Introduction:
Basically, social determinants of health generally affect the outcome and sometimes access of the individual to health-related services. This paper will present a case study that aims at discussing the social determinant of health under which a particular group falls, explore how it affects their health, and suggest what interventions can be put in place to eliminate or reduce such disparities.
Concept of Social Determinants of Health:
The social determinants of health refer to the conditions in the environment, such as where people are born, live, learn, work, and play. They include socioeconomic status, education, employment, social support, and physical factors such as access to healthcare services. For this case study, we will focus on access to healthcare services as a critical social determinant of health.Access to health services was categorized into physical access to the health facilities, cost of services, and availability of health insjsons, while cultural access involved the cultural access barriers to care.
Relationship to Health Outcome:
Poor health outcomes, for example, delay in diagnosis and management of medical conditions, are linked to limited access to health services, and they lead to high prevalence in avoidable diseases and increased health disparities among vulnerable populations.
New York Neighborhood Data Profiles
We would only justify that the New York Neighborhood Data Profiles in this case study were bound to be used by a researcher who wants to study access to healthcare services in a given community within the entire city of New York. This source provides detailed information about facilities, insurances, and healthcare-seeking behavior that cuts across the neighborhoods in the area of concern.
Case Study Community: Bronx, New York
Another great concern is the status of healthcare access to the Bronx, for its high poverty rates, the lowest ratio of healthcare facilities to the population, and a huge percentage of its residents remain without insurance coverage. Available data from the New York Neighborhood Data Profiles further indicates that access to health varies by need, although in many cases, access to timely and quality health care is compromised.
Proposed Intervention: Community Health Outreach Program
In these considerations, to make the essential provision for an offered limited health service problem in Bronx County, it is hereby proposed that a Community Health Outreach Program be initiated. The project would include community health workers empowered and engaged in their outreach activities in linking the resident with health resources, providing health education, and facilitating affordable access to care options.
Evidence for the Intervention:
Studies have shown that community-based health outreach programs are an effective strategy for providing access to health care services, more so among the underserved population . This is a program that works effectively toward the reduction of disparities in health care and the promotion of the use of preventive care among citizens through community action and the responsiveness of health care to communities.
Measurement of Intervention Impact:
The impacts of the Community Health Outreach Program include the number of populations that came into contact with the program, tendencies to change rate of health service utilization, improvements in health outputs, and from their feedback from the programs they have participated in on the change that occurred in them.
It helps in measuring these, hence assessing the program in relation to how effective it is over the increase in accesses to health care services by the people within the Bronx community.
In conclusion, access to health care services, which form prerequisites for improved health outcomes and, at the same time, reduction of access disparities, counts among the most important of the social determinants of health. Through the use of evidence-based programs of intervention, such as the Community Health Outreach Program, will be the surest thing to assure quality care towards all people in society.
References:
Kangovi, Shreya, et al. “Effect of Community Health Worker Support on Clinical Outcomes of Low-Income Patients across Primary Care Facilities.” JAMA Internal Medicine, vol. 178, no. 12, 1 Dec. 2018, p. 1635, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.4630.
Paparini, Sara, et al. “Case Study Research for Better Evaluations of Complex Interventions: Rationale and Challenges.” BMC Medicine, vol. 18, no. 1, 10 Nov. 2020, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01777-6.
World Health Organization. “Social Determinants of Health.” World Health Organisation, 2021, www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health.(World Health Organization)(Kangovi et al.)(Paparini et al.)
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