Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to present a community health project to promote healthy lifestyles in the community through reducing risks associated with the chronic health diseases. According to the Healthy People 2020, maintenance of healthy lifestyle is associated with the healthy habits of eating. The objectives put forward by the Healthy People 2020 mainly aim at the efforts that are required for modification of diet by understanding individual behaviors through which life-threatening conditions including diabetes and obesity can be controlled. In this regard, the major health issue is the prevalence of obesity among children. It seems necessary for the obese children to consume healthful diets, and achieve and maintain healthy body weights through exercising along with nutrition education provided to the affected ones. Additionally, the proposed plan will require the collaborative efforts of all the settings such as communities, worksites, schools, healthcare organizations and the government as well.
Needs Assessment and Diagnosis
According to the analysis of the statistics of the State of Obesity (2016), the rate of obesity among the people of the United States has exceeded drastically. More specifically, the problem of obesity is not specific to any gender, age, ethnicity, geographic region, educational level or the socioeconomic status. It has been the most life threatening issue among the people as obesity gives rise to certain chronic health conditions, such as stroke, heart diseases, type-2 diabetes, cancers, respiratory problems, and others (CDC, 2015; Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2014). Analyzing the cause of obesity highlights the carelessness of parents while dealing with the nutrition and diet related concerns of the children. It gets worsened if the community at the whole and the schools management also behave carelessly towards providing nutrition education and incorporating recreational physical activities among the students that are affected by obesity, and are offended in some cases. Besides, the government’s contribution to funding and advocacy settings will also be needed to minimize the increasing medical cost of obesity that reaches up to billions of dollars annually, and ensuring a healthy environment.
The proposed community health plan will assist all the representatives of the community in taking prompt and appropriate actions of controlling the short and long term detrimental effects of obesity on the obese children by ensuring healthy eating habits and active participation in recreational activities at their homes, and in schools as well. The plan will be beneficial for all the people as the healthy diet plan, and the proposed interventions are equally effective for weight loss. However, the aspect providing awareness to the community regarding the changes in their habits requires critical approach in terms of effectively facilitating the objective of the plan.
Constructing the Lesson Plan
Obesity is the outcome of eating ample amount of food that is more than the requirement of the body for energy. It happens when the individuals are not aware of the nutritional aspects of having healthy foods in the appropriate amount. It gets worsened when unhealthy things are eaten incessantly along with careless attitudes towards adopting physical activities. Therefore, for assessing the affected individuals of the community, a team will work in collaboration to provide awareness and support for losing weights through healthy varied diet plans and exercises. The team will involve healthcare professionals including physicians, nurses, dieticians, and pediatricians for serving the intended purpose of teaching about the devastating impacts of obesity on human health. It will be ensured that the professionals involved are experienced and conversant in treating the aspects of obesity. The teaching advocacy will take place at the Community Health Centre, which is a government-owned place. Therefore, no concerns of rent and maintenance will be there; however, government funding will be required. The time needed for this plan is allocated to be six weeks. The healthcare professionals will facilitate the obese children and their parents as well in the session arrangements twice a week. There will be two meetings with the parents in a week for gaining information about the behavior of their child towards this healthcare plan.
Additionally, the children will attend the advocacy sessions for 4-5 hours two times in a week in which they will be guided and informed about healthy eating habits and certain physical activities that are necessary for ensuring a healthy lifestyle. More specifically, it will also be ensured that the children feel motivated towards gaining back their self-esteem. Projections will be facilitated along at the Community Centre along with weekly planners. The participants will also be provided with fresh fruits and vegetables for the enhancement of learning and growth process. For the implementation of this health care plan, the budget will be provided by the local government as the advocacy session will be offered free of cost to obtain best possible outcomes of health at an extensive level.
Implementation
The designed health program will be implemented in the community by involving obese children and their parents for the facilitation of education and awareness related to healthy practices of living. In this regard, school going children who are overweight or at the risk of becoming overweight will be encouraged to participate in this program. These children will be allowed to attend meetings twice a week in which five hours lesson will be facilitated that mainly focuses on healthy choices of food and interesting ways for increasing physical activities. Moreover, the parents and children will be invited to meetings with the team of health care professionals. In these meetings, the parents will be provided with significant information, and motivational guidance resulting in enhancement of food choices, physical activities, and support from family. The parents will be advocated to decrease the screening time and sedentary behavior of their children at home. The weekly meetings will be held in the community health center, and the motto of these meetings will be underpinned with educating children about the method associated with the plantation of vegetables and fruits as well as their nutritional values. Afternoon snacks will be given to the children during the afternoon that consist of vegetables and fruits. The provision of colorful snacks will enhance their learning process alongside improving their growth process.
In addition to this, the local government will also be convinced to participate in the program as they will ensure the safety and design of a recreational facility for physical activity for obese children. There is a significant requirement of such environmental characteristics in the community along with new developments in the utilization of creative approaches for retrofitting the neighborhood. The additional responsibilities of the local government will be assuring the design of the streets so that safe walking, bicycling, and other activities can be encouraged. Conversely, flyers and pamphlets will be disseminated among the people of the targeted community so that larger participation in the program can be achieved. The alerts for weekly meetings will be sent through emails and text messages on the cell phones and advertisement will be placed on billboards.
Evaluation Measures and Results
The team of health care professionals consisted of physicians, pediatricians, nurses, and dieticians will play an active role in the widespread prevention of obesity among children. For the evaluation of the measures, the team of health care professionals will perform routine measurement of height and weight, as well as keeping track of the BMI (body mass index). On the other hand, feedbacks will be provided to the involved participants by focusing on the interpretation, counseling, and guiding the children and parents for the obesity prevention. At the end of every week, feedbacks from the parents through survey and questionnaire will also be collected which will provide the insight related to the need for further improvement and progress of the program. The participants will also be held responsible for contributing to the environment in terms of offering increased opportunities for physical activities to their children. The health care professionals will use the collected data in the light of physical activity and eating habits and scan the results in alignment with the factors such as sustainability of the health effects.
Reflection
In order to disseminate a long-term impact on the public health status, the initiation of this health program will assist the people in adopting healthy habits of eating alongside engaging in physical activities. In this regard, there is a persistent need for changing individual behaviors, the environment of a family, and schools. By the implementation of this community-based initiative, a healthy environment can be promoted and supported. On the contrary, the factors that tend to involve in the sustainability of successful outcomes are entailed as the extensive level of environmental changes focusing on outcomes, intensity of behavioral changes, intervention duration, and utilization of appropriate channels for influencing the target. The program will help the individual to the community in learning the importance of fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, and whole grain and their consumption. The community will experience significant benefits through this program as the obese children will maintain their weight by incorporating a healthy diet and physical activities in their lifestyle. After the development of this project, I will be able to enhance my communication and collaboration skills that are necessary for the preparation of a health care plan.
References
CDC. (2015). Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration Project (CORD): Implementing Strategies Across the Community to Help Families with Childhood Obesity. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/division-information/programs/researchproject.html
CDC. (2015). Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/index.html
Healthy People 2020. (2016). Nutrition and Weight Status. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/nutrition-and-weight-status
Hill, J. O., Wyatt, H. R., & Peters, J. C. (2012). Energy balance and obesity. Circulation , 126 (1), 126-132.
NIH. (2012). Overweight and Obesity Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/Pages/overweight-obesity-statistics.aspx#a
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Kit, B. K., & Flegal, K. (2014). Prevalence of Childhood and Adult Obesity in the United States, 2011-2012. The JOurnal of American Medical Association, 311 (8), 806-814.
