Sexually transmitted diseases pose a health challenge among the adolescents in Newark, New Jersey. Recent statistics indicate that there have occurred 3,022 cases of Chlamydia along with 1,228 cases of gonorrhea during 2012 in the region. Going by this statistics, STD`s appear to present a health challenge within the region which requires addressing as per the goals stated under healthy people 2020 (Office of Population Affairs, 2010). The scope of the health education covers a specific age group within the region. The health education focuses on teenagers and raising awareness regarding the diseases. The education needs revolve around the methods of transfusion, how the individuals can avoid the infections and the available methods of treatment. The needs also include the variety of STD`s and the symptoms associated with these diseases. In addition, the education will cover the health services available to the infected individuals and how they targets group can access these services. The education seeks to raise awareness regarding the STD`s as well as sensitize the target group on the availability of treatment options. It also aims at raising the levels of awareness regarding the symptoms to check out for and the myths, which surround the diseases within the age group (Health Service Executive, 2010).
The education on STD`s in Newark appears as a priority problem due to the recent statistic which indicate the high rates of prevalence. Addressing the issue as a priority problem provides room for solving a number of health issues, which revolve around the same issues. By covering the STD`s the health promotion will cover other health conditions which appear along the same line. The promotion provides a chance to address a number of health issues (Health Service Executive, 2010). The rationale used to identify the health problem involved analyzing the most prevalent health issue by statistics, which affects all genders and ages but has a high prevalence among individuals at their adolescent. Choosing the health issue also arises from the recommendations and strategies presented by Healthy People 2020 regarding the health and well-being of individuals at their adolescent (Office of Population Affairs, 2010). Considering the prevalence of teen pregnancy, it also serves as suitable education before child delivery to reduce the new infections.
Based on the healthy people 2020, the individuals at their adolescent need to access health services and increase the information they can access. The goals also aim at the detection and medical treatment of the health conditions in a bid to improve the quality of life along with increasing the life expectancy by reducing the preventable deaths. Further, the goals involve, improving the health and providing for the well-being of adolescents together with young adults through the improvement of health development (Office of Population Affairs, 2010). Healthy people 2020 hold the health of teenagers and young adults among its priorities.
Community overview
The Newark community exists as a medium sized community within New Jersey. It exists as the largest city within New Jersey as per population and developments. Census statistics indicate that 22,140 people live in Newark and rank as 67th most populous municipality in the States. Newark city experiences a high population growth rate, which leads to a need for health care services and education (Health Service Executive, 2010). In addition, Newark has a large number of adolescents who attend different institutions within the city. Newark has universities and high schools, which appear as the hub of the majority of the teenagers. The hubs provide a forum for interactions between individuals of the age group. Newark comprises of individuals who practice different cultures making it a multicultural city. The main residents include Haitians, Caribbean Americans along with African Americans. Newark as a modern city has access to health facilities from health care institutions, which include hospitals, mental care institutions and support groups. For the religion in the city, most individuals living in Newark practice Christianity. Factors that may affect the education promotion include:
Culture: The cultures occupying the city exist as conservative cultures and the topics relating to sex may not have a good reception in this society especially among the adolescents.
Values: Values inherent from the culture practiced in Newark, the age group selected may refrain from attending the public education sessions due to fear for stigma. Individuals who attend the sessions may appear as the infected individuals who need the health care and this will present a case of stigmatization.
Psychological: Considering that, the education system has incorporated for long the sexual health issues the age group may perceive that they know and understand these issues.
Establish Health Education Outcomes
The program has three health education outcomes among the identified goals. The program seeks to raise the awareness regarding the methods of transmission and approaches to avoid the transmission. Secondly, the program will inform the target group about the accessibility medical services for the health problem (Higgins, Lavin, & Metcalfe, 2008). Finally, the program aims at informing the target group about the symptoms of a health issue.
The outcome of the education plan revolves around increasing access of sexual and reproductive health care services for the individual living in Newark between ten to nineteen years of age. The program will enable 95% of members of the target age group to go through testing and treat the individuals whose result will turn positive. Another predicted outcome for the health education program revolves around demystifying the existing myths, which present wrong and misleading information regarding the diseases. The demystification will create room for information thirst among the targeted adolescent group. The program will also provide 100% information sourced from medical researches on the diseases.
