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Introduction
Social protection programs are designed to help citizens maintain an adequate quality of life and health. The level of social protection depends on the country in which citizens receive it. Nevertheless, the right to such protection is an inalienable right of each person. The purpose of this paper is to discuss Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and how it helps improve the health of the nation, and what limits it has. Although the program is designed to support low-income families, particularly in maintaining determinants of health, some of its features can negatively impact people’s health.
TANF Description
Many low-income families in the country need help, especially those with children. TANF was adopted in 1996 instead of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), which has existed since 1935 (“Policy basics,” 2021). The program is temporary financial aid and services that states, receiving money from the federal fund, provide to families (“What is TANF?” n.d.). To participate in the program, residents must be partially employed or unemployed, have a low income, and have children under 18 years old (“What is Temporary Assistance,” n.d.). However, an essential condition for receiving assistance is the subsequent search for a job by workable family members; otherwise, the payment is discontinued (“Policy basics,” 2021). Additional restrictions on receiving assistance under the program include restrictions on pregnancy while receiving assistance, a ban on drugs and crimes related to them, and limited places where money can be spent (“Policy basics,” 2021). Thus, the program is aimed at supporting people with children and their quality of life.
Many factors surrounding people affect human health, positively and negatively. Some of them can be grouped into social determinants of health (SDOH), which include social and community context, economic stability, health care access and quality, education access and quality, and neighborhood and built environment (“Social determinants of health,” n.d.). TANF is designed to affect economic stability, as it provides financial assistance and stimulates job search. Work and money, in turn, should affect access to medicine. Accordingly, the program should push to improve two determinants of health.
TANF Limitations
While social assistance programs aim to improve the well-being of people, some programs have disadvantages that cause opposite effects. For example, studies prove that multiple conditions for receiving aid create a significant burden and negatively affect single mothers’ mental health (Davis, 2019). At the same time, although the program aims to maintain the well-being of children, its impact is also ambiguous. On the one hand, material support is needed for the child, and on the other hand, additional stress on parents negatively affects children. The harmful impact on children associated with TANF limits is proven in a study by Spencer et al. (2021). However, the same research states that aid within the program prevents maltreatment (Spencer et al., 2021). Therefore, the program has both advantages and disadvantages, and it requires improvement to be more effective.
Another limitation inherent in TANF is racism, the manifestation of which also negatively affects health. Parolin (2019) found that in states with a larger share of African-Americans, federal funds are more likely to be used to reduce the percentage of single mothers than to provide financial aid. Following the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, this feature reflects the stereotype of African-American mothers making money only on social programs (“Policy basics,” 2021). These facts suggest that the program exacerbates social injustice and harms one of the social determinants of health. Therefore, the program can fail children, primarily from families of color, increasing stress for parents and unevenly distributing aid.
The specifics of the nurses’ work imply sympathy and care for the entire population without exceptions. As a result, these professionals, among other duties, have the responsibility to protect the rights of low-income families and their access to health care (Williams et al., 2018). From the point of view of social policy, nurses must promote preventive measures to maintain health. Favorable SDOH helps maintain well-being at a high level to avoid additional health problems (Williams et al., 2018). Potential tools for nursing practice may be SDOH screening to determine families who need help (Williams et al., 2018). Identifying patients’ needs is an essential step in developing care for them.
In the workplace, nurses can take the lead in protecting and promoting favorable SDOH for their patients. In particular, nurses can participate in collecting data on the problem, establish collaboration with stakeholders, conduct SDOH studies, and inform patients (Williams et al., 2018). If the patients are not eligible for participation in TAFN, there are many large and small programs to help the population. For example, with Medicaid, people whose income is below the poverty level can receive medical care (Barnes et al., 2021). Other alternatives are the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) (Barnes et al., 2021). Employees can provide information about possible aid through the safety net program or legal protection.
Conclusion
Safety net and legal protection programs in America still need improvement to help low-income citizens. For example, although the studied TANF supports several SDOH, it still has problems of racism and adverse health effects and, in this way, fails the children, whom it should help. Nurses can help low-income families learn about the circumstances affecting their health and informing them about opportunities to participate in various programs.
References
Barnes, M., Bauer, L., Edelberg, W., Estep, S., Greenstein, R., & Macklin, M. (2021). The social insurance system in the US: Policies to protect workers and families. Brookings.
Davis, O. (2019). What is the relationship between benefit conditionality and mental health? Evidence from the United States on TANF policies.Journal of Social Policy, 48(2), 249-269.
Parolin, Z. (2019). Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Black–White child poverty gap in the United States. Socio-Economic Review, mwz025. Web.
Policy basics: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. (2021). Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Social determinants of health. (n.d.). Healthy People.
Spencer, R. A., Livingston, M. D., Komro, K. A., Sroczynski, N., Rentmeester, S. T., & Woods-Jaeger, B. (2021). Association between Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and child maltreatment among a cohort of fragile families. Child Abuse & Neglect, 120, 105186.
What is TANF? (n.d.). U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
What is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families?(n.d.) Benefits.gov.
Williams, S. D., Phillips, J. M., & Koyama, K. (2018). Nurse advocacy: Adopting a health in all policies approach. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(3).
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