POPULATION HEALTH IMPROVEMENT PLAN
Population Health Improvement Plan
Student’s name
– Evidence-Based Practice for Patient-Centered Care and Population Health
Date: 07/11/2018
this is the same paper you previously submitted and contains the same omissions in the requirements.
1. Demographics of a community was to be identified – what is the community, census, location, etc?
2. Epidemiology of the disease process is again omitted.
3. Environmental data related to the disease process and community.
See grading rubric but none of the information in the paper is specific to a community and this paper can again – receive 0 points.
Population Health Improvement Plan
Introduction
Population health improvement plan gives a road map that illustrates the population health needs, it gives a description of the priorities the health improvement, involves the names of the partners to be involved in the process, the steps to be followed to achieve the goals, and the means of evaluating the progress of activities. The population health improvement plan has recently become the main standard practice in the public health field to communicate to the public about health improvement plan. This involves evaluating the available demographic, environmental factors, and epidemiological data to diagnose the widespread health issues, and then come up with strategies on how to address such issues while involving the public (Kindig& Isham, 2014). This paper will address HIV/Aids as the widespread health issue within a certain population. Continued repeated error in APA – all abbreviations must be written out completely prior to their use. What does HIV mean? What does Aids mean? Isn’t that suppose to be AIDS?
Data Evaluation
Data evaluation involves the evaluation of the community demographic, environmental factors, and epidemiological data. Evaluation of community demographics include evaluating factors like age, birthrate, death rate, religion, levels of education, sources of income, occupations, average age at marriage, and so forth (Kobernick et al., 2015). Training, technical assistance will be available to ensure that the data collected are reliable and can be used to design effective intervention strategies. In this particular study, HIV has been established to pose a significant health challenge in the community. Again, the same repeated problems as in past submissions.
The proceeding paragraph is not a requirement and, as stated in previous submissions, needs to be deleted.
Demographic and Environmental Factors
You were to provide the demographics of a specific community – OMITTEd
In this case, some of the demographic factors that contribute to the widespread of HIV/Aids in the community include; poverty, low education levels, cultural beliefs, unemployment, and so forth. The most affected age groups are the youths between fifteen and thirty five years. When youth have nothing to occupy them with, they indulge into immorality behaviors which lead to the spreads of HIV/Aids. Poverty also makes youth to get involved in immoral behavior as a way of looking for a living. They end up spreading the disease. Illiteracy also contributes to HIV/Aids because many people do not know how the disease is contracted, how to protect themselves from it, and also its effects. Therefore, they engage in unprotected sexual intercourse and end up contracting the virus. The major factors that lead to the widespread of HIV/Aids are socioeconomic factors.
You have to identify the community prior to submitting any information about the environmental factors. – OMITTED
Environmental factors on the other hand include the visible and invisible environment factors that contribute to the particular health issue within a community. Environmental factors that have an influence on HIV infection rates includes the locality in which a community lives. Those living in areas that have a high incidence rates of HIV/Aids have a higher chance of contracting the virus compared to low incidence populations. For instance, those living among drug addicts who share nonsterile needles may have a higher chance of infection. Therefore, it is essential to consider the environmental factors when designing HIV intervention programs. Lastly, epidemiological data is obtained by evaluating the distribution and determinants of health conditions within a certain population. Again, the epidemiology of the disease process was omitted – repeated error.
The Improvement Plan and Intervention for HIV/Aids
The improvement plan will involve a number of stakeholders including schools’ management, religious leaders, local government, public health leaders, and the community in general. The community has to actively participate in the improvement plan. The stakeholders mentioned above, each has a role to play to ensure that the rates at which the disease spreads are cut down and ensure the community is free from the disease. In addition, the improvement plan should consider all the cultural and environmental needs of the community. Some of the cultural needs of the community include its religious and spiritual beliefs and values. The following are the steps to be followed to achieve the set goals;
1. Collect information about the public views about HIV/Aids. This will enable the stakeholders to find out what the public already knows about the virus hence,this will guide them on where to begin.
2. Creating public awareness. The public will be required to actively participate in the organized forums where they will be informed about everything that they should know about HIV/Aids. This will include the ways of prevention and the effects it has on human beings.
