Question

1. Describe the public health issue
2. Describe the demographics of the target population. Based on the evidence from Health People 2020, conduct a needs assessment for this community. Discuss the prevalent gaps identified that need to be addressed in order to reduce health inequity.
3. Research current polices at the local and federal level. Discuss how these directly influence health and health equity for this target population.
4. Identify overall challenges and barriers to addressing the public health issue with this target population.
5. What cultural values and practices of this target population must be considered in the design and implementation of this public health program? Discuss the importance in achieving cultural competence for your target population, as it relates to your program.
6. Based on your target population and the information you have gathered, describe areas that can be used for successful community collaboration.

Use epidemiologic data (EBP) to support your proposed topic

Answer 1

The main Public health issue the minority group is facing the disparities that are the racial or ethnic disparities, many dimensions of disparity exist in the United States, particularly in health.  

Poor health cannot be explained simply by germs and genes. It is much more complex, involving both the circumstances in which people live (access to health care, schools and education, and conditions of work, leisure, homes, communities, towns or cities) and their individual and cultural characteristics (such as social status; gender, age and ethnicity norms; values and discrimination). All of these factors influence an individual’s chances of leading a flourishing, healthy life.

Chances for good health are not equally distributed in our societies and this causes health inequities. Addressing these health inequities requires dealing with their root causes: the unequal distribution of power, income, goods and services in our societies. The call to action goes beyond health ministries, reaching out across borders and sectors to all the players and stakeholders that can contribute to a fairer and healthier population.

The Federal/State government has to support the design, implementation and review of policies, programmes and governance capacity to improve health and health equity. This ranges from applying an equity lens during the formulation of national health plans and strategies to building the capacity of policy-makers across the whole of government in the area of health equity.

Effectively addressing social determinants requires multistakeholder and multisectoral action across government and society. This includes strengthening capacity to govern for better health across sectors and implementing multistakeholder policies, services and systems. These need to engage citizens, service providers, civil society, the media, planners, policymakers and politicians.

A key focus is to increase know-how and problem-solving skills, strengthen evidence-informed practice and support ongoing learning and development in analysis and adaptation of multisectoral approaches to health equity.

• Reviewing and strengthening national strategies, development policies and governance systems to better address social determinants of health and the specific health inequity challenges in a country or region
• Ongoing training and development of policy-makers, public health institutions, NGOs and government authorities in using and adapting evidence, promising practices and instruments that support systematic action to reduce socially determined health inequities; this includes case-study-based workshops for policy-makers and problem-based learning between countries facing common challenges, such as implementing cross-sectoral approaches in reducing health inequities;

• In 2008, approximately 33%, or more than 100 million people, identified themselves as belonging to a racial or ethnic minority population.
• In 2008, 51%, or 154 million people, were women.
• In 2008, approximately 12%, or 36 million people not living in nursing homes or other residential care facilities, had a disability.
• In 2008, an estimated 70.5 million people lived in rural areas (23% of the population), while roughly 233.5 million people lived in urban areas (77%).
• In 2002, an estimated 4% of the U.S. population ages 18 to 44 identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.

Steps to take:

• Capacity building
• Policy dialogues and roundtable forums.
• Policy and governance support tools
• Promising practice and synthesis reports

Healthy People 2020 defines health equity as the “attainment of the highest level of health for all people. Achieving health equity requires valuing everyone equally with focused and ongoing societal efforts to address avoidable inequalities, historical and contemporary injustices, and the elimination of health and health care disparities.

Over the years, efforts to eliminate disparities and achieve health equity have focused primarily on diseases or illnesses and on health care services. However, the absence of disease does not automatically equate to good health.