Community Assessment Model Essay.

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Community Assessment Model Essay.

Despite the numerous health reforms witnessed in the American Healthcare system, numerous health issues contribute to significant health disparities and inequities. According to Braveman et al. (2011), these disparities present nurses with the opportunity for action and advocacy to change conditions in the society that prevent the ability to attain universal health outcomes. This paper identifies a health issue with supporting data in the author’s community. It further evaluates the community’s capacity to resolve the issue and describes how nurses can contribute to a committee’s efforts to address the health issue.Community Assessment Model Essay.

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Identification of Health Problem

Childhood obesity is a significant global public health issue due to its well-known negative impact on health. Among preschoolers aged 2-5 years, obesity increases the risk of early onset of obesity-related illnesses, which are costly to manage and result in chronic lifetime illnesses (Bowen et al., 2018). Statistics in the US indicate that the incidences of childhood obesity are on the rise and with the most alarming rates in the past ten years.Community Assessment Model Essay.

Mississippi has had the highest incidences of childhood obesity rates over the years where children take meals that are less nutritive and engage in less physical activity, a trend that increases the risks of a shorter life and chronic diseases (Center for Mississippi Health Policy, n.d). Healthcare providers are managing children as young as eight years old for high cholesterol and type 2DM, a situation that was unheard of two decades ago. Besides, an obese child incurs the state 40% additional costs annually when compared to a non-obese individual (Center for Mississippi Health Policy, n.d).Community Assessment Model Essay.

Supporting Data

Mississippi ranks the second highest in the prevalence of obesity, and the group at the highest risk are African Americans in comparison to non-Hispanic whites (Gray, 2016). According to Center for Mississippi Health Policy (n.d), major contributing factors to the high childhood obesity rates are financial constraints within households that limit families to purchase proteins, poor dietary habits, fresh fruits, and vegetables, lack of access to healthy foods in rural settings, and failing to take advantage of lunch and school breakfast programs.

Although the rates of childhood obesity in Mississippi have been declining, the current rates are still too high and are a cause for alarm and immediate action. For instance, the prevalence for K-12 students ranged between 25.5% and 23.7% in 2015 to 2017 that for K-5 students ranged between 25.0% and 21.0% in 2005 to 2017 that for black students was 25.4%, which was higher than whites at 21.7% (Center for Mississippi Health Policy, n.d).Community Assessment Model Essay.

Community Capacity to Resolve Health Issue

Primary

McKnight & Kretzmann (1996) define primary building blocks as the most readily available abilities to regenerate a neighborhood in the form of assets, individual, and organization capacities. In Mississippi community, the main primary building blocks are Registered Nurses (RNs) and TEAM Mississippi. The current health workforce of RNs and TEAM Mississippi program in partnership with the University Of Mississippi Medical Center are essential building blocks for promoting healthy families in this community by promoting behavior change through health education using physical education lessons and online resources.Community Assessment Model Essay.

Secondary

McKnight & Kretzmann (1996) describe secondary building blocks as associations and individuals that have already obtained people’s control within a neighborhood. Perfect examples of blocks in the author’s community are the Bower Foundation and 22 state parks. Bower foundation can be resourceful towards funding and providing grants to support school nutrition programs that promote healthy dietary plans and physical activity. State parks can be preserved as physical activity areas for developing bicycle and walking paths as a way of promoting opportunities for physical activity.Community Assessment Model Essay.

Tertiary

According to McKnight & Kretzmann (1996), potential building blocks are resources that originate from outside a neighborhood and under the control of institutions that are outside the neighborhood but can be captured to build the community. Examples in this category are the We Can! Community support group that provides health and wellness education, materials, and programs in collaboration with public schools, local governments, and the health department.Community Assessment Model Essay.

Contribution to the Committee’s Efforts

The author’s greatest contribution to the committee’s efforts would be to recommend alternative strategies that the leadership should integrate into the existing strategies to improve outcomes in the prevention and management of childhood obesity.

Advocacy

Engage in policy and advocacy using data on childhood obesity to influence regulatory action and policy formulation to address factors that result in health disparities, poverty, and lack of access to healthy foods. As suggested by Bowen et al. (2018), the efforts that the author would recommend include; encouraging parental modeling and styles that promote physical activity, and healthy dietary choices, and preserving parks as resources for physical activity to promote physical activity.Community Assessment Model Essay.

Collaborative Leadership

The author would also suggest strategies that increase collaboration between parents, teachers, and children in school and community setups to address childhood obesity. One such strategy is assessing parent’s readiness for behavior change using models such as the Community Readiness Model before initiating prevention initiatives for childhood obesity. Another strategy would be on how to utilize the social learning theory to collaborate with parents and teach children new ways to play that enhance physical activity. The last approach would be using counseling techniques that engage parents in discussions about behavioral patterns that contribute to obesity, educating them about prevention strategies and opportunities, advising them of the steps to take, developing action plans, responding to parental concerns and evaluating barriers, challenges, and outcomes (Gray et al., 2016).Community Assessment Model Essay.