Public Health Policies and Initiatives’ Implementation

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Table of Contents

Selecting Area of Interest and Decision Approach
Selecting the Program for Improvement
Employing Five-Step Strategic Management Approach
Conclusion
References

According to the requirements of the assignment, I am put into the situation where I, as a new public health leader for a public health agency, have to select, plan, and implement a new populations health program for adolescents and young adults. This paper is divided into the following sections:

selecting an area of interest and describing the decision approach,
identification of the program to be implemented, and
developing the plan according to the five steps process of strategic management.

Selecting Area of Interest and Decision Approach

Area of Interest’s Identification

First of all, it is essential to define the population group, on which the further program implementation will be focused. Considering the age index, this paper is concerned with the cohort of adolescents (ages 10-19) and young adults (ages 20-24). There are numerous problems which exist among this cohort, including homicide and suicide, gang violence, substance use/abuse, smoking and drinking, sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV) and unplanned pregnancies, and others. However, for this paper, it was chosen to focus on the problem of homelessness. This problem is evidently present in the United States since “more than 1.6 million U.S. children are homeless each year” (Haskett, Armstrong, & Tisdale, 2016, p. 119). Also, it should be mentioned that the meso level of mid-size health department was chosen as the circumstances for the implementation of the program since this level of leadership appears to be optimal for the solution of the identified problem. The following subsection will discuss in details the approach to the decision of choosing this particular population group.

Decision Approach Identification

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, there are ten essential environmental health services, which are categorized into three primary functions of public health, which are assessment, policy development, and assurance (Resources organized by essential services, 2018). For this paper, it is essential to describe the rationale behind the choice of the homeless population group in the context of first two functions.

Firstly, assessment function relates to two services, which are

monitoring of community’s environmental and health conditions to detect and solve the potential problems and
diagnosis and investigation of community’s environmental health problems (Resources organized by essential services, 2018).

Therefore, it should be stated that, according to the assessment process, an observation of the homeless youth’s condition was made by employing the information from scholarly articles. As a result, a vital necessity for the development of an intervention program for this population group has revealed (Koh & O’Connell, 2016).

Thus, the second step was to employ the policy development function. This process comprises three primary objectives:

to inform and educate the community about environmental health problems,
to mobilize society for the collective solution of the issues identified,
to develop strategies which will serve as the basis for individual and collective efforts (“Resources Organized by Essential Services”, 2018).

Thus, to employ this function, it was decided to develop a population health program, which would comply with the objectives mentioned above.

Selecting the Program for Improvement

Before dwelling upon the five stages of the strategic management process, it is essential to identify and describe the program of choice generally and to explain the rationale behind the selection. One can hardly doubt that the issue under discussion represents a complexity of interdependent problems. Also, it should be observed that the majority of these problems have a considerable social context since the responsibility for the homelessness of adolescents is partially lays on their domestic conditions (Bender, Brown, Thompson, Ferguson, & Langenderfer, 2015).

Thus, since the rationale for the selection of the population group was provided, it is possible to identify the program which will be developed in the following section. Partially based on the assertions, which were made by in the research by Bonevski et al. (2014), I can propose the program of community-based support of homeless youths to provide them with proper adherence to medication and improvement of social conditions (for example, helping with the job search). The following section will discuss the implementation of the program in details.

Employing Five-Step Strategic Management Approach

Strategic Mapping

Since the population health program was briefly identified, it is essential to elaborate more profoundly on its development. The first stage of the process is strategic mapping, which relates to goal-setting, identification short and long-term objectives, and the means of their implementation. The primary goal of my program is to eliminate the social barriers for adolescents and young adults’ involvement into normal social life. In order to achieve this goal, the following short-term objectives are to be set:

to employ the screening tests for mental health,
to implement developmental and educational services,
to evoke the interest to the problem within the community,
to make better use of online communication tools (Haskett, Armstrong, & Tisdale, 2016; Rice & Barman-Adhikari, 2014).

In a long-term perspective, the implementation of these objectives would help to spread the awareness about the problem within the community and to improve the homeless youth’s adherence to proper medication and psychological support.

External Environmental Analysis

Further, it is essential to perform external environmental analysis to determine the conditions in which the program will be implemented. Based on the implications from two core functions of public health, which were mentioned above, it was decided to study the scholarly literature on the topic. From various studies, it is evident that homeless youth population group experiences multiple environmental and health problems, which comprise but are not limited to the following: victimization before and after leaving home, PTSD, depression, substance use disorders, exposure to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, adverse habitations conditions, non-adherence to proper medication (Bender et al., 2015; Barman-Adhikari et al., 2016; Haskett, Armstrong, & Tisdale, 2016, Social determinants of health, 2018).

