Healthy People 2020 and the Faith Communities
The Healthy People 2020 (Healthy People 2020, 2014) is a nationwide program created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to achieve objectives for promoting health and preventing diseases. Faith based communities may benefit tremendously in including these objectives in program planning. The main goal is for the American people to have long, healthy lives. The Healthy People 2020 program provides measurable objectives that can be applied down to the local level such as in faith based communities. These guidelines encourage high quality of life by being healthy, disease-free, accessible healthcare, and have an environment that promotes good health and wellbeing in all age levels.
According to Stanhope (2012), Faith communities have one of the oldest and strongest partnerships between communities and religious or faith communities. This background makes the faith communities a strong force in upholding the well-aligned values between the Healthy People 2020 indicators and faith communities. Moreover, the current social and economic disparities make it extremely evident that working together with common objectives is necessary. Health ministries from faith based communities can incorporate a number of Healthy People 2020 goals in their framework.
An example of a faith based community using the Healthy People 2020 framework is St. John Providence Health System (SJPHS) in Southeast Michigan. Based on the Healthy People 2020, SJPHS focus areas are diabetes prevention, infant mortality reduction, and access to care. St. John is a Catholic Health Ministry and through their Community Health Needs Assessment Steering Committee was able to conduct surveys, interviews, and focus g...
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..., local organizations, and individual pledges (Dryden, 2004) which are not necessarily constant.
Conclusion
Parish nurses are the ultimate practitioners of holistic health and are strong drivers in health care promotion and healing in many communities beyond the faith-based communities they minister. Their deep-rooted beginnings throughout history of health and spirituality, and their current roles today, make the parish nurses invaluable in promoting health and wellness in areas they serve. Using the Healthy People 2020 as a framework in program planning in faith-based communities may assist in achieving the national goal of attaining healthy lives in the U.S. Community health nursing partnering with faith-based communities can lead to effective and long lasting positive changes in the overall health of our society despite existing challenges in parish nursing.
Personal health is extremely important to everyone around the world. But it is especially important to citizens of the United States of America. Being one of the leading countries in Health technology and also in food and beverage leaves most people choosing between living a healthy lifestyle and indulging in the varieties of food we offer. Across the country, many people are living with pre-existing conditions, living in food deserts, living below the poverty line and a long list of other factors that either hinders them from eating healthy or force them to eat healthily. When trying to live a healthy lifestyle in this country not only does the promotion of prevention matter, but also the promotion of Career and job opportunities matter just as much. In the United States, Money equals Power and money also equal the opportunity to create and live a healthier lifestyle.
Healthy people 2020 can be defined as that arm of the government launched by the Department of Health and Human Services in December 2010 with 4 goals which include attaining high-quality, longer lives free of preventable disease, disability, injury, and premature death; achieving health equity, eliminating disparities, and improving the health of all groups of people; creating social and physical environments that promote good health for all people; and promoting the quality of life, healthy development, and healthy behaviors across all stages of life (CDC, 2015).
“Healthy People provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans.” ( United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Healthy People 2020 , 2011). It acts as a national guide for disease prevention and health promotion. There are various objectives and goals which serve as the guideline to achieve overall improvement in health . ‘Educational and Community-Based Programs’ is one of them. According to U.S Department of Health and Human Services the main goal of these programs is to “Increase the quality, availability, and effectiveness of educational and community-based programs designed to prevent disease and injury, improve health, and enhance quality of life.” (HHS, Healthy People 2020, 2011). This particular goal of Healthy People 2020 focuses on increasing the number educational and community based programs to increase awareness about disease prevention and health among every individual of the society. It focuses on educating them on various topics including chronic diseases, substance abuse, prevention of injury and violence to encourage and enhance health. It emphasizes on increasing the quantity and quality of such programs so that a larger population could benefit from the program and gain effective knowledge to achieve a healthy life.
As previously mentioned, the parish nurse will identify problems in the faith based community and work towards health promotion within the population. After the parish nurse has identified the problems in the faith based community, the nurse can function as a personal health counselor, provide the community with health education and resource referral (Stanhope, Marcia, & Lancaster, 2012, p. 980). The parish nurse can function as a personal health counselor by performing a health risk screening for vision, hearing, blood pressure, and depression. An individual or group discussions can be done on practicing healthier lifestyle through dieting, exercising, and connecting these things with spiritual activities. Teaching the individual on ways to practice healthier lifestyles can assist with disease prevention. The parish nurse can provide health education to population on identified health problems through the faith base community newsletter or bulletin. The nurse can also provide one on one teaching with the current health issues of the individual within the community. After the parish nurse provide personal health counseling and provide the community with health education, a referral can be made to the available resources identified within the community. This will help link the individual with the available resources outside of the faith based
Healthy People are a nationwide program set by the United States Department of Health and Human Services with the objectives to promote health and prevent disease. The Healthy People program was first initiated in 1979, followed by Healthy People 1990, 2000 and 2010 with the same goals and objectives to promote health and prevent diseases. Due to the accomplishments that has been achieved in the previous years under this program, the Healthy People 2020 expanded or rather broadened their goals and objectives beyond disease prevention, health promotion and reducing health disparities, but to also eliminate healthcare disparities that has plagued this nation by the year 2020. The governing body, the United States Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for coordinating this program; track the progress of these objectives so as to improve the health of the population. Among the various goals set by this body, only three will be discussed in this paper to gain more insight as to what it entails. These include health equity to improve the health of all groups; social and physical environments that promote good health; and to promote quality of life, healthy development and healthy behavior across life stages.
