Health and Social Care Assignment Sample

Theories and Benefits of Community-Based Healthcare Initiatives

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Introduction Of Health and Social Care Assignment Sample

In recent communities, health is an outcome of many factors and the community's different sectors have different roles to play in improving the health of its people through different community tools and projects. This study aims at explaining how a community-based project can help in improving the overall health of the people through a deep understanding of the health benefits of the community-based projects along with the related theory associated with it.

Understanding of Community Health

As opined by Brunie et al., 2018, Community health can be viewed as an outcome based on the interaction within the community over some time. The multidimensional perspective strengthens the traditional approach on the population to the health issues of the community. This also provides a base for looking to different segments of the community to address factors affecting health. There are organizations, individuals, and other stakeholders who have a direct impact on the health of the community. The different organization which has an explicit concern over the health of the society are the public health agencies, consumer of health care services, healthcare organizations and community organization dealing with healthcare services (Vareilles et al., 2017). Organizations such as federal health agencies, state health units, and national corporations have a larger scope in improving the health of the people rather than a single community which however have a major role to play in the local area. The different parties in the community will have to sort the roles and responsibilities to respond to various health issues in the community. However, the specific pattern of response will differ from one community to another depending upon the factors contributing to the health of the communities.

Factors contributing to a healthy community

Many factors contribute to a healthy community as well as to individuals. In a larger context, factors such as the environment and the condition in which we live along with factors such as education level, income, and the relationship between friends and family have a larger impact on the health and well-being of people in the given community. Many factors contribute to the health of the community which includes, the physical environment, the person's behavior, and social and economic conditions (Miller et al., 2020).

The physical environment includes a healthy workplace, safe and clean air and water, safe houses that contribute to the health and well-being of the people living in a given society. The social and economic status such as higher income is generally associated with the better health of a person. The greater the difference between the rich and the poor, there will be more gap in health conditions among people with the different social and economic classes of the community (Georgiou et al., 2019). There are other factors such as education where lower confidence and more stress are leading to an unhealthier lifestyle of the people. Also, social support such as support from friends and family leads to a healthier life. Genetics also plays an important role in maintaining the healthy lifestyle of people. Furthermore, the health condition is also determined by access to any health service facility. The more the reach, the healthier the people.

Health benefits of community-based projects

The community-based programs are an approach that gives importance to the empowerment of the community which serves as an important tool for health promotion especially in low and middle economic countries (Matteson et al., 2020). This will only be possible when there is community participation in health-related programs as the participation of the community in health-related projects will help individuals in identifying the problems and by doing this the community will be able to solve the problems by themselves resulting in the reduction of the unhealthy behavior of individuals in the community. Hence, it can be said that there are numbers of instances in a community project which help people in maintaining a healthy life (Nderi and Singh, 2020). These include the improvement of the health among the people in the community as in both the governmental and non-governmental programs, there is a presence of spirit and empathy and high motivation in working for community projects. Involvement in community projects such as volunteering provides a way ahead in contributing to the well-being of the people in a community. Volunteering for at least 200 hours is linked with increased psychological well-being and physical activity and also helps in feeling good from inside and gives a high sense of purpose along with lower mortality rate and lower depression rate. It also helps in combatting stress, anger, and distress and helps in making a healthier life along with increasing the confidence of the individual (Sally and Rosemary, 2019). Moreover, volunteering helps in increasing functional ability.

 Also, there are other benefits which include the following;

• Free health checkups programs help the community for the lower-income groups to access the health facility at no cost and hence providing a healthier life to these groups of people.
• Free sessions related to meditation and yoga helps people in increasing a healthier lifestyle.
• Programs related to physical therapy and rehabilitation helps people in overcoming any unhealthy addiction such as gambling and alcoholism (Damon et al., 2017).
• Regular dental health checks up in the community help the younger generation as well as older people in having hygienic oral health.
• Any volunteer groups associated with creating awareness on cancer or any other disease will help the community in being aware of the disease symptoms and medication resulting in a healthier lifestyle for the people living in a community.
• By using social media, community health promotion can be shared so that the people can get the benefits and enjoy a healthier lifestyle by getting the knowledge out of the awareness created through social media (Collins et al., 2018).

Theories underpinning community-based projects

The community-based project has become an important strategy in improving the health and safety of the individual in a community. For example, North Karelia, Stanford Five City programs were initiated in the early 1970s to help decrease the rate of cardiovascular disease. And with that initiation, a community-based program has become an important expect in enhancing public health.

Most of the community-based programs are based on a set of theories or assumptions, while the contemporary-based health and safety programs do not confirm the absoluteness of the predefined criteria. Seven theories underpin the community-based projects which are the focus of the community in which the community is identified as one unit and is an appropriate center for health and safety programs (Wilson et al., 2018). The community is viewed as a target as well as the catalyst for change in terms of the health and safety of the people living in a community. There is a focus on the community rather than the individual in bringing a change related to health and safety as an individual cannot be considered separate from its community.

