Integrated Behavioral Care: Achieving Optimal Health Care - Essay Sample

The evolution of a concord interpretation of integrated behavioral care is vital in the bid to determine and assess an integrated healthcare system. Generally, the interpretation can be applied in an array of settings and offer solutions to various situations (Harkness & DeMarco, 2016). Primarily, it is essential to consider the interactions between the people and the health system alongside the environment. For an integrated healthcare system to succeed, it needs to factor in the prime care and behavioral health clinicians, working in tandem with the patients and their households via a cost-conscious systematic approach to a defined area. To understand the operation model of human interactions and foster improvement of the healthcare system, it is prudent to conduct a community assessment to guide your research. The community assessment majorly aids in highlighting the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and possible threats in the community healthcare system. Therefore, it is critical to factor in the biological examination, psychological examination, and sociocultural, and environmental forces while pursuing the assessment.

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Healthcare facilities must analyze the health needs of the people in the community to assess the health needs of the community. Besides, the healthcare facility must put into priority the analyzed health needs as well as establish resources that are in store to mitigate the situation (Harkness & DeMarco, 2016). Generally, the resources can be community programs, available facilities, and organizations geared toward addressing the needs of the community. The community's needs may include financial needs, disease prevention, adequate nutrition or behavioral, social, and factors within the environment. Until then, the facility identifies and addresses the significant needs and underlying circumstances available to the community's service. Therefore, any protocol may be followed to assess and address the community's needs as long as they are prioritized and tailor-made to the community's needs.

As a surveying method, the windshield survey focuses on observing data and any other relevant information without asking direct questions to members. The survey was named windshield due to its nature of data collection, where members carry out their observations inside a car though it can also be done through walking through your area of research. The windshield survey performed the beginning process of assessing Sentinel Town. The survey provided a framework for the needs of the community and also outlined areas of priority. The survey also provides the demography of Sentinel town as well as debates the key health community needs.

Observations

Through my virtual tour in Sentinel, a town in the United States of America (USA), made up of four neighborhoods namely, Casper Park District, Industrial Heights, Nightingale Square, and the Acer Tech Center. I noticed a wide range of issues affecting the community alongside their needs. The town comprises the Caucasian community, the Native Americans, the Hispanics, the Black Americans, and the Asians. The Caucasian community was predominant in Casper Park District, Nightingale Square, and Acer Tech Center. On the other hand, the Hispanic community had a considerable number of people in Industrial Heights and Casper Park Districts with traces of them in Nightingale Square and Acer Tech Center. The other communities had an insignificant number in the town.

Also, I noticed that the members of the community were equally segmented across all age brackets. Nevertheless, the youth were substantial with an equal gender balance. Further on, I noticed the community had two tiers of people, the wealthy and the poor. For instance, the people in Nightingale Square appeared to have a higher income than those in Industrial Heights. They had a tennis court, an outdoor cafeteria, shopping stores, and a few centers like the Nightingale Centre. I also noticed that the city had a lot of cars parked with most of the residents using public means of transport. The people there had a wide range of options in terms of household shopping, recreational facilities, and transportation.

On the other hand, Industrial Heights was the part of the town with absolute poverty evidenced by the buildings not being attended to, the garbage infested by rats with the vehicles and barrels on fire. Besides, the people there were living in a deplorable state with limited or no access to healthcare facilities. The place was a high risk for disease outbreaks as compared to the other cities. There were also informal settlements that served the residents based on their ability to pay the rental expenses. I noticed several studio houses, one-bedroomed units, as well as two-bedroomed houses. Therefore, through my journey, I could ascertain that the Sentinel community was a whole society with different activities running simultaneously.

Over and above, I could see children playing in the park with their parents. I also noticed teens on the streets, youths in town and farms, and the aged in their residential homes. I noticed a miniature of people in wheelchairs, crutches, and walkers proving there were cases of disability within the town. I noticed the town has a few centers though I could not substantiate if the people were homeless because there were many activities on the streets, the church, and the social places. However, I noticed a long line at the church, proving most of the residents were beggars hence the food security challenge. Since the place was extremely active, I could not tell if the people I couldn't expect outside since all age brackets were up and about with their activities.