According to the authors, research has shown that there is a global connection between spirituality and religion and health. The global connection involved how often a person attended church and denomination affiliation, which both provide a prediction of health-related outcomes. Further, the authors reference a meta-analysis of religious involvement and mortality that shows that 126,000 participants who scored high on the religious indices had a 29% higher odd of survival. This analysis also indicated that the involvement needed to only be basic and
Nies, M.A. & McEwan, M. (2015). Health a community view. In Community/public health nursing: promoting the health of populations (6th ed.) (p. 1). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier.
Religion and spirituality is a major essential part of one’s’ health. They have included things such as prayer in healing, counseling, and the use of meditation. Spiritual issues make a difference in an individual’s experience of illness and health. With spirituality, the health care providers can learn to support the values for the art of healing. The health care provider must have respect for their patient’s religion. (Larry Dossey. Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine. Harper Collins, San Francisco. 1993.)
The six priority areas are listed as; healthier eating and active living, tobacco free living, reducing harmful alcohol and drug use, improving mental health, preventing violence and injury, and improving sexual and reproductive health. The backbone of the plan is to influence healthy living choices, developing from childhood, throughout life approaching old ages, leading to lessened risks of burden of disease (Department of Health,
Healthy People 2020 is a program for the promotion of health and the prevention of diseases, launched by the Department of Health and Human Services in December 2010. According to healthypeople.gov, this program has four overarching goals which are first to achieve healthy, longer lives free of preventable diseases, injuries, and premature deaths; to achieve health fairness, eliminate differences, and improve all groups’ health; also to produce social and physical environments that encourage good health; and last but not least to promote life’s quality, healthy development, and healthy behaviors through all life stages. This program has a vision of a community where people live long, healthy lives. Healthy People 2020 offers a comprehensive
Ultimately the George family accentuated the importance of being educated in various religious and traditional scenarios. As the assessment questions were being answered by the Georges, I began to understand how values and culture played a vital role in their view of health. The systems theory helped analyze and assess them as individuals congruently running a system influenced by a rich heritage and tradition. Health promotion strategies and nursing diagnosis were evaluated considering their religious beliefs. Therefore, understanding diversity through various nursing practices will help enhance one’s level of evaluation.
Doctors, nurses and other providers are challenged on a daily basis in an attempt to consider and assimilate their patient’s different religious backgrounds and beliefs. The recent trends and strong indications of religious vitality and diversity present a pressing need to recognize various faith traditions in healthcare ethics (Reimer-Kirkham, Grypma, & Terblanche, 2013). Christianity and Buddhism, two of the most widely practiced religions today, bring their own viewpoints concerning healthcare. These religious beliefs may have similar ideas with regards to illness and healing. However, the differences in health practices and the approach to achieving optimal
Today there are so many factors that affect the quality of health in our communities. In the project, I will assess the quality of health in my community. Throughout history the church has been a major factor and good starting point when attempting to understand the community. For this project I choose New Hope Baptist Church located at 284 Vine Street in Jackson, Ms pastured by Rev. Dock Cooper III. New Hope is located in area code 39206, and approximately 2 minutes from the Interstate 55, and 10 minutes from downtown Jackson. There are several churches located in this zip code (39206); also Highland Village shopping center is one of the more Up-scale shopping centers in Mississippi. This shopping center has over fifty stores, clothing jewelry, sporting and pharmacy. Schools are also spread out over this area Elementary, junior high and high schools. Jackson Academy is also located in the area, this school is widely known as one of the finest schools in Mississippi. Most of the homes and companies are old and are currently under re-construction. The population in the area is very high comprised of mostly middle-aged and young adults. The Jackson Police Department’s precinct #4 is located west of New Hope Baptist Church. Union Planters bank and Trust mark bank and a branch of the post office located in the center of the community. This community is well known as being in, “The Middle of everything”. And finally this is the community I have lived in the past 8 years.
The purpose of this community profile is to discuss a particular health improvement issue within a chosen community. A community can be defined using many different terms. You can belong to a community through religious beliefs. Through shared experiences or interests. You can belong to a political community where all involved share the same political interests. A community can also be defined as ‘a family’ a small village where many have lived most of their lives who share the same desire to belong to that community.
An idea of a healthy community with a safe environment, accessibility to preventive health care services and screenings, education on health promotion that is stress-free and accessible and healthier grocery stores. Characteristics of a healthy community are ideas, activities, and resolutions derived from partnerships of diverse groups, regular self-evaluation that is part of the practice, which is the focus. A diversity of strategies, techniques, documents, and other resources would have to be executed to support and make a healthy community. If an individual 's knowledge of a healthy community is different from his or her belief then community strategy must be put in place in order to begin to achieve the goal of improving health. Community strategy must be supported by the individuals who are working together in order to be successful (Matthew, et al, 2001). In order for a strategy to become effective, a consistent plan should be created with achievable goals within a community. Also individuals that are strong, inspired, and truthful and determined should also carry out the