The health education outreach program aims at changing some behaviors among the individuals in the target age group. The said behaviors include sexual promiscuity. The target age group serves as the moment when individuals seek to experiment how different friends and colleagues perform in bed and this contributes to the transmission of these diseases. In addition, the health program seeks to change the behavior of the target age group engaging in unprotected sex. The program will inform these individuals on the possible safe sex approaches, which will reduce the new infections. Finally, the program will change the behavior of creating and believing myths, which lack medical support. These myths contribute further to the new infections and the program will provide research data, which clears the myths (Sharma, & Romas, 2008).
The health indicators that the program seeks to change include the reduction within the new and first time infections. In addition, the program will also seek to change the statistics for individuals within the selected community with the infections. Finally, with a focus on the adolescents and young adults it will reduce the diseases prevalence in the entire community due to their influence in the community.
Health educational plan
The education program will have the following steps:
- Needs assessment
- Identification and prioritization of the assessed needs
- Set the information goals
- Development of the strategy
- Implementation
- Monitoring along with evaluation
The health education plan for the program entails a number of procedures, which will lead to solving the issue. First, the team will assess the facts that the age group needs to learn. Considering the relative nature of the truth the facts will present a strategy, which demystifies the myths, which revolve around sexual health in the chosen community. The myths revolve around the methods of transmission and possible methods of treatment for the sexual health problems.
With the identification of the facts, the program will move towards creating an accuracy and emphasis of the facts on to the set problems. The emphasis of the facts will develop the foundation needed towards sensitization of the program. Further, the program will improve the understanding through providing issues that the set group relates to with the aim of creating a build-up towards the solutions (Higgins, Lavin, & Metcalfe, 2008). Next, the program will plot the strategy in an emotionally acceptable manner. The approach will have an importance in accomplishing the results by opening forums for the infested individuals to seek further assessment. Finally, the facts presented by the health education program will entail usable facts. As compared to advocating for abstinence, the program holds for safer sexual practices among the selected generation. Usable facts and strategies will attract the select group towards applying the same facts.
Teaching requirements
The health education outreach program plans to develop knowledge on several areas. First, the program will present information regarding the variety of STD`s which exist from medical research. From this, the next requirement involves identifying the methods of transfer and infection. The information will facilitate the creation of awareness among the group of individuals who at times receive misguidance from the media and fail to comprehend these issues (Higgins, Lavin, & Metcalfe, 2008). The teaching requirement involves the provision of information on the symptoms associated with all identified STD`s. the identification of these symptoms will enable individuals who have such experiences to seek the medical assessment. In addition, the program will provide details regarding the prevention approaches which the learners can apply to reduce their chances of re-infection and infection.
Finally, the program will present information regarding reproductive health and the reduction of further infection between the expectant adolescents and unborn.
In the provision of research information, the program will hold information desks, which will offer research documentaries in visual form and handouts. The documentaries will raise the awareness for the target groups. These information desks will target the learning centers including local universities and schools where the groups exist in majorities.The information desks will also have integrated testing and assessment points for the medical assessment of individuals who will need to have the tests. With the information access, the program will have assessment points where individuals go through the testing procedures.
Finally, the health education promotion will involve influential individuals including role models and local celebrity figures who have experienced the health conditions. The influential individuals will enable the program to influence the target group towards perceiving the health condition as a reality. They will also encourage the target group to go through the tests. Testing will reduce the risks among the individuals in the target age group and promote their health.
Implementation of the Health Education Plan
Objectives within the implementation of the education plan include encouraging the target group to initiate their involvement beyond the forum presented by the health education strategy (Higgins, Lavin, & Metcalfe, 2008). In addition, the objectives entail empowering the target individuals to participate in action and decision-making within the program and further from the program. Further, the implementation seeks to provide opportunities for the target group to apply teamwork approaches towards identifying the solutions for the health issues.
The implementation process will involve the assessment of the education needs. Under this, the education facilitators will coordinate the information, which the target group will access. Furthermore, the team will coordinate and asses the attitudes, values along with the feelings expressed by the target team (Sharma, & Romas, 2008). From this, the team will explore the values and feelings to present an opportunity of joint development towards identifying the solution. The assessment will also involve the coordination of the skills, which the target team should develop. The skills will facilitate the improvement health through guiding the sexual behaviors of the target group. Implementation of the education plan seeks to improve the health and assure the wellbeing of the target group along accomplishing the standards set within the healthy people 2020 strategies.
