BHA-FPX4108 Assessment 2 Potential Community Health Interventions
Potential Community Health Interventions Sample Paper
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a global health issue that has and is still threatening the health and well-being of communities globally, including Missouri City, Texas. While currently there is no treatment for COVID-19, different strategies exist that can be used to control the pandemic and minimize its impact on the community. This essay evaluates some of those strategies that can be used to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the Missouri City community by exploring several aspects of the intervention, such as the social determinants affecting the people of Missouri City in relation to COVID-19, the appropriate treatment model for the disease and the wellness model suitable for the Missouri City community.
Missouri City is a city in Texas, USA, and exists within Houston-The Woodlands metropolitan area. It is mostly in Fort Bend County, with part of its area within Harris County. As of 2019, the city had a population of 74,557 people, residing within 78.72 square kilometers (United States Census Bureau, 2019).
Social Determinants
Social determinants of health are either social or economic conditions that influence the health and wellbeing of a community (Darcis et al. 2020). Social determinants of health exist in two types, namely the physical environment and the social environment. While the COVID-19 disease always includes social determinants, some economic determinants are also available. For instance, the people of Missouri City are outgoing – they engage in various social gathering activities such as church worships, music concerts, and family gatherings.
Furthermore, the vibrant city of Missouri has several social places where people gather to engage in different activities such as shopping, drinking and partying. Since COVID-19 is an infectious disease, social distancing is important. However, maintaining social distance is problematic in Missouri City considering humans’ heavy reliance on social interaction.
But considering modern technology, people have different ways of achieving social interaction, such as social media chat and texting. Therefore, peoples’ interaction is limited to virtual interaction. However, various precautions have been made in a physical setting, the most common one being the six-meter rule. This encourages people to keep at least 1.5 meters distance from each other at any given time, thus minimizing the chance of the virus’ transmission (Word Health Organization, 2020).
Apart from the social distancing rule, other basic hygiene measures can be used to minimize the spread of COVID-19. These measures include regular hand cleaning with either hand washing or alcoholic hand rubbing agents, regular cleaning of surfaces, and covering one’s mouth when sneezing or coughing.
Moreover, potentially infected individuals are encouraged to test for COVID-19. Early testing is essential because it enables immediate treatment delivery and separation from the rest of the population (Wilder-Smith & Freedman, 2020). Unfortunately, though, some individuals are asymptomatic, and therefore it would be difficult to tell the potentiality of transmitting the disease to others. Typically, asymptomatic individuals are those who have been infected but do not exhibit any symptoms (Afzal et al., 2021 BHA-FPX4108 Assessment 2 Potential Community Health Interventions). This explains why it is important to maintain social distance.
Apart from being a socially vibrant population, a high proportion of Missourians are affected by various chronic diseases that increase their risk of getting COVID-19 infection. For instance, according to 2011 statistics, 30.2% of Missourians were obese while 34.3% of them had hypertension. Moreover, as per Yun et al. (2013), 39.7% of the Missouri population were diagnosed with high cholesterol, while 1.7% were diagnosed with diabetes.
These statistics reveal the extent to which some members of the Missouri community are not only exposed to COVID-19 infection but also experience healthcare burdens that would worsen their health outcomes. The duty of care for those with underlying conditions would worsen if they contract COVID-19, affecting their ability to afford healthcare. There needs to be a COVID-19 prevention model that protects this population from COVID-19.
Treatment Model
Treatment models are useful in treating infections based on the patient’s current situation (Indini et al. 2020). They represent an actual treatment for the disease and are often executed with the consideration of the patient’s current condition. Because the main COVID-19 symptom is fever, most locations conduct a temperature check on people before accessing the premises. This is useful in containing the virus from spreading in public places (Darcis et al. 2020). However, temperature check as a treatment model is not the most efficient way of handling COVID-19. With the increasing number of infections in Missouri City, there needs to be a constant revision of the treatment models to facilitate rapid containment of the disease.
Wellness Model
Wellness models seek to help communities and individuals avoid disease transmission before their health is compromised. As per Wilder-Smith and Freedman (2020), this includes creating public awareness and policy guidelines. Nonetheless, the treatment and wellness models must be integrated and coordinated for the disease to be effectively contained.
Fundamentally, the wellness model seeks to enable community members to take proper actions and precautions towards protecting their health and wellbeing. One of the most critical components of this public awareness, whereby the public is sensitized on the various ways of preventing infection. Furthermore, public awareness encourages people to follow the set guidelines to stay healthy – for example, encouraging people to get tested in case they suspect an infection.
But the strategy of early testing is not always effective because, in some cases, an individual may test negative but later get exposed to the virus. Another disadvantage of early testing model is that many testing facilities will not test individuals unless they display symptoms. This is especially an issue because some people are asymptomatic. As such, according to Darcis et al. (2020 BHA-FPX4108 Assessment 2), the asymptomatic individuals remain untested but go ahead to infect others.
Conclusion
The application of treatment and wellness models is a common and essential strategy for dealing with infectious diseases that threaten the lives of individuals. The models are fundamentally designed and executed to protect the health and wellbeing of both local and international communities. However, as governments and healthcare organizations coordinate to develop treatment and wellness models, the responsibility of containing the diseases ultimately lies on the people – based on their actions and response to the developed models.
Social distancing and basic hygiene practices are some of the most common actions that can help contain the spread of COVID-19 in Missouri City. Fortunately, technology has enabled communities and individuals to interact even without being together physically. Most importantly, the community must work together to prevent COVID-19 from causing a decline in their health condition.
BHA-FPX4108 Assessment 2 Potential Community Health Interventions References
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United States Census Bureau (2019). 2019 U.S. Gazetteer Files. Retrieved January 4, 2022
Wilder-Smith, A., & Freedman, D. O. (2020). Isolation, quarantine, social distancing and community containment: pivotal role for old-style public health measures in the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak. Journal of travel medicine. https://academic.oup.com/jtm/article/27/2/taaa020/5735321
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Yun, S., Kayani, N., Homan, S., Li, J., Pashi, A., McBride, D., & Wilson, J. (2013). The burden of chronic diseases in Missouri: progress and challenges. Missouri medicine, 110(6), 505–511. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6179805/
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