There are several theories associated with public health. A few of them have been listed below;

1. Health Belief Model

According to this theory, it was developed to understand why people did not use or use the preventive services offered by community-based projects such as public health departments. The health and belief model theorizes that the belief of the people whether they are or they are not at the risk of health problem and their thought in taking the benefits from taking action to avoid it influence their readiness to take action (Ford et al., 2018).

2. Social cognitive theory

It is the cognitive formulation of the theory that has been best explained by Bandura which explains the behavior of humans a three-way reciprocal and dynamic model in which environment influences, personal factors, and behavior constantly interact. This theory derives concepts from cognitive, behavioristic, and emotional models of change in behavior so that it can be applied easily while counseling by the intervention of disease prevention and management (Goulding et al., 2018). The key construct to the social cognitive theory that is suitable for health behavior change includes self-control, self-efficacy, reinforcement, and observational learning.

3. Social-ecological theory

This theory helps us to understand factors affecting behavior and also guides initiating successful programs through the social environment. The social-ecological theory takes into account multi-level of individual, organizational and interpersonal influence (Collins et al., 2018). The principle of the social-ecological model is consistent with the theory of social cognition which explains that creating a change in environment is important to adopt healthier behavior.

Conclusion

To conclude, health is an outcome of many factors and the community's different sectors have different roles to play in improving the health of its people through different community tools and projects. This study discussed how a community-based project can help in improving the overall health of the people through a deep understanding of the health benefits of the community-based projects along with the related theory associated with it. Also, it has explained in the study how the community project is considered to be beneficial for the health and well-being of the people along with an explanation of different theories associated with it.

References

Brunie, A., Mercer, S., Chen, M. and Andrianantoandro, T., 2018. Expanding understanding of community health worker programs: a cross-sectional survey on the work, satisfaction, and livelihoods of CHWs in Madagascar. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 55, p.0046958018798493.

Collins, S.E., Clifasefi, S.L., Stanton, J., Straits, K.J., Gil-Kashiwabara, E., Rodriguez Espinosa, P., Nicasio, A.V., Andrasik, M.P., Hawes, S.M., Miller, K.A. and Nelson, L.A., 2018. Community-based participatory research (CBPR): Towards equitable involvement of the community in psychology research. American Psychologist, 73(7), p.884.

Damon, W., Callon, C., Wiebe, L., Small, W., Kerr, T. and McNeil, R., 2017. Community-based participatory research in a heavily researched inner-city neighborhood: perspectives of people who use drugs on their experiences as peer researchers. Social science & medicine, 176, pp.85-92.

Ford, J.D., Sherman, M., Berrang-Ford, L., Llanos, A., Carcamo, C., Harper, S., Lwasa, S., Namanya, D., Marcello, T., Maillet, M. and Edge, V., 2018. Preparing for the health impacts of climate change in Indigenous communities: The role of community-based adaptation. Global environmental change, 49, pp.129-139.

Georgiou, A., Demetriou, C.A., Christou, Y.P., Heraclides, A., Leonidou, E., Loukaides, P., Yiasoumi, E., Pantziaris, M., Kleopa, K.A., Papacostas, S.S. and Loizidou, M.A., 2019. Genetic and Environmental Factors Contributing to Parkinson's Disease: A Case-Control Study in the Cypriot Population. Frontiers in neurology, 10, p.1047.

Goulding, C., Kelemen, M. and Kiyomiya, T., 2018. Community-based response to the Japanese tsunami: A bottom-up approach. European Journal of Operational Research, 268(3), pp.887-903.

Matteson, S.M., Arellano, I. and Sherrod, S.E., 2020. Benefits of engaging doctoral students in community-based research projects. In Preparing Students for Community-Engaged Scholarship in Higher Education (pp. 149-170). IGI Global.

Miller, H.M., Young, C., Nixon, J., Talbot?McDonnell, M., Cutmore, M., Tong, A., Craig, J.C., and Woolfenden, S., 2020. Parents' and carers' views on factors contributing to the health and wellbeing of urban Aboriginal children. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 44(4), pp.265-270.

Nderi, A.N., and Singh, M., 2020. Effect of community culture on the sustainability community-based projects as moderated by the legal-political framework: empirical evidence of Nyeri County, Kenya. International Journal of Society Systems Science, 12(4), pp.306-328.

Sally, M.W. and Rosemary, J., 2019. EFFECT OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMUNITY-BASED PROJECTS IN KIENI SUB-COUNTY. International journal of project management, 1(1).

Vareilles, G., Pommier, J., Marchal, B. and Kane, S., 2017. Understanding the performance of community health volunteers involved in the delivery of health programs in underserved areas: a realist synthesis. Implementation Science, 12(1), pp.1-12.

Wilson, E., Kenny, A. and Dickson-Swift, V., 2018. Ethical challenges in community-based participatory research: A scoping review. Qualitative health research, 28(2), pp.189-199.

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