For example, Bender et al. (2015) provide the following statistics: 68,5% of the studied sample met diagnostic criteria for substance use disorder, 51% experienced street victimization in the form of physical assault, and 88,7% experienced childhood victimization in the way of emotional abuse (p. 3). The identification of these problems provides an opportunity to understand the circumstances in which the homeless youth population group exists.

Internal Environmental Analysis

To gather a broader understanding of the situation, the internal analysis should also be conducted. In the context of the chosen area and clinical level of implementation, it is essential to define which resources does the mid-size state health department have to implement the program. First of all, it is possible to suggest that the clinic could provide screening tools and services for the shelters. It is apparent that very few shelters have adequate equipment to assess the developmental delays along with socio-psychological issues that are present among the homeless youths (Haskett, Armstrong, & Tisdale, 2016). Also, a mid-size health department is capable of conducting a social campaign to raise the awareness about the problem within the community (Bonevski et al., 2014). Since many adolescents are using social media and other online communication tools for reaching parents, social support workers, and potential employers, it is essential to encourage homeless youths to employ this means of communication to the full extent (Rice & Barman-Adhikari, 2014).

Mission Statement

It is also of high importance to formulate a mission statement, which would express the essence of the program, evoke interest in people, and encourage them to join in. I would propose a declaration like this: the mission of this program is to reduce the number of homeless youths, to provide them with the essential material, social, and psychological support, and to prevent other adolescents from entering the street life by creating the favorable social environment within the community. The vision of the program is the society, which is supportive towards needs of others, where children receive adequate upbringing and education and adults engage in social support activities.

Directional and Adaptive Strategies

Further, it is of high importance to discuss directional and adaptive strategies for the implementation of the program since its success is dependent on these strategies. The short and long-term objectives along with the available clinical resources, which were identified in the previous subsections, comprise the basis for the directional strategy. In the implementation of the program, clinical staff should share the same values and commitments of caregiving and compassion for homeless youths. The understanding of mission and vision should also be shared. Each member of clinical staff should understand the objectives of the program and contribute to its successful implementation to the maximum extent. Concerning the adaptive strategies, it is possible to observe that the principal scope of the program comprises

the improvement of homeless adolescents and young adults’ well-being and
the elimination of social barriers of engaging into the community.

Strategic Implementation Plan

Finally, it is important to briefly observe the strategic implementation plan and the outcome measures for the success of the program. There two primary areas of highest priority:

the amelioration of shelters by the provision of screening tests and mental health assessment services, and
the promotion of the social awareness of the topic of teenage homelessness along with employment of social media for communication with the population group.

Thus, it is essential to distribute the roles between the members of clinical staff properly. Also, every nurse that will be engaged in the process should understand his or her responsibility. The primary outcome measure for the program’s success is the decrease in numbers of adolescent and young adults living in the streets as well as the increase in the number of youths who positively engaged into the community.

Conclusion

From both numerous studies and conducted program proposal, it is apparent that public health leaders are responsible for the improvement of physical, social, and environmental conditions of various population groups to an immense extent. Therefore, it is essential to master the skills, which would be helpful for the successful implementation of public health policies and initiatives. The program, which was proposed in this assignment, serves as the basis for the development of leadership skills and a better understanding of the problems of homeless adolescents and young adults. The primary areas of concern were identified in the context of public health assessment and policy development. In conclusion, it should be noted that the implementation of this program would significantly improve the current condition of homeless youth population group.

References

Barman-Adhikari, A., Rice, E., Bender, K., Lengnick-Hall, R., Yoshioka-Maxwell, A., & Rhoades, H. (2016). Social networking technology use and engagement in HIV-related risk and protective behaviors among homeless youth. Journal of Health Communication, 21(7), 809-817.

Bender, K., Brown, S. M., Thompson, S. J., Ferguson, K. M., & Langenderfer, L. (2015). Multiple victimizations before and after leaving home associated with PTSD, depression, and substance use disorder among homeless youth. Child Maltreatment, 20(2), 115-124.

Bonevski, B., Randell, M., Paul, C., Chapman, K., Twyman, L., Bryant, J.,… Hughes, C. (2014). Reaching the hard-to-reach: A systematic review of strategies for improving health and medical research with socially disadvantaged groups. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 14(42), 1-29.

Haskett, M. E., Armstrong, J. M., & Tisdale, J. (2016). Developmental status and social–emotional functioning of young children experiencing homelessness. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44(2), 119-125.

Koh, H. K., & O’Connell, J. J. (2016). Improving health care for homeless people. JAMA, 316(24), 2586-2587.

Resources organized by essential services. (2018). Web.

Rice, E., & Barman-Adhikari, A. (2014). Internet and social media use as a resource among homeless youth. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(2), 232-247.

Social determinants of health. (2018). Web.

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