones majorly affected. In order to contain the spread of malaria, educating people on the use of bed nets and providing it for them contributes positively. However, provision for free of the bed nets is faced by the question of whether people will use the nets as required or if they will value them. Research has shown that the long term effect on economic growth resulting from the free provision of bed nets is proportional to the purchase of the same. Education is another area that contributes to reduction of poverty which affects health. Telling people the benefits of education and de-worming children in worm infested areas helps in the increase of children getting educated. This reduces poverty by a high rate and in turn promotes health issues. According to the world de-worm campaigns conducted in 2009, the number of children going to school was noted to have increased. This contributes to the control of increase in infection. By education they learn the effects and methods of reducing these infections, thus creating awareness. In a nut shell, I noted that use of incentives plays an important role to promote health. People are willing to accept change if they see how they will benefit from it, for example, telling people the benefit of education helps to encourage parents to take their children to school. Incentives act as a way of luring them to accommodate a proposed change that is beneficial for them. Task 3 Singapore is one of the major countries faced with a faster rate of aging among its populace in Asia. This poses a challenge for developing public policies which will accommodate these changes in major areas like financial security, health care, living arrangements and employment for the aging populace. Policy makers are faced with the challenge of developing sound systems that will ensure economic and the social well being of the aging populace which is seen to have grown because of developed technology in medical care and improved sanitation. Even though family care has been the best in ensuring the elderly are catered for, the need for developing a delicate policy that will ensure enhancement of the family support as well as preparation by individuals for old age. With an increase in life expectancy of 76 for men and 79 for women, Singapore faces a growing challenge in its economy with a forecasted rise in dependency rate. This will result in a decrease in the number of people employed. Need for ensuring financial security then arises, making policy makers to consider retirement savings or the extension of employment years. The Central Provident Fund is an institution set up in 1955 by the Singapore government to cater for financial security of the elderly. It has since then evolved into a savings system that ensures provision for life (Choon and Low 1996). This scheme however faces challenges of whether it will support the elderly after withdrawals for investments and other schemes have been made. Alternative sources are to be sought like private savings and family support in order to cater for the deficiency of the same (Shantakumar 1999). Policy makers need to regard health care trends for the older populace and the prevalence of certain diseases. Recent research has shown that a change in the health status can lead to deterioration of one’s health with the major of the Singapore elderly ailing from high blood pressure. However, most ailments are related to age and at times ethnicity of individuals. Living arrangements is usually considered a well being of the elderly in Asian countries. Co residence was used as an indirect assessment of family support level; this is encouraged by the government as a way of moral duty by adult children to older parents. It is seen as a way of reducing financial expenses. However, it is yet to be seen if the future partners of the elderly populace will choose to live on their own or with their partners. Labor and a reduction in skill among the Singaporeans have made the government to seek and recruit foreign talents, re-training of the elderly is being emphasized but a majority of this populace has never sought reemployment. With a number of the elderly group keeping their employment as a means of reducing boredom and not necessarily staying employed to earn income. Employers today hesitate to hire elderly workers for fear of decrease in production and this has lead to debates in public. The government tries to encourage employers to change their attitude on hiring the elderly by increasing the retirement age to 60 with an expectation of it reaching 67. Task 4 In an attempt to promote health, Australian schools have recommended the adoption of the consumption of vegetables and fruits in the recent past. With a belief that schools enable the reach of a large population and the mandate of schools to reinforce the need for healthy eating, the government has enabled the establishment of links with support networks reinforcing the teaching of health messages. This helps in the promotion of health and well being of individuals by promoting healthy eating habits. However, the implementation of this program is faced by a number of limitations. Crowded curriculum in schools, this is reportedly a major hindrance to this program. Majority of principals in schools admit to having a full curriculum which cannot accommodate a break for vegetable and fruit intake. Inadequate resources and limited support by staff is also a contribution to the non implementation of this program. Supply of the vegetables and fruits to schools appears to be a major concern for the principals. Poor communication between the parents and teachers is another. There seems to be no follow up in the program when students and pupils are at home. Successful implementations have however been reported where strategies on development of policies on school nutrition, parent engagement and teacher training. Several schools have succeeded in implementing this program by adapting the new diet in the school curriculum. Children are given a break during classes to take their vegetable and fruits; this is reported to contribute to an increase on the same at home (Bishai & Mercer 2001). The involvement of parents in the program provides a continuum of the implementation and effectiveness of the campaign to encourage healthy eating. This recommendation is