3. All the contributing factors involving poverty, illiteracy, religion, cultures, and so forth will be addressed by the respective bodies. For example, creating job opportunities to end unemployment and poverty in the community (Woolf et al., 2015).
4. Roll out a massive testing exercise to ensure that those affected are initiated on treatment to minimize the spread of the virus.
5. Initiating treatment programs for those who are HIV-infected as a tool to increase their quality of life and reduce transmission rates.
The health improvement plan may be faced with some challenges. There are some environmental factors that might affect the plan. They include; adverse climate factors such as unsafe public spaces, food quality and safety, housing conditions, and poor infrastructure. Poor infrastructure may prevent the concerned people from accessing the community comfortably.
Communication Strategy and Data Privacy
Any data collected should be confidential to observe the privacy rights of the participants. The participants should be assured of the privacy of the information that they give towards the research (Kobernick et al., 2015). Names of individuals should not be mentioned in the report. The participants will also be required to sign informed consent forms to ensure that participation in the data collection exercise is voluntary. All the participants will be informed of their privacy rights in the data collection exercise. The data collection team will also be trained on the best approaches to conduct the research and also to ensure that they adhere to the guidelines.
Data may be collected from health facilities dealing with HIV/Aids and also from the members of the community in the case study. The health facilities and community leadership and will also be informed of the data collection exercise and its purposes. Forms containing the organization that is carrying out the study will be availed to them by the data collection supervisors. The data collection team will explain all the relevant medical terms related to HIV/Aids to the participants. Examples of such terms include seroconversion, CD4 cells, window period, rapid test, among others. This will ensure that all the participants give information from an informed perspective. The team will encourage participants to ask any question or term that they do not fully understand. Data collection will be through administering questionnaires to the participants. The analysis will be done using statistical software such as SPSS, R and STATA.
Evaluation of the Progress and Outcomes
Evaluation of the progress is meant to find out if the plan has a positive impact to the health issue. After a span of two years, there should be a data collection on death rates, unemployment levels, community knowledge on HIV/AIDs, and general HIV/AIDs infected cases. The outcomes of the intervention strategies can be grouped into behavioral, psychological, and biological outcomes. An example of a biological outcome is new HIV infection that can be measured by the seroconversion rates in the specific case study. The HIV incidence rates may be reliable indicators of the effectiveness of the interventions to combat the virus. There are a wide variety of behavioral outcomes (Begley, 2002). They include outcomes that would directly influence HIV infection risks and others that have an indirect influence.
Primary prevention behaviors include risk reduction which include reduction of risky sexual behaviors, and also the reduction of the use of nonsterile injection equipment among drug addicts. A reduction would indicate an effectiveness of the intervention programs. Protective behaviors including the rate use of condoms will also be evaluated(Begley, 2002). Complementary preventive behaviors include the rates of HIV antibody testing, and HIV counselling. Psychological outcomes include HIV awareness levels, and reduction in stigmatization in the community. Evaluation of primary outcomes will be given more weight than complementary prevention outcomes in making clinical decisions. It is because they have more direct impact on the HIV/Aids rates.
The evaluation will give detailed information about the progress of the health improvement plan on HIV/Aids. This will inform policyholders to design better strategies towards combating the spread of HIV and also ensure that proper management techniques are availed.
Conclusion
In conclusion, population health improvement plan is meant to address health issues within a certain population. In should involve various stakeholders with various roles with the goal of providing healthcare and improving the health of the population. The stakeholders should evaluate the evidence for the diagnosis of the health issue, the needs of the community, and the strategies of improving the situation.
References
Begley, C.E. (2002). Evaluating Outcomes of HIV Prevention Programs: Lessons Learned from
Houston, Texas. AIDS Education and Prevention, 14(5), 432-443.
Kindig, D. A., & Isham, G. (2014). Population health improvement: A community health
business model that engages partners in all sectors. Frontiers of health services management, 30(4), 3-20.
Kobernick, M., Hammel, D., Duncan-Jackson, S., Leon, J., & Harris, D. (2016). The Population
Health Template: A Road Map for Successful Health Improvement Initiatives. Population health management.
Woolf, S. H., Purnell, J. Q., Simon, S. M., Zimmerman, E. B., Camberos, G. J., Haley, A., &
Fields, R. P. (2015). Translating evidence into population health improvement: strategies and barriers. Annual review of public health, 36, 463-482.
