Assessment Written Community Plan

Introduction

Community plans play a pivotal role in assessing and meeting the needs of communities. However, the community plans keep changing based on the advancement of the community and require timely updates to effectively balance the population’s requirements (Rowe et al., 2001). This paper involves a community plan that summarizes and integrates my previous research to define my community. Also, the community plan will focus on providing the windshield survey summary, community resources and partners, and community assessment. Besides, the plan will examine my role as a community caregiver and my interventions for people with disabilities on how to alleviate hypertension and stroke incidences and live a healthy life within Atlanta, GA city and those who attend Central Training Center.

Definition of Community

A community is a social condition or state of any size whose population shares an administration, has a common historical and cultural heritage, and lives in a specific area (Smith et al., 2011). My community is the City of Atlanta, GA, Fulton County, which is situated in Fulton County, Georgia. It has the highest population per the 2020 statistics, making it the 37^th largest city in America and the largest in Georgia (World Populationreview, n.d.). The population of the community is increasing at an alarming rate, and its demographics include the following: Whites are 40.42% of the population, African Americans are 49.79%, Native Americans are 0.38%, Pacific Islanders are 0.04%, Asian are 4.80%, and other races occupy 4.58% of the population. However, my facility is Central Training Center, located at 425 Langhorn St SW, Atlanta, GA 30310, USA. The city of Atlanta, GA, is recognized to have numerous children and adult day program services for individuals without or with disabilities such as Frazer Center. Besides, the community has exciting places such as historic battlefields, museums, art, gardens, and theme parks. My focus of this paper is on those individuals with learning disabilities to educate and teach them about maintaining healthy lifestyles to eradicate the prevalence of hypertension and stroke in the community.

Windshield Survey

The survey provided essential background for understanding the population and the community by exploring various factors affecting the area’s health. The assessment also helped me realize the community’s weaknesses, strengths, risks, and gaps. Based on the windshield survey results, it is evident that the community is historically an Afro-centric community, a black community that is redeveloped. Atlanta, GA, is a fantastic community with various locally owned restaurants, stores, groceries, and small businesses. Also, the West End community has numerous activities that the residents can participate in, such as bike riding, visiting the park, and going to the farmer’s market.

Nevertheless, the community’s challenges and weaknesses involve the growing homeless population, unhealthy lifestyle, and increased rate of crimes. It is terrible to see many homeless individuals in the community who sleep on the streets. Also, the increased crime rates are caused by an improved population of individuals in the city. Another major issue in my community is the increased number of fast-food restaurants which provide jerk foods. The healthy restaurants in the region are minimal. Thus, a proposed solution for overcoming some of the problems in the community, such as homelessness, can be curbed by developing affordable housing for everyone. This will help to provide a place to the residents unable to pay the enormous amount of money for rent in the city.

Additionally, the most exciting thing noted from the windshield survey about the community is how the residents put efforts into maintaining their community or neighborhood clean. The parks in the community look better than before, and a majority of the population that I engaged with showed pride in living in the West End. Besides, the community is well-situated for young professional grown-ups, including accessible public transportation. Also, the West Side Beltline is a unique region connecting two major Atlanta areas. The community has areas where young people can hang out and gather, such as White and Lee, and colleges where students hang out together. Nursing homes are also found in the community to provide health care services to patients, and rehab centers to guide and counsel patients to improve their health outcomes and safety.

Community Assessment

The population of the community is increasing at an alarming rate, and its demographics shows Whites are 40.42% of the population, African Americans are 49.79%, Native Americans are 0.38%, Pacific Islander is 0.04%, Asian are 4.80%, and other races occupy 4.58% of the population. The ethnic groups give a total population of 510884 individuals in the city of Atlanta, GA, in the year 2022, which is an increase from the previous year, 2021, in which the population was 504700 (Population, n.d.).

