Community Healthcare Intervention Examples

Healthy People 2020 The author of this report is asked to offer a brief summary of the role of a community nurse and the interventions that are meant to meet or exceed the four main goals of the Healthy People 2020 initiative. For each of the four main goals, the author of this report will describe at least one intervention that meets the goal in question. After that, the author will offer an example of an intervention that is already in full swing in the community of the author.

While the goals of the Healthy People 2020 initiative are lofty and far-reaching, they are noble and just goals and should be achieved in any reasonable and ethical way possible. The first goal of the Healthy People 2020 initiative is to "attain high-quality, longer lives free of preventable disease, disability, injury and premature death" (Healthy People 2020, 2015). Of course, the context behind that goal is that of the chronic diseases as well as the associated death and destruction that occurs in this country are from disorders that are entirely preventable.

Indeed, many people end up with Type I diabetes through no fault of their own. Presumably, it would be something that they received through heredity and genetics. However, type II diabetes would be an entirely different story. Most times, that disease is present because of a combination of genetics as well as poor exercise habits, poor dietary choices and so forth. Much the same thing can be said about heart disease, many forms of cancer and so forth.

To be fair, some people end up with cancer for no apparent reason. However, others catch it presumably because of smoking cigarettes or being around people that do the same.

For situations and risk factors that are preventable, the author of this report would assert that the primary intervention that could and should be done is to educate people about how their actions or inactions can lead to them developing diseases and disorders that will debilitate them or even kill them if they do not stop the process before or after it starts happening.

For example, if someone's blood sugar is a little above normal and is flirting with the A1C threshold associated with diabetes, then that would be the best time to get them away from the edge of the chasm because it is much harder to reverse and contain the damages of things like diabetes than it is to prevent them (NIH, 2015). The second goal of the Healthy People 2020 initiative would be to achieve health equity, eliminate disparities and improve the health of all groups (Healthy People 2020, 2015).

The author of this report would assert that the main context and example of this would be the people in the poorer classes and minority groups overall as they are the ones that see the most disparities when it comes to disease rates and overall healthcare outcomes. Further, since the economic and racial disparities often coincide, these are the same people that are unable or unwilling to be proactive in terms of getting treatment, preventative care and so forth because they feel that they cannot afford to get the treatment.

A major way to combat this would be community/government-funded education and treatment facilities that offer services at low or reduced costs. The author of this report was asked, as was noted in the introduction, to point to an intervention that is seen in the community and this is indeed one that the author of this report has seen locally (Healthcare.gov, 2015). The third goal of the Healthy People 2020 initiative is to create social and physical environments that promote good health for all (Healthy People 2020, 2015).

This is another goal that has to involve a discussion of class, race and disparities. Indeed, when one lives in a neighborhood that is full of squalor, violence and so forth, the focus that exists on eating and keeping healthy is obviously not as pronounced as it could or should be. While addressing this directly through interventions via the Healthy People 2020 initiative would be optimal, it would indeed be attacking the wrong end of the problem because the broader societal and cultural constructs in question are the real problem.

Even so, one intervention that can be done to slow down the destruction is to be a voice and doer of good in those areas. Just like many people choose to teach at inner city schools because of their concern for the children in those areas, nurses and doctors that work in that area are present for much the same reason…just a slightly different mission and "customer" base involved.

Even some suburbs are starting to see this sort of thing happen to them (Brown & Shapiro, 2015) Finally, the fourth goal of the Healthy People 2020 initiative would be to promote quality of life, healthy development and healthy behaviors across all life stages (Healthy People 2020, 2015). Interventions for this goal would obviously have to be catered to the age groups in question. For kids, it would be to keep active and keep focused on good things in life rather than bad thing gangs, watching television all day and so forth.

For younger adults, it would be to keep up an active.