applicable in a nursing practice, encouraging young children to increase their intake of fruits and vegetables enable them to grow in a healthy manner. This reduces health complications like unnecessary adding of weight which is usually because of intake of unhealthy foodstuffs. It also helps in reducing cases of diabetes and heart diseases usually resulting from unhealthy eating habits. Task 5 In a study done by Fiona Whyte and Nora Kearney on the role of nurses in the control of tobacco which is seen to cause heart diseases, cancer of the lungs and emphysema, nurses are considered to have a major responsibility in helping to control tobacco usage. Acknowledging the role played by advertisements which seem to target the young and regarding the nurses as health role models helps in controlling smoking cessation. Smoking is noted to begin at a young age where the youth engage in tobacco intake. This is however noted to extend to their future offspring especially among the female population. With a majority of the youth engaging in these behaviors, a number are willing to stop but the level of addiction is high. In an attempt to control this, the nurses are adopting the prevention approach which is usually considered better than the cure approach. By this, peers are involved in programs that educate the young adolescents about the consequences of smoking at an early age (Kantarciolu. & Clifton, 2011). Other forms of media like videos are also being put to use to enlighten the youth as well as the older generation on the long and short term effects of smoking like lung cancer. Furthermore, suggestions have been made on the implementation of bans in learning institutions to discourage people from smoking. The nurses have found a simple method of handling this problem by developing a simple strategy referred to as the five A’s: anticipation, asking, advising, assisting and arranging follow up programs. These rules create awareness on the factors that lead to smoking and enable one to elicit information on the use of tobacco. Young people are involved in practical programs that assist them to stop smoking, with follow up programs which help them to maintain a progressive abstinence from falling back to smoking. In summary, nurses have a huge contribution in controlling the rise in smoking by acting as role models themselves. Involving themselves in campaigns against smoking and being assertive as well as encouraging their governments to acknowledge the role they play in health care promotion. Nurses can help halt the increasing usage of tobacco by young people and thus promote health services. Task 6 The self assessment online provides a self analyzing opportunity in simple language which enables organizations to gauge their performance and practical improvement measures that will help improve health services in the organization. After taking the online assessment, I realized that necessary infrastructure for health promotion is not adequately provided and that minimal review is usually conducted on assessment of patient after they receive health care. Improving infrastructure on health promotion and designing strategies that will enable health care givers to follow up on their patients afterwards encourages patients to maintain a good health program. They feel obliged to look after themselves and thus help to promote health issues to others. Infrastructure enables them to access services with ease and at the opportune time. Empowering patients with self care that focuses on their mental, physical and social realm helps to empower them with the ability of self care. Moreover, promoting a healthy workforce increases the productivity of the organization and working together with the community improves communication and strengthens participation of the public in health promotion events. Task 7 The World Health Organization acknowledges the workplace as an ideal setting to promote health in society as it affects an inclusive well being of the community. The employers, employees and the government of the day play a major role in ensuring health promotions in the workplace. If not considered properly, the health of employees tend to threaten the economic development of a nation (Barker et al. 2011). In Singapore, the increasing aging workforce poses a threat on the business sector of the country as it reduces competitiveness and productivity of the country. This has lead to the adaptation of workplace health promotions in Singapore where a number of companies have taken to this program in an attempt to improving health promotions in the workplace. Enhancement of this program has been recommended where parts of the program are incorporated to the framework of business excellence and provides a guide to employees on what make up the program. This enables organizations to have a holistic approach on handling systems, processes in the organization and clients with an aim of achieving high performance. Assimilating this program with the frameworks of safety in the workplace is another recommendation which aims at enabling organizations to consider health issues with a multi-disciplinary approach. Integrating WHP with workplace safety enables an organization to look at health issues in the workplace holistically incorporating all aspects on health for its employees. A national health strategy was initiated in April 2010 to help speed up workplace safety and health. This strategy aimed at the adoption of employee centered approaches to help improve health and safety at workplaces. Developing support services that build capacity and competence of employees and providing applicable guidelines on the execution of health screening and programs in the work places. Joint sponsorship provides applicable guides on the adaption of health programs in workplaces. By facilitating synergy between WHP (Workplace Health Promotion) and WSH (Workplace Safety and Health) the implementers are able to achieve a cross training opportunity. Education of facilitators on what comprises a high quality health program ensures a cost effective solution for better health to employees. On the issue of re-employing elderly people, this program recommends a sustainable practice of the same through offering of advice on healthy living and developing support schemes. Aligning iCare Mental Health Alliance