Below is the annual population of Atlanta GA

However, incidences of hypertension and strokes are predominant in the region. Hypertension is also identified as high blood pressure, which involves higher blood pressure than usual. In the American nation and worldwide, high blood pressure is a critical public health concern. This is because of its nature to associate with other life-threatening disease such as heart complications. Heart disease, both non-fatal and severe, primarily results from unmanaged high blood pressure (Buford, 2016). Besides, hypertension has no symptoms or signs and is a significant threat to stroke and cardiovascular diseases, among Georgia’s leading causes of death. Studies demonstrate that African Americans adults are more susceptible to hypertension than Asian and white Americans, which may be attributed to economic and social factors like racism rather than biological differences. Also, adults between the ages of 20-45 and 46-64 are less likely to suffer from high blood pressure compared to adults aged 65 years and older. This indicates that older adults are the most vulnerable to hypertension in the community. The statistics for hypertension in Atlanta, GA, show that approximately 96000 deaths are associated with hypertension disease. In 2016 and 2017, the overall costs for hypertension disease wereapproximately 2.4 billion and participated to $ 220.9 billion by 2035. This indicates the need for controlling the risk factors associated with the disease among the community’s residents through medication, exercise, diet, and other essential interventions such as quitting smoking and therapies.

Some of the healthcare facilities in the community include physicians and dental offices and major hospitals such as Grady, which is located 5 miles from the West End and are accessible to peoples by train, car, and bus. Other healthcare facilities in the community include two nursing homes situated five miles from each other and a rehabilitation center in the neighborhood, which is accessible to the community’s residents. These healthcare facilities help provide health care to patients within the community and lead to improved health outcomes.

Diagnosis

To diagnose hypertension, healthcare professionals assess an individual and ask questions concerning any signs and symptoms and their medical history. Besides, high blood pressure diagnoses are determined when measured on two different days, and the readings are greater than or equal to 130/80 mmHg (Sebo et al., 2014). However, the community diagnosis developed is the risk deficiency awareness of a healthy lifestyle among the members with learning disabilities that can help reduce their chances of hypertension and stroke associated with unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking, anxiety, and depression.

Objectives/ Goals

• To minimize medical thought consumption among those disabled people with hypertension and their relatives.
• To help the patients seek long-term treatments for their health condition by offering the relevant information concerning the disease and developing a care plan to handle psychological distress and influence physiological, social, psychological, and emotional recovery.
• To help the patient recover from anxiety and depression and quit smoking, extensive support is needed to overcome the risk factors and root causes, thus leading to a healthy lifestyle.

Community Partners and Resources

My community partners and resources are the Central Training Center and Veronica Rooks, the program manager. The two fit into the project because they help provide health care services needed for interventions that help curb the root causes of hypertension, such as adult mental health conditions, and also offer services concerning developmental disabilities. Central Training Center provides comprehensive addiction and mental health treatment services to all individuals in the community, regardless of their capability to pay. The community resource serves uninsured veterans and adults, including those with Medicare and Medicaid. Also, therapy services for common behavioral problems such as smoking addiction, anxiety, depression, and other behavioral and emotional health issues are free and provided centered on family size and income. Besides, healthcare professionals use effective techniques to enable patients to quit smoking by obtaining support from therapists, nutritionists, care assistants, and behavioral counselors. The community resource is for helping patients stop smoking and chewing tobacco, addressing patients’ concerns, and providing them with relevant assistance and resources to help them stop smoking. Besides, the organization may offer patients the awareness and support they require to live a healthy lifestyle. Also, community healthcare facilities may help patients to live a healthy lifestyle by providing treatment and counseling sessions. These resources involve nonprofit and government programs promoting wellness and well-being. The patients are disclosed to hypertension health service resources, programs, and community providers (Enos, 2017).

Also, the Central Training Center provides developmental disabilities services that are implemented to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities and enable the creation of chances for everyone. The services include socialization skills, where individuals are trained to identify and manage appropriate social behaviors. There are also services for community integration that offer chances for people with disabilities to play, live, and work in the community the same way as others.

Veronica Rooks, the program manager, was influential in the management of hypertension disease by performing patients’ diagnosis tests and treating them in Hypertension and Nephrology department.

