Free Essay Example on Primary Health Concerns of the U.S. Population

Introduction

There are many health challenges that the U.S. population faces that include the rise of health-care costs. An excellent reason to explain why the costs keep rising is that of government policy. Within the States, since the inception of Medicare, which are programs that help people who have no health insurance, providers have taken advantage of increasing prices (Jackson & Gracia, 2014). Other reasons for the drastic rise in the costs include the growth of the population, more people aging, the prevalence of certain diseases, and medical service utilization.

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Another primary health concern is the need for a strong public health workforce. It is a critical threat to public health because they need professionals to treat them. It is a concern that there is a looming workforce shortage in areas such as nursing, laboratory services, and environmental health that are crucial to the well-being of the community. The statistics show that by the year 2025, the U.S. will need to hire more than 2 million new workers in the health care sector if they plan to take care of the aging population adequately.

Educational Approaches to the Health Concerns

Health education is necessary to overcome barriers to health promotion and disease prevention for the broader U.S. population. The approach builds on the social and cultural understanding of issues in the community that are significant concerns. The aim of the strategy is to improve access to information on health-related matters, instill knowledge that will give people more control over their health and well-being (Jackson & Gracia, 2014). When people understand the reason a particular disease is persistent, they will know how to deal with it.

Health education will be a necessary activity to promote healthy behaviors and practices within the population. The educators will provide correct, credible, and understandable facts about the health concerns as well as ways to deal with the issues. They will need to be aware of the concerns, their consequences, and the means to prevent future occurrences of the same. In an example of the increased costs of getting health care, the educator will need to know the causes of such a concern and advise more people to have health insurance that covers their families.

Health education will help the minority communities develop a positive attitude in that they can change their opinions, feelings, and beliefs that they are neglected hence the problem of finding medical care. The approach will help achieve community mobilization such that they engage in collective action to assess their needs and plan activities, targets, and goals to meet them (Jackson & Gracia, 2014). Community participation is necessary when educating people on how to deal with their concerns because it will involve people who have detailed knowledge of their history, culture, and the surrounding environment. These aspects are crucial to be included in all states of the community development because it helps in choosing the health-care priorities and making plans.

Barriers to Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

High rates of poverty within the minority groups make it difficult for the participants to pay for services or programs. Health education needs setting up programs that will teach people how to deal with their issues hence the need for enrollment (Wang et al., 2017). In cases where there is pay needed, the people are unable to afford it, and that makes it challenging to prevent diseases. Similarly, people in such communities also have low literacy levels, and their perception of health is incomplete. In that case, it will be challenging to promote healthy behaviors without changing such perceptions, especially if they are fueled by cultural and social norms.

The U.S. budget is said to be too tight and fixed on more critical things hence the barrier of the lack of resources that are necessary to support personnel, the use of facilities, and also effective operation of the set programs (Wang et al., 2017). There are limited options for aspects such as reliable and affordable transportation. This way, it isn't easy to provide health education without necessarily having the funds to support the operations. People are also less motivated if there are no incentives to boost their morale. To promote healthy behaviors, people also need access to healthy foods and options for physical activities that may not be available because of the areas they live (Wang et al., 2017). Generally, it is challenging to promote health and prevent diseases when there are such barriers to limit the activities designed for such.

Conclusion

Finally, it is also a primary health concern that there are persistent disparities that the minority communities face. Such disparities include low levels of life expectancy, a decrease in the quality of life, decreased productivity, and social inequity (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2014). It is more challenging for them to seek medical care because their regions are underdeveloped. If the minority communities continue experiencing issues of the poor status of health and demographic changes, it is most likely that the problems will magnify their adverse impacts on the broader population.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014). Health disparities experienced by racial/ethnic minority populations. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 53(33), 755. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5333a1.htm#:~:text=For%20persons%20of%20these%20racial,care%20costs%2C%20and%20social%20inequity.

Jackson, C. S., & Gracia, J. N. (2014). Addressing health and health-care disparities: the role of a diverse workforce and the social determinants of health. Public Health Reports, 129(1_suppl2), 57-61. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3863703/

Wang, S. C., Crook, L., Connell, C., & Yadrick, K. (2017). "We Need Help in the Delta" Barriers to Health Promotion Among Older African American Men in the Mississippi Delta. American journal of men's health, 11(2), 414-425. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1557988316684472.