To add on, I noticed a dog precisely at the playground at Trailer Park. However, a majority of the animals I saw were domestic animals such as horses and cows. I also noticed a Catholic Church in Industrial Heights with a soup kitchen, which had a long line proving that the people were religious. The people I observed had attire on together with head-gears, and also, the availability of the Catholic church shows that the people were of the Catholic denomination. The church was ideally offering food for the low-income earners in the town.

Target Population

Normally, in any society, a certain group or subset of members has shared features that stand out in the event of their description. For instance, there's the Obese group of people who fall under my interest group in Sentinel Town (Harkness & DeMarco, 2016). There's an array of restaurants and recreational facilities, which would be the main course of poor eating habits among the population. Obesity is a critical health implication that causes serious diseases like cancer and diabetes. It mainly affects members of the urban setting as they are prone to poor eating habits with less exercise.

In the bid to tackle the Obesity issue in Sentinel, all stakeholders must come on board and work in synergy. As per the provisions of the Healthy People 2020 initiative, the health of the American people should be a top priority objective (Peters, Lange, Lemoes, Hermes, Linck & Carniere, 2019). The initiative has stipulated a criterion for establishing the people's progressive change over time, championing unity across the communities, and analyzing the impact of the preventive measures in conjunction with empowering the community health-wise.

According to the initiative objectives, the assessment aims to look into ways to improve the Sentinel community's health needs and guarantee healthy living. Therefore, the youth, the civil society, the local administration, and the business community must all work in synchrony to curb this menace. Physical activities and changes in diet are key in mitigating and combating Obesity in the Sentinel community (Peters et al., 2019). The move should be all-inclusive to ensure that all community members fully address it. Healthcare workers have alluded that there is a need for public participation in controlling Obesity.

Based on the Health People 2020 initiative and the Center for Disease, Control, and Prevention (CDC)the Sentinel Community should implement SMART goals to control the risk of diseases through; community-wide campaigns, cleaning the market, change of dietary habits, and creating training centers.

The community-wide campaigns should address the needs of the people and echo out available remedies if the community united for a common course. The schools, the religious members, the health practitioners, and the local government should all act to eliminate the risk of Obesity. The campaign should highlight the community problems and map out solutions for the populace to adopt.

The Park and the markets need to be cleaned and made safer and healthier for the people. The local government must work with the community to improve the state of the park. In the long run, this will reduce the number of idlers and homeless people in the community. In addition, it will reduce the community's level of crime since the police will be fully involved in the community's affairs. Enforcing these will make more people access the park and engage in effective physical activities hence reducing the dangers of Obesity.

Joe's Grocery and Lily's Place should be inspired to provide healthier food to the community members. The groceries should provide fruits and vegetables that are highly nutritious and reduce foods that may cause Obesity. Stone fruits such as plums and peaches can be introduced into the grocery because they are key to weight loss. However, the community should also adopt and adapt to the changes to counter Obesity.

The local government should instill plans to provide playgrounds for the children to carry out their physical activities. School-going kids should be encouraged to cycle or walk to school to keep fit. The local governments should look into ways of creating safer pedestrian paths for the community. Similarly, additional playing grounds should be set, especially in the residential areas of the city.

Conclusion

Health differences are evident across all populations in the world. The health disparities are mainly caused by age, sex, race, location, socioeconomic status alongside ethnicity. In my observation, the targeted special interest subset of members was Obesity because as per the changing trends, physical well-being is key to flexibility and disease control. Access to information on being health-conscious and access to health care has proved to be barriers to controlling such health hazards. Therefore, it is important to enforce community-wide campaigns, clean the markets and the park, implement new eating trends, and create training centers to offer education to the community on the importance of living a healthy life.

References

Harkness, G. A. & DeMarco, R. F. (2016) Community and Public Health Nursing. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health.

Peters, C. W, Lange, C., Lemoes, M. A., Hermes, G. B., Linck, C., & Carniere, C. (2019). Knowledge, attitudes and practices in the health of the rural area elderly. Journal of Nursing UFPE 13(5), p. 1465-74. Retrieved from https://web-a-ebscohost-com.americansentinel.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=1ce3fcb0-5a89-4c76-9d73-27c28c51b4c5%40sdc-v-sessmgr01