Capstone Community Preventive Health Improvement - Assignment Example

?CAPSTONE COMMUNITY PREVENTIVE HEALTH IMPROVEMENT Executive summary Drug addiction is a chronic usually relapsing brain related disease that causes compulsive desire to use drugs despite the harmful effect it has to an individual. It should be noted that nobody chooses drug addiction and it’s only a result of simple drug use either for leisure or in an endeavor to belong to a certain group. This develops to recreational level and before the individual realizes, it reaches a level where the brain needs some level of the drug for emotional and mental stability (Silverstein & Silverstein, 1975). Drug abuse is historically a real problem in United States. Drug abuse affects both the individual and the society. In United States, statistics for overall cost of drug abuse in terms of health, productivity and crime related costs rise above $600 billion per annum with alcohol taking a staggering portion of about $235 billion. Unfortunately, these high figures cannot fully describe the far reaching effect of drug abuse in the society in terms of child abuse, loss of employment, family disintegration and general loss of hope in life (national institute of drug abuse, 2009) Statement of the problem The United States population is estimated at 314,904,151. Population of Florida stands at 19,057,516 according to The Bureau of economic and Business research Population Program, 2012. Alcohol abuse is a major issue in Florida with 55,278 arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in 2010. Out of 165 people who died in Florida as a result of road accidents, at least one driver had BAC recorded between 0.01% and 0.07%. In 2010, around 110,203 were arrested for illegal drug trafficking and abuse related cases. (DUI-USA.Drink Driving.org). This year, it is estimated that people driving under influence (DUI’s) will be around 83,557 with 994 deaths occurring due to intoxicated driving. It is also estimated that 1,013 deaths will, occur as a result of illicit drug use. According to Department of Children and Families, the local homeless coalitions reported 57,643 residents of Florida in 2010 as homeless .The federal definition of a homeless person is anyone sleeping in a place that is not initially meant for human habitation, a person living in transitional housing for the homeless or a person who originally came from the streets. Any migratory individual living in a place occupied by the homeless is also classified as homeless. Due to the harsh living conditions, the homeless display high levels of drug abuse either to evade the reality of basically because drug abuse itself lead loss of a decent shelter . Apopka is the largest city in Orange County with a population of 40,406 and a median age of 34.1 years. Apopka city has an unemployment rate of about 10.50% which is a representation of a percentage of productive work forces that is not working (Bureau of Economics and Business Research, University of Florida). This unemployed group is vulnerable to drug abuse as well as drug trafficking. People in midlife age especially men are more vulnerable to drug abuse than the larger population. For this reason, the homeless people in the age bracket 30-50 years will be targeted. Mobilization To kick off the mobilization of this project, a selected team of nurses will meet to appoint possible collaborators. Church leaders and community opinion leaders will also be invited to this important meeting. Partners will be selected on the basis of their expertise, ability and willingness to finance the project and involvement in past health projects in the community. Another meeting will be held where all the stakeholders will be invited. In this meeting objectives, mission and vision of the project will be developed. Different stakeholders will also be allocated different roles depending on their expertise and experience. The role of data collection and analysis, project monitoring and evaluation as well as report writing will be allocated to experts from a local university. Resources will also be mobilized as budgeting will later depend on available funds. Assess An intensive analysis of the situation will be conducted. At this time, a baseline survey will be conducted to help understand the problem clearly. Data from secondary sources will be scientifically studies and recommendations made by the data team. Intensive focus groups will be conducted to ensure maximum information is gathered. Issues of high levels of alcohol abuse especially among the homeless will be the main focus. Focus group discussion will also help in developing tools to be used for baseline survey. This base line survey will be carried out to determine the existing levels of alcohol abuse as indicated by number of referrals to mental hospitals, alcohol related ER visits, gunshot wounds, individuals on waiting list for in-patient admission and deaths due to automobile accidents. This will help in evaluating the impact of the intervention. All the data that prompted this idea is already listed in the problem statement and it will be discussed at length. Planning This program will target middle aged homeless men living in shelters located downtown Apopka. These targets to significantly reduce the levels of alcohol abuse among the homeless aged between 30-50 years in downtown Apopka significantly. A base line survey will be carried out to determine the existing levels of alcohol abuse as indicated by number of referrals to mental hospitals, alcohol related ER visits, gunshot wounds, individuals on waiting list for in-patient admission and deaths due to automobile accidents. This will help in evaluating the impact of the intervention One objective of this project is to increase the commitment and willingness of mid aged homeless people in Apopka to significantly reduce alcohol abuse. This program aims at reducing this levels by 80% of the figure that will be generated from the baseline survey.