Pubh6006: Community Health Assessment Answer

 MAS5561

Health Care Assignment :

Hospitalisation rates due to injuries of Australians living in outer regional and remote parts of NSW are higher than in urban populations (Mitchell and Chong, 2010). Of these injuries, burns contribute to twice as many hospital admissions in both males and females in these communities compared to urban areas (Health Stats NSW, 2016; Mitchell and Chong, 2010). Burn injuries come at a large cost to the well being of the victim, the families and the healthcare system depending on the burn treatment and ongoing care required. This paper will present for consideration a needs assessment for burn prevention and the crucial initial actions in case of burns focusing on the outer and remote regions of NSW. The characteristics of this priority population will be stated and then a discussion will follow on the approach and method that may best suite a needs assessment for this public health concern. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis (Humphrey, 2005) will be presented to direct potential programs for this issue and finally a determination of
priorities and potential challenges for the needs assessment will be reviewed. Injury due to fire, burns and scalds is the sixth most common cause of injury requiring hospitalisation across Australia (Australian Government Department of Health, 2012). While such injuries occur in
regional NSW almost 17 times more often among non‐Aboriginal males than Aboriginal males and slightly more for non‐Aboriginal females compared to Aboriginal females (NSW Health, 2010), burns as a cause of injury is more prevalent in the Aboriginal population (2.6%) than in the non‐Aboriginal population (1.4%) (NSW Health, 2010), particularly to Aboriginal children aged between 0 and 9 years of age (Boufous, Ivers, Senserrick, Martiniuk and Clapham, 2010). The most common causes of burn injuries in these populations is from exposure to hot food, fluids and vapours (Boufous, et al, 2010). Such injuries are more prevalent in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged communities
(Health Stats NSW, 2016). Possible factors contributing to these statistics include different environmental conditions and the increase likelihood of rural residents being exposed to potential fire risks (Mitchell and Chong, 2010).

Questions:

1) Identify a preventable health concern in which you are interested, such as dengue fever or type 2 diabetes. Using Laverack’s ladder of community-based interaction as a guide, describe three key strategies that you might use to engage with a community to implement a program to address this health concern

2) Discuss how you could use the core domains of capacity-building identified by Liberato et al (2011) to support the journey to community empowerment and ownership of a prevention program for your chosen health concern

3) Describe the models and approaches of health promotion (such as the health belief model or the education approach) that you would use to motivate and educate the community about your chosen health concern, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each model/approach