Advocacy Initiative for HK Cares

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HK Cares Project Proposal

HK Cares is an organization or foundation that was established by Dr. Patrick Khoo, a former professor at Hong Kong University and currently a professional doctor. This foundation was established to help improve patient outcomes and experiences, which has become a major issue in the modern healthcare sector because of emerging healthcare issues. This foundation, which is in Hong Kong, China, seeks to provide a wide range of patients with assistance that helps improve their experiences and outcomes. The establishment of HK Cares was fueled by the fact that an important aspect towards enhancing patient outcomes in today’s healthcare facilities is enhancing their experiences during and after hospitalization. This paper provides a project proposal to be implemented by HK Cares to help achieve its goals and objectives.

The Selected Issue

The proposed project seeks to address the issue poor patient experiences of older people in healthcare facilities. According to Goldberg & Harwood, two-thirds of inpatients in general healthcare facilities are older people with cognitive impairment and other diseases (p.977). Since these patients are very old and face numerous functional, behavioral and psychological problems, visits from friends and families is critical towards enhancing their experiences and outcomes. However, most of them suffer from poor patient experiences because of lack of an effective support system and poor quality care. Therefore, addressing this issue is critical towards improving the health outcomes of these patients and lessening disease burden in the community. The issue relates to advocacy, leadership and course materials in the sense that concerted effort from community members is required to address it. There is need for community mobilization and involvement of various community members so that improving patient experiences of older people is not left to healthcare professionals alone.

Planned Activities

As part of community mobilization towards addressing this issue, I plan to undertake two major actions to deal with this issue. In this case, I will implement two major actions i.e. Action 11 (persuading others to act) and Action 15 (writing a letter to the editor of a paper). The first action I will undertake is to write a letter to the editor of a local newspaper in Hong Kong regarding the experiences of older adult patients in the region and why community support is essential towards improving their experiences and health outcomes. Through the letter, I will seek for the support of the editor in creating awareness of the issues facing this group of patients, what HK Cares is doing about it, and how others can get involved. Secondly, I will start a hospital visit service at HK Cares in which I’ll mobilize others to join me in taking care of older people. I will initiate a 5-hour daily initiative in which I visit hospitals to entertain, read to, help, and look after old people in these healthcare facilities. The initiative will be geared towards providing psychological, behavioral and functional support to this patient population who need assistance with daily activities (Gorman par, 6).

Timeline for the Project

The implementation of this proposed project will be carried out within a two-week period that is characterized by different actions. The first part will involve planning a letter writing campaign in the community asking for community support of legislation supporting this advocacy issue. This process will be carried out for a period of 10 days and include writing a letter to the editor of a local newspaper in Hong Kong to drum up support for legislation for this advocacy issue and promote community involvement in the initiative. Secondly, I will hold a 2-day community awareness convention i.e. from 6-7 April 2018. The convention will focus on creating awareness and promoting community involvement in addressing this issue from a legislative and practical perspective. The convention will involve various healthcare professionals, community leaders and policymakers who support this advocacy issue.

Required Supplies

The implementation of this initiative requires some supplies in order to be effective in achieving its goals/objectives. First, I need to gather information on how to conduct a letter writing campaign. Secondly, I will need a place to hold the 2-day community awareness convention. The venue needs to be a public place that can be easily accessible to the community members and other relevant stakeholders. Third, I will need stationeries like flyers, which will help in creating awareness of the issue in the community. Finally, I also need finances for transportation of the stakeholders, printing services, and other logistical issues.

Relevant Stakeholders

As previously indicated, the implementation of the project will require the involvement of different stakeholders who will play a crucial role in the achievement of the desired goals and objectives. One of the relevant stakeholders in the implementation of this initiative is my community partner. My community partner is a relevant stakeholder in this project since he has experience in working with this patient population. He will be beneficial to the project through helping in planning, handling logistics, and executing the various initiatives. Secondly, I will need community leaders, healthcare professionals, and policymakers to effectively implement this project. Community leaders will play a crucial role in mobilizing the public to support this issue while healthcare professionals will help highlight the extent with which this issue has affected the healthcare sector and what the community can do about it. On the other hand, policymakers will help in formulating legislation to address this issue and improve the health outcomes of older adult patients. The other stakeholder I will need is the editor of a local newspaper who will help in publicizing the issue. Additionally, I will work with like-minded clubs and organizations in the community such as Pace. These clubs and organizations will play a crucial role in enhancing community awareness and implementation of the project.

Promotion of the Project

The promotion of this project will involve publication in the newspaper after writing the letter to the editor of the paper. Secondly, my partner and I will utilize word-of-mouth, posters and flyers to get the word out about the project’s plans. The posters and flyers will be distributed to various places in the community to help spread the word out about the plans. These promotional strategies will help to create awareness and ensure that people attend the advocacy campaign and conference.