` This will be done through challenging them and offering them carefully designed education on the impact of alcohol abuse to their health. The main effects of alcohol to human health taught will be the physical effects of alcohol, alcohol poisoning, diseases and cancers induced by alcohol, effect of alcohol on mental health and development of dependence. Pictorials will be used to facilitate learning and improve understanding. Another objective will be to educate a minimum of 600 homeless drunkards aged between 30-50 years through a series of weekly interactive workshop sessions. The 600 participants will be subdivided into 30 groups each with 20 individuals for easy management. These workshops will be carried out over the final five months of the projects period with each month having weekly meetings. These workshops will be conducted by trained nurses, religious leaders and professional counselors. Various collaborators will be allocated various roles to actively keep them involved at all time. Religious leaders will be concerned with spiritual needs of the participants. This will include giving the participants a new sense of spiritual direction and nourishing their natural need for reconnection with their creator. Nurses will cover the effects of alcohol to the body while counselors will handle emotional needs of the participants. Experts from a local university will be involved in data collection, monitoring and evaluation as well as data analysis. The physical effects of alcohol to be covered by the nurse will include dehydration of the body causing irritation of vital organs and also hangovers, destruction and accumulation of unwanted mass around the waist. Diseases to be highlighted include liver and mouth cancer, heart diseases, diabetes and pancreatitis. The negative effect of alcohol, both long term and short term will be covered. Another major issue that will be dealt with in depth is dependence on alcohol and its effects. The workshops will be hosted by collaborating homeless shelters. The progress of these interventions will be reported weekly to all the collaborators and donors to ensure that a sense of ownership is maintained. Those participants who will be in need of medical rehabilitation will be fully sponsored by the project. Selection of the participants will be conducted by both the church leaders and managers of the collaborating shelters. This selection will be based on age and level of alcoholism. To ensure the effectiveness of the project, informative evaluations, final evaluation and post evaluation monitoring will be conducted. This will also help in collection of important data that will be important for future projects. Informative evaluation will include checking what has been accomplished at every particular moment. This will be done by checking the schedule sheet as well as interviewing both the collaborators and the participants. Evaluations at all the three levels will check the levels in the five indicators and compare the value with values recorded during the base line level. A drop or rise in indicator’s levels will be communicated to all the stake holders and appropriate measures implemented. Time frame Activity Jan 13 Feb 13 Mar 13 Apr 13 May 13 Jun 13 Jul 13 Aug 13 Sep 13 Oct 13 Nov 13 Dec 13 Jan 13 Fe 13 Proposal development Mobilization Assess Plan Implement Report writing M&E Follow up Recommendations It is important that all the involved stake holders faithfully fill their schedule sheets to facilitate in evaluating the progress of this project. It’s important that only committed individuals are involved in this to maximize benefits from this project. Due to challenges is acquiring data on various variables in the community, it is important that a reliable database be set up to record all form of research performed in the community. Since the issue of homelessness is a challenge in this community, committed stakeholders should join hands in mitigating the problem. The society in general should appreciate that nobody chooses addiction. All this addicts started taking alcohol and other drugs as leisure and as such they should be assisted not condemned. References The Bureau of economic and Business research Population Programhttp://www.bebr.ufl.edu/category/subject-index/florida-population-studie - http://www.apopka.net/ecdev/01d_demographics.html National institute of drug abuse, 2009) http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/drug-related-hospital-emergency-room-visits www.soberpersuit.com/florida, 2011. Silverstein, A. & Silverstein, B. V. (1975). Alcoholism. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. www.dui-usa.drinkdriving.org/Florida_dui_drunkdriving_statistics.php, 2012 www.myflfamilies.com- (council on homelessness report, 2011) Florida department of Children and Families Read More