and AIDS Business Alliance updates employees on universal outreach platforms promoting mental well being in the workplace. Achieving improved employee health care contributes positively to the productivity of an organization and helps to improve the working life of individuals. This was also in an attempt to nature the perception of employers by changing their mindset on the employment of older people. By this, the Singapore government aims to achieve the need for the importance of employees to maintain good health habits in order to benefit from the re-employment opportunity. Dissemination of relevant communication content and the promotion of essential health screening for employees should be made compulsory. This helps employees to access health care when it is due and thus promotes their health and contributes in increasing their productivity and outcome in the workplace. Availing health services at the workplace by offering an off-the-shelf flexible WHP package which comprises of screening for chronic diseases. As various occupations are regulated by different bodies in Singapore, requirements for medical checkups have been designed to enable employees to access medical care which coincides with their respective line of work. Increasing funding for the WHP will enhance health programs for employees in SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) as they are able to access health services. The TriCom in Singapore recommends the use of incentives to encourage people to maintain healthy behaviors; however, this is still under consideration. Proposals on financial assistance have been made to enable workers in these sectors access health care. In addition to this, recommendation for separate terms and conditions on the WHP grant are to be considered. Proposals have also been made on the adaptation of clauses on the provision of health screening and promotion events into the memorandum of understanding of collective agreements (Occupational Safety and Health Division Annual Report, 2009). This is aimed at embracing WHP in every level of the workforce. Educating employees on the importance of screening and follow up management should be intensified to incorporate fitness and benefits of early detection of chronic diseases to avoid complications on the onset. This helps in increasing employer confidence. Raising the efficiency of WHP facilitators by sharing and outlining the best practices that will address challenges in the involvement of employees has also been suggested as a way of promoting health education. This helps in ensuring that resources are put to appropriate use and that comprehensive action is taken to enhance the value of the medical checkups. Task 8 Health promotion projects like the Cervical screen Singapore connotes a cervical cancer screen usually conducted nationwide to women aged 25 once every three years. The Human Papillomavirus which causes cervical cancer results in irregular bleeding, foul smelling vaginal discharge and vaginal bleeding after intercourse. Vaccinations have been provided against this although advice is still given for regular screening every three years. Singapore has developed an integrated screening program for its citizens to help curb this problem. In an attempt to promote health, medical charges for screening have been regulated to make it easier for people to access them (World Health Organization). Various clinics have been set up to enable individuals to readily access medical attention in the country. The touch project in Singapore is a non-profit organization which begun as a service for latch-key children. Moved by the desire of single parent families and low income making it difficult to provide for their dependents, this organization was formed to help the children. In the recent past, this project has grown to other areas assisting people with special and health care needs as well as the elderly. With the increase in the elderly populace, this program has helped the Singapore government in catering for its aging population. Co residences have been encouraged as well as homes set up for the elderly who have no one to stay with. Tuberculosis infections are reportedly reducing because of a significant progress in the control of its spread. However, challenges arise in places where it is difficult to access the vulnerable group of the population and the marginalized. In Singapore, efforts to improve the health of the workforce are underway. The second National Tripartite Committee was specifically formulated to help address the issue on health welfare of workers and to develop strategies that would ensure the working population is kept healthy. Improving diets and encouraging physical activities is considered a major way of reducing health risks worldwide for non communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The World Health Organization provides recommendations for its member states to adapt this strategy on diet, physical activity and health. Encouraging schools to accommodate a vegetable and fruit break in their curriculum helps to control the rate of increase in diseases that are preventable via healthy diets and physical exercises. Acceptance of a healthy lifestyle offers quality life and lowers the risks of chronic diseases. In summary, regular review on the recommended strategies aimed at promoting and improving health in Singapore will help to ensure their effectiveness and relevance. This will also contribute in the handling of future challenges brought about by health matters. Promoting a strategy where children in schools are encouraged to increase the intake of vegetables and fruits will contribute largely in promoting health. Furthermore, physical activities help in getting rid of the extra body fats which are medically proven to contribute to diabetes and heart diseases. An alteration on the mindset of employers to consider hiring the elderly will also help to improve the turnover of companies. Because of their experience and expertise in their area of employment, older employees contribute more as compared to training new individuals to take up their places. Sponsorship of health campaign like the cervical screen in Singapore and educating individuals on health matters contributes largely in advancing health. 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