Week 7 Improving Community Outcomes ALL SOLUTION FALL-2022 LATEST 100% CORRECT GUARANTEED GRADE A+

For a community to improve its health, its members must often change aspects of the physical, social, organizational, and even political environments to eliminate or reduce factors that contribute to health problems or to introduce new elements that promote better health. What are the challenges of initiating and maintaining change in communities? There are many challenges of initiating and maintaining change in communities. Although many communities face some of the same challenges when implementing change to improve its overall health, the type of challenge depends on the type of intervention (obesity, tobacco or suicide prevention) and type of community (urban, suburban, rural, exurban). Assessing the community’s health needs, determining the resources and assets for promoting health, and developing and implementing strategies for action should be part of the comprehensive approach to maintaining and improving community health (Institute of Medicine, 1997). One great challenge that many communities face in America is the challenge of primary care shortage. These areas are known as primary care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs). These designated shortage areas face multiple challenges within their communities that contribute or compound their health problems. In rural communities, high prevalence of chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, respiratory diseases, and diabetics have major influences on health outcomes when compared to the urban communities. This type of community also has higher mortality and disability rate. It is important to determine the needs of the community when developing a health promotion plan and understand the barriers that may contribute to these health challenges. This type of community has higher poverty rates making it difficult for community members to pay for programs or services, (financial barriers). This type of community has low health literacy levels that may pose a challenge in their perceptions of health behaviors. Rural communities have less public transportation limiting the community members ability to attend classes or educational programs and less access to healthy foods and physical activity options. These shared barriers in rural communities provide context to help understand and establish strategies that will create and maintain change in the community (Rural Health Information Hub, 2019).