The assessment will have few determinants which include the identifying the exposure levels of the target group with the STD`s. With high exposure rates, the implementation will take a view of reduction in re-infection rates. With low exposure rates, the implementation will move along the view of reduced new infections. The trends will vary within different learning institution, which presents a need for both implementation strategies. Again, the implementation will include program coordinators within these learning institutions.
The learning outcomes will provide a chance to work measurement tools. These outcomes for the targeted group include having the members of the target group undergo diagnosis and testing. The information and awareness program through the health education will facilitate increase in sexual behavior awareness. The awareness will not only affect the target teenage group but also the larger Newark community. The program also looks forward into changing the values and perception the larger community towards the discussion of sex issues. Considering the perception held by this community regarding the discussions of teenage sex, the education program will change the set perception. Finally, the program will change the sexual behaviors practiced by the set target. The program will reduce the promiscuous behaviors to promotion of one-partner relationships. Further, considering the diversity of the changing times the program also looks into sensitizing the target group about issues with same sex relationships with the regards to STD`s. The program will finally discard the myths, which have contributed to the prevalence rates (PeÌrez, & Luquis, 2008).
The approaches employed in the implementation strategy will include the video documentaries, which provide the experiences of individuals who have experienced the condition. The documentaries will also hold the information regarding the research which identifies the existing STD`s from medical research. Other approaches in implementing the strategy include the use of open forums for discussions, which will also involve the influential persons who share these experiences. These implementation programs will enable the target groups to understand the reality of the issue. Furthermore, the implementation team will involve people who the target group can relate with.
Evaluation of effectiveness
The measures for effectiveness also include considering the search for information and the response to questions during the education sessions. With a target group asking questions during the open sessions, the program will have gained effectiveness among the community because it will indicate the need to learn (PeÌrez, & Luquis, 2008). Further, the program seeks to address questions asked by the target group. Some of the questions go without answering due to the conservative nature of their community. Asking such questions will denote the program’s effectiveness. With such questions the education team will demystify the existing myths regarding the STD`s within the community. Finally, in assessing the effectiveness of the plan, there exists a need to identify the behavioral changes among the age group.
In the evaluation of outcomes shown in section two, the community will have progressed by seeking additional and relevant information from the internet and information centers located within health institutions. Further, the involvement of the influential individuals within the community in the education plan facilitates the change of perception. More individuals within the target age group will seek advice regarding same sex intercourse activities. The education program will meet the set targets within the plan for the target group.
The scientific health and behavioral indicators, which assist in the assessment of learning, include a decrease in the rate of new and re-infections. Further, health indicators include accessing health facilities to seek guidance and solutions to sexual related health problems. The program will also promote the reproductive health among the target age group (PeÌrez, & Luquis, 2008). The indicator for promotion of reproductive health includes increased tests for the expectant teens.
The behavior cuts across the target group to the larger community. The program should also influence the larger community because the target group forms part of the Newark community (PeÌrez, & Luquis, 2008). The expected influence on the community`s behavior includes the change from the conservative nature to the welcoming discussions about the STD`s and sexual behavior.
Other services, which tag along the health promotion program, include reproductive health services for the target group. Based on the Healthy people 2020, the target group needs an introduction to the reproductive health issues (Office of Population Affairs, 2010). The distribution of certified condoms within the target institutions will also facilitate the risk reduction within the community. The certified condoms will ensure the target group engages in safer sexual practices.
References
Office of Population Affairs, O. (2010). Reproductive Health and Healthy People 2020. Office of Population Affairs, 5(1), 1-38.
Health Service Executive, H. S. (2010). The Health Promotion Strategic Framework. Health Service Executive, 54(2), 4-66.
Higgins, C., Lavin, T., & Metcalfe, O. (2008). Institute of Public Health. Health Impacts of Education a review, 1(3), 3-38.
PeÌrez, M. A., & Luquis, R. R. (2008). Cultural competence in health education and health promotion. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Sharma, M., & Romas, J. A. (2008). Theoretical foundations of health education and health promotion. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