Intervention Activities and Resources

Teaching the importance of a healthy living style starts with individuals identifying the impact of their mental conditions on their well-being. Peoples with hypertension usually suffer from anxiety and depression, which may affect their behaviors. A method that may assist in promoting health is screening for depression among patients with high blood pressure. Patients suffering from hypertension should undergo an assessment. Depressed and anxious individuals are more vulnerable to excessive alcohol consumption and smoking, which may lead to hypertension and heart problems. According to Shang et al. (2022), depression and anxiety maintain an individual’s body on a steady high alert, impacting other organs. To help the patient recover from anxiety and depression, extensive support is needed to overcome the risk factors and root causes. Psychiatric and medicinal aid is vital. Healthcare providers should develop behavioral reforms, coping mechanisms, and support to improve resilience for those suffering from anxiety and depression. Cognitive therapists, psychiatrists, physicians, nutritionists, and therapists should develop a care plan to handle psychological distress and influence physiological, social, psychological, and emotional recovery. These sessions may take 2 to 3 hours and perform once a while within the week. Patients should be taught effective interventions concerning anxiety and depression management to assist with high blood pressure treatment.

The posters were created and distributed in the healthcare facility to demonstrate that individuals should quit smoking.

Smoking leads to a sudden rise in blood pressure and heart rate, which is associated with malignant high blood pressure (Virdis et., 2010). The heart organs, such as arteries, are destroyed by the dangerous compounds contained in cigarettes, consisting of carbon monoxide and nicotine (Tamura et al., 2018). Therefore, various intervention measures can control the patient’s smoking behavior. Developing integrated care techniques is vital because quitting smoking demonstrates a challenging behavioral change. Individuals might require between three and a half months to recover from the progressive nature of this intervention and end the suffering of withdrawal. For individuals to withstand a healthy life, firm codes of care are needed by individuals’ fundamental rights to care. A collaborative plan is significant for effective care delivery for people working on quitting smoking because of their needs, such as behavioral and dietary changes that require coordination (Treciokiene et al., 2021). A multidisciplinary collaborative team approach is required to ensure the effectiveness of recovery and manage the side effects associated with social behaviors. This is because numerous specialists participate in stopping attempts to manage cardiovascular diseases, which influence hypertension disease. The participation of the patient’s relatives in smoking cessation interventions is also meaningful.

Additionally, teaching them that treating hypertension disease primarily relies on the appropriate use of prescribed drugs. The medications include drugs such as Calcium channel blockers (CCB) which are used in managing hypertension disease. Using such drugs must be under the physicians’ instructions and watchful control after undergoing a specific diagnosis. The timeline for using these medicines may proceed from two to five weeks under close supervision from the physician.

Evaluation

During my time in the healthcare facility, I observed a significant improvement among the members quitting smoking and engaging in behavioral and emotional therapies that could help relieve stress and depression. The posters circulated in the facility concerning the interventions played a significant role in the members. The program manager assessed the staff, and Veronica Brooks reported how the posters and therapies helped remind the care providers to advocate for healthy living styles to minimize the occurrences of hypertension and stroke. I met with the healthcare facility staff members and discussed how to reduce the incidences of hypertension and stroke and teach the practices to people with learning disabilities.

Additionally, the patients require being involved in self-care intercessions, such as literacy programs, to avoid risks associated with the disease, like drinking too much alcohol, smoking and chewing tobacco, and lack of exercise. A patient-care model is a primary proficiency that uplifts the patient’s status and applies their beliefs and values to influence a change in their lifestyle, which may impact their health conditions. A preliminary care coordination practice for hypertension involves applying the resources accessible to the patient’s interests and ultimate results, incorporating the practices to attain the desired results. These best practices will enhance a practical coordination strategy and positively impact the patient, leading to the accomplished goals and objectives.

Moore et al. (2016) state that high-level teamwork, relationships among specialists, and effective communication help enhance better patient outcomes. Collaboration and inter-professional relationships could create a workplace environment that embraces cultural diversity and focuses on the organizations’ shared goals. This creates room for consultation and asking for ideas from other professionals in case one does not understand a specific condition. Thus, this helps to accomplish the set goals and objectives to reduce the incidences of hypertension and stroke among those with a learning disability.

Conclusion

This community plan project that enabled me to work with people with learning disabilities helped me to provide support and help to the healthcare facility staff. Also, I gained insight into the healthcare providers’ environment and the daily challenges when managing their patients and ensuring patient safety and improved outcomes through the provision of interventions. My teaching to those with a learning disability positively impacted the overall facility since I could see improvement among the clients and the staff when it came to quitting smoking and behavioral and emotional therapies for handling depression and anxiety.

