The report discusses about the problem of aged health care services that is being faced by people across Australia and the problem has come up due to inaccessibility. Government as well as people are aware that population is aging rapidly and a large sum of people will soon fall into category of aging population. The problem has come to life because Australia has observed a fall in number of birth rates and Australian government has not been taking actions for ailment of health care services for aging population. If we want ourselves to age healthy, free of chronic illness then health awareness programmes as well as basic knowledge over health care facilities should be provided especially to people who live in rural areas as they are not facilitated and informed about the modern health care centres and the aids services provided by them in order to control the illness and provide a better life to aging population.(“4430.0 – Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings, 2015”, 2016) Healthy aging is achievable when the population is ready for active participation in regards to physical fitness, healthy eating. It not only will improve the health of aging people but also will help in boosting lifestyle of young generation and helps them to have a good growth and development. Population that acknowledges the importance of healthy aging has several merits. Population that has healthy benefits sees lower occurrence of preventable diseases. Along with it the population that gets ill can be restored to normal life without expenditure of extreme health care services (Smith, Jancey & Binns, 2017) This lays two benefits, one is population needs to spend less of their money on health care services and the health care organizations also record good performance and less economic burden. Among aging population in Australia there is a list of factors that lead to disability and bad health.(Abed NA, PM & LD, 2013)
They are preventable diseases, alcohol consumption, non-communicable diseases, substance use and abuse, bad diet, lack of physical activities, lack of socialization. The risk of development of chronic illness increases with age, and the population that is most susceptible to them belongs to age group 45-65 years. It has been observed that the pattern of such chronic illness changes with the age group, the people who are beyond 65 years of age get affected by cardiovascular diseases or cancer and that counts for 60% of the total burden on the health sector of the country. (Smith et al., 2018)Respiratory diseases in aging population imposes the second threat and often leads to brain aging, loss in senses.
Recently it has been recorded that the mortality rate has fallen drastically across Australia and the life expectancy has increases. The fall in numbers of mortality rate across the country has brought up the burden of health care challenges among a large population of aging people. Apart from that, fall in birth rates has also added to the concern where the aging population is required to be healthy in order to participate as an active work force for the welfare of the economy. According to a study conducted in 2015, one in every seven persons is old and that accounts for 15% of the total population of the country. The percentage of old people or aging population is increasing every year, where in 2009 it was 13%, rose to 14% in 2012 and 15% in 2015. According to numbers, there are approximately 3.5 million people that comes under aging population. (Ruth, Lixia & Grace, 2001) With such rise, there has been development of no revolutionary health care policies and awareness program that may aid to the control and regulation of poor health. A continuous challenge has developed in front of health care organizations, social workers, government. There are several reasons that contemplate that why aging population needs help and attention regarding health care services, knowledge and awareness. The first reason is the rise in numbers of aging population of old people, they need to make aware of lifestyle modifications in order to have healthy life. The second reason for keeping aging population as target is they are highly susceptible to chronic illness. One of the most prevalent chronic illnesses is cardio vascular diseases. Cardio vascular diseases arise from more than one factor and they are lack of physical activities, intake of food with high lipid content, lack of roughage in diet, intake of carbohydrates in large amount. Such illness does not always needs critical health care but can also be managed by making modifications in the lifestyle of people and that is why it is important to make people aware of the self-help that they can provide to themselves in order to keep themselves healthy and make themselves free from the long term health care treatment as it imposes both economic and health burden over the life of them. According to one study by Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted in 2015 it has been found that almost 95% of aging population live inside their living space and do not make social interactions. The data is of great significance because social interaction and community involvement increases awareness among people and sometimes it leads to lifestyle modification just by getting aware through talking. It can also be inferred that lack of social interaction makes the person isolated; depressed ad that effects sleeping, eating and other life cycles that disturb the normal metabolism and functioning of body and this may lead to development of serious chronic illness. The literature work is required to be studied thoroughly in order to understand the significance of choosing aging population as target for conducting health awareness programmes so that they can be provided with healthy aging. Another important subject that one must consider while conducting health awareness programmes is medium that is used for the process of communication. The media or medium used for creating awareness should be compatible with the target audience and it should belong to their level and terms of understanding. While choosing the target audience many a time professionals fail to address the significance of media used and this leads to failure of the awareness programme that has been run (World health report on ageing and health, 2015).
Health promotion has been counted as a tool of greater value in recent years across Australia, especially to fight with the uncontrolled problem of public health. While making a promotion plan there are several things that are to be considered and they leave a long lasting effect on efficiency of the programme. First is the organization with capacity, it means that the organization having enough professional capacity should be held responsible for conducting health promotion activities. It is relevant because there are possibilities that the organization loses their focus due to lack of experience, knowledge and that leads to failure of the programme. The second factor is quality material, it stands for the literature work that is intended to be used for conducting the programmes and that are to be circulated among public for future reference. It is to be noticed and taken care that the literature should be highly informative, rich in statistics, should address the problems and future problems. The content should also talk about how to deal with the consequences that may come and how to deal with the problem by bringing small changes in the lifestyle. (Roussy& Livingstone, 2018) Third is competent work force, it is important that how the content is being delivered and addressed. As it has been discussed earlier that target audience plays an important role in not only developing the content but also it helps in determining how the content should be delivered in order to make the strategy more effective. A competent work force understands the agenda and resonates with the aim of the promotion plan and thus they deliver the best they can. The fourth is population health, it stands for the current trends in the health condition of the population. The seriousness of the current trends should be understood and according to that suggestion, education and facilities should be provided so that if the population is suffering from serious illness then it can recover itself or if it is not suffering from serious illness then can protect itself from development of such illness. For effective delivery of health promotion and awareness programme, the promoters should possess knowledge in the subject and they must also be trained with proper skills. Apart from that the promoters should understand the aim and values behind it because it greatly affects the outcome. When the promotion takes place within a community then it asks for values and ethics as each community has their own way of interpreting values and care. So promoter needs to understand the importance and also should be flexible enough to bring modifications in himself when they shift from one community to another. This not only personalizes the message and lesson that the agency is conveying but also it develops a deeper understanding among the promoter regarding different perspectives and beliefs. Another important factor that underlines all of the above discussed factors is funding. There is no action and execution unless and until the organization has funding. A