The village of Marion is located in Osceola County in the State of Michigan, and by 2018 July, the village was approximated to have a population of 900 people. With the increasing popularity of preventive health, individuals seek care that aims at improving health and well-being as well as preventing the spread of diseases. In the village of Marion, there are some community health resources, whose function is to ensure that community members stay healthy and are protected from the detrimental effects of health disparities. Such healthcare resources that are available in the community include a medical center that serves all ages, a physical therapy office, a health department, and a food pantry. Additionally, there are community health outreach programs whose aim is to promote health and ensure that community members are aware of their health.
The primary role of the community medical center is the delivery of comprehensive primary health care, as well as mental and dental health services to the community members. It serves people from across all ages, but more focus is placed on the vulnerable groups including the children and older adults. The healthcare services delivered by the medical center mostly depends on the level of community participation. The primary role that the community health department plays is health protection and promotion and prevention of diseases and injury, i.e., improvement of the health status of community members. The department focus on healthcare services that are population-based. It assesses the community health needs by the collection of relevant information, and according to the data collected, the department prioritizes on the health needs that are of great significance to the community. The prioritized health needs are determined with regards to their seriousness, importance, magnitude and the economic impact that they have on the community as well as the community’s ability to formulate a health promotion program that can assess the health problem (Jongen, McCalman, & Bainbridge, 2017).
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There is also a local food pantry in the village of Marion, which is sponsored by a local church. The food pantry functions to serve the individuals in the community who suffer from food insecurity and food hunger. The pantry distributes foods to the community members once a month. Community outreach programs are also a part of the Marion community, and church organizations, as well as social services agencies, offer health services to the people in the community who need it. An example of an active outreach program in the community is a church-based program that focuses on addressing teenage drug abuse and teenage pregnancy. The community members are actively involved in community programs, where they participate in the programs and ensure that they have the skills that can help them to participate actively in community development. All community members benefit from the resources, and they attend clinics at the medical center and also support community outreach programs. Parents allow their teenage children to participate in the outreach programs, which help protect the future generation of individuals against adverse health issues. Parents with young children also actively participate in community vaccination and immunization programs (Jongen et al., 2017).
A health promotion idea that can help improve the health of the young population in the community of Marion is the institution of education programs within schools, such that teenagers are taught by community health personnel on the detrimental effects of tobacco smoking. The program can also focus on young girls and the protection against teenage pregnancy. Teenagers are highly vulnerable to addictive and destructive risky behaviors such as smoking, and therefore such a program would improve their overall health (George, Mehra, Scott, & Sriram, 2015). Another health promotion idea is the incorporation of vaccination and immunization programs within schools. Such programs would ensure that all parents vaccinate their children against dangerous communicable diseases before they can join the school and thereby prevent the spread of such diseases within school environments (George et al., 2015).
References
George, A. S., Mehra, V., Scott, K., & Sriram, V. (2015). Community Participation in Health Systems Research: A Systematic Review Assessing the State of Research, the Nature of Interventions Involved and the Features of Engagement with Communities. Plos One , 10 (10), e0141091. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0141091
Jongen, C. S., McCalman, J., & Bainbridge, R. G. (2017). The Implementation and Evaluation of Health Promotion Services and Programs to Improve Cultural Competency: A Systematic Scoping Review. Frontiers in Public Health , 5 . doi:10.3389/fpubh.2017.00024
