Promoting Physical Activity in the Community

Health Promotion and Dr. Green’s Precede-Proceed Model Introduction Using Dr. Green’s Precede-Proceed Model, the Healthy People 2020 objective of promoting physical activity can be developed into a strategy. The target population of this particular objective consists of adults at a behavioral health clinic located in a low income area. My plan is to execute a 7-week exercise class with health education to promote physical activity.

The goal of the plan is to embed physical activity in the daily lives and routines of the adult clients at the clinic. This paper will examine the 7 phases of the Precede-Proceed Model and show how they apply to the Healthy People 2020 objective described above. Phase 1: Social Assessment and Situational Analysis The health status of the low income community in which our behavioral health clinic is situated is not the best.

A windshield survey indicates that few people are outdoors exercising, playing sports in parks, walking, jogging, bicycling, or taking in part in any sort of physical activity whatsoever. As Berlin and Colditz (1990) pointed nearly three decades ago, physical activity is crucial to the prevention of so many health related issues, such as coronary heart disease.

There is a lack of awareness of the benefits of physical activity among the adult clients at the behavioral health clinic, which indicates a need for an educational intervention, in accordance with the model recommended by Green, Kreuter, Deeds and Partridge (1980). Phase 2: Epidemiological Diagnosis Lack of physical activity is especially harmful for individuals with behavioral or mental health problems (Vancampfort et al., 2011). It can reduce the quality of life for such patients and impair their ability to improve their conditions overall.

Additionally, excess weight and lack of physical exercise lead to an increased risk of cancer development in the pancreas and kidney (Ehem et al., 2012). There is also an economic cost, which was measured at the end of the 20th century at $24 billion or 2.4% of money paid on health care per year (Colditz, 1999).

There is also the problem that this particular population is from a low income community, an environment that can cause people to want to stay indoors and not get outside an exercise for fear of being attacked, assaulted or just from a fear of feeling unsafe in the community (Molnar, Gortmaker & Buka, 2004).

Thus, part of the problem of addressing this issue is helping people to find ways to overcome insecurities about being outdoors in a low income community so that they can engage in physical exercise on a routine basis. The intervention selected to help address this issue is the 7-week exercise class with health education to promote physical activity. The class will teach basic physical exercises that clients can do on a regular basis.

It will also include health education that will teach them the value and importance of maintaining this routine. Lastly, it will include steps that adults can take to feel more secure in their community, such as exercising (running, walking) in pairs or in a group, maintaining contact with others so that one always knows when one is out, and so on. Phase 3: Educational and Ecological Assessment Motivating behaviors for this population include improving their health and feeling better physically.

As they are patients at the clinic, they are already motivated to improve their health. This is another step in the right direction for them, and as they are already predisposed to learning about ways to improve their health, they should welcome the class. Enabling factors include the patients’ ability to develop a support group or network so that they can assist one another in getting out and exercising—whether it is by carpooling to a park where they can walk or bicycling as a group.

Reinforcing factors include the feeling of improved health that they will enjoy by engaging in physical activity. Just from personal experience alone, one can sense how much better one feels after exercising for a short amount of time: one’s energy level, attitude, and overall physical feeling improves significantly. Phase 4: Intervention, Alignment and Administrative/Policy Assessment The intervention is designed to take place over a 7-week course, with one class per week at the clinic in the evening.

The resources required for the intervention are one workout room in the clinic where class can be conducted. One television screen and DVD player will also be used to assist in the educational portion of the course. An educational DVD on the benefits of physical activity will be used to help educate the class for 10 minutes before each session. This will explain the purpose of the exercise and how it can improve the person’s health.

Educational materials in the form of fliers and brochures and a final educational packet that the class can take home at the end of the course will also be required. Cost for these materials should be below $500. The course registration fee should go to cover these costs. The intervention aligns with the aims of the health clinic to the extent that the clinic aims to promote a healthy development in the lives of all its patients.

Physical exercise has been shown to facilitate the healthy development of mind and body by numerous researchers over the years (Berlin et al., 1990; Eheman et al., 2012; Vancampfort et al., 2011). Simply by engaging in this type of class, the health of the patients will be aligned with the mission of the clinic and the administration will approve of the aim of the intervention and the method used.

The administrative and policy assessment will show that the intervention is in agreement with the goals and policy of the organization and that the health clinic serves as good place for this intervention to take place.

As the participants will already be clients of the clinic and the course will also be open to any participant in the community who wishes to learn more about the positive aspects of physical activity and how to do specific exercises safely and effectively, the clinic also stands to gain from an increase in positive exposure within the community.

Phases 5 and 6: Implementation and Process The implementation of the intervention will be conducted by having the course instructor schedule the courses two months in advance so that all participants, clients and members of the community have advanced notice and enough time to schedule the courses for themselves. The process will be overseen by the clinic administration and the course instructor will be a health care professional who works at the clinic and is thus specialized in teaching and training adults in physical exercises.

At the end of the 7 weeks, every participant will be awarded a certificate of completion as well as educational materials that they can take home, including illustrations of the exercises they have learned and information on how physical activity can improve their overall health in the long run. The process evaluation will be conducted at the end of every course to assess whether the students are learning the material.

The instructor will obtain informal feedback from the students and also rely on direct observation to determine whether the mood, attitudes and atmosphere of the class is positive or negative. Phase 7: Impact Evaluation The impact evaluation will be conducted via survey at the end of the course to assess whether the students themselves found it to be helpful and whether they have been maintaining a routine of exercise over the 7-week course and if they have noticed any improvements in their health.

An additional questionnaire will be appended so that the students can leave any remarks or personal feedback to help in the evaluation. The goal of the assessment will be to discover that students have maintained a routine of exercise over the duration of the course and that their health has improved in both quantifiable and qualitative ways. The students should leave feedback indicating in positive terms that they feel healthier, more flexible and have gotten rid of minor aches and pains that used to bother them.

The survey should provide quantitative data that can be used to assess the performance of.