Therefore, the paper has involved a community plan that summarizes and integrates my previous research to define my community. Also, the community plan has focused on providing the windshield survey summary, community resources and partners, and community assessment. This involves community partners and resources, which include the Central Training Center and Veronica Rooks. The resource and partner fit into the project because they help provide health care services needed for interventions that help curb the root causes of hypertension, such as adult mental health conditions and offer services concerning developmental disabilities. Besides, the plan has examined my role as a community caregiver and my interventions for the people living with disabilities on how to alleviate hypertension and stroke incidences and live a healthy life within Atlanta, GA city and who attend Central Training Center. This involves interventions such as a multidisciplinary collaborative team approach to help quit smoking and cognitive and behavioral therapies to reduce the incidences of stress and depression.

The project has finally examined how patients require being involved in self-care intercessions, such as literacy programs, to avoid risks associated with the disease, like drinking too much alcohol, smoking and chewing tobacco, and lack of exercise. This uplifts the patient’s status and applies their beliefs and values to influence a change in their lifestyle, which may impact their health conditions.

References

Buford, T. W. (2016). Hypertension and aging. Ageing research reviews, 26, 96-111. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568163716300071

Enos, G. (2017). Nonprofit health plan makes inroads in integrating behavioral, primary care. Mental Health Weekly, 27(44), 1-7. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/mhw.31257

More, K., Greene, L., & Sapir, T. (2016). Improving interprofessional and productive outcomes of care for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. BMJ Open Quality, 5(1), u210329-w4679. https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/5/1/u210329.w4679?int_source=trendmd&int_medium=cpc&int_campaign=usage-042019

Population (n.d.) Atlanta Population: Retrieved from https://www.populationu.com/cities/atlanta-ga-population

Rowe, A., McClelland, A., Billingham, K., & Carey, L. (2001). Community Health Needs Assessment: An introductory guide for the family health nurse in Europe (No. EUR/01/5019306). World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/108440

Sebo, P., Pechère-Bertschi, A., Herrmann, F. R., Haller, D. M., & Bovier, P. (2014). Blood pressure measurements are unreliable to diagnose hypertension in primary care. Journal of hypertension, 32(3), 509-517. https://journals.lww.com/jhypertension/FullText/2014/03000/Blood_pressure_measurements_are_unreliable_to.11.aspx

Shang, S. T., Chang, Y. L., Ho, W. J., Liu, C. Y., & Chien, C. H. (2022). Quality of Life in Patients With Pulmonary Hypertension. Clinical Nursing Research, 10547738221096558. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10547738221096558

Smith, M. K., Muhajarine, N., Smith, J. A., & Delanoy, S. (2011). Community. the SPHERU KT Casebook, 23. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christian-Dagenais-2/publication/278028632_Evaluation_des_processus_d’implantation_d’un_programme_de_transfert_de_connaissances_par_agents_multiplicateurs_pour_la_prevention_des_mauvais_traitements/links/5c88f70645851564fada06fa/Evaluation-des-processus-dimplantation-dun-programme-de-transfert-de-connaissances-par-agents-multiplicateurs-pour-la-prevention-des-mauvais-traitements.pdf#page=24

Tamura, T., Kadomatsu, Y., Tsukamoto, M., Okada, R., Sasakabe, T., Kawai, S., … & Wakai, K. (2018). Association of exposure level to passive smoking with hypertension among lifetime nonsmokers in Japan: a cross-sectional study. Medicine, 97(48). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6283225/

Treciokiene, I., Postma, M., Nguyen, T., Fens, T., Petkevicius, J., Kubilius, R., … & Taxis, K. (2021). Healthcare professional-led interventions on lifestyle modifications for hypertensive patients–a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC family practice, 22(1), 1-15. https://bmcprimcare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12875-021-01421-z

Virdis, A., Giannarelli, C., Fritsch Neves, M., Taddei, S., & Ghiadoni, L. (2010). Cigarette smoking and hypertension. Current pharmaceutical design, 16(23), 2518-2525. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/cpd/2010/00000016/00000023/art00003

World Population Review (n.d.) Atlanta, Georgia Population 2022: Retrieved from https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/atlanta-ga-population

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