Culturally Sensitive Health Program, Essay Example

Introduction

According to Martins and Norris (2004), African American males have a higher rate of hypertension and complications than the mainstream population. This indicates that health prevention and treatment programs have a limited effectiveness among this group. The below article is focusing on a culturally relevant program and care facility design that helps African American males understand the illness and make informed health related choices by delivering culturally relevant messages and services.

Program Design

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2010) states that several psychological issues are related to African American males’ health perception. Hypertension awareness within the entire population of America has increased in the past two decades (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010, p. 17), however, the increase was less significant among African American males. This indicates that the prevention and health education messages either not reach this population, or are not culturally relevant. Hypertension related death rates also increased every year between 2000 and 2004 among this population.

As it has been confirmed by several studies (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010, p. 28) that there is a link between racist experiences, low socioeconomic status, and high blood pressure, the focus of the project should be prevention. Some African Americans believe that hypertension is not the same as high blood pressure, and it is simply caused by stress. Further, a large proportion of men believe that home remedies can eliminate high blood pressure, and there is no need for visiting specialists. Finally, access to care and health insurance coverage is lower among African American males than the mainstream population, therefore, it is important that the program is based on local, focused, and community-based free education programs. This will target the problem of many people who live in rural areas and have no transport to travel to hospitals and health centers.

Systems of Care

The author of the current study is proposing a community health education and awareness program similar to SHAPE-IT (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010, p. 41). It would be based on a close collaboration between community leaders (mainly African American organizations) and health care providers. It will be designed to increase awareness of the risks of high blood pressure and provide information about treatment and screening. Further, the promotion of health behavior change will also be included in the program. Workshops would be run every month in different community centers, and they would be promoted by the organizations, local schools, and on the advertisement boards of supermarkets.

Services

The program would offer the following services:

1. Blood pressure check for all attendees
2. Workshops focusing on identifying risks of hypertension
3. Leaflets distributed about prevention and intervention
4. Referral to local hypertension monitoring facilities
5. Lifestyle related education focusing on preventing hypertension
6. Follow-up campaign for patients who were found to be “at risk”
7. Stroke prevention services

The author believes that by educating the “at risk”, underservedan low income population within the group of African American males, the following goals can be achieved (Martins & Norris, 2004, p. 741): increased Calcium intake, lower sodium and fat intake, higher adherence to prevention/treatment plans, and reduced number of missed appointments for checks. Once the “at risk” population is aware of the possible complications and health consequences of hypertension, they will be more motivated to change their health behavior.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010) A Closer Look at African American Men and High Blood Pressure Control: A Review of Psychosocial Factors and Systems-Level Interventions. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from  http://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/docs/African_American_Sourcebook.pdf

Martins, D. & Norris, K. (2004) Hypertension treatment in African Americans: Physiology is less important than sociology. Cleveland Clinic Journal Of Medicine. Volume 71 Number 9 September 2004. Retrieved from http://www.ccjm.org/content/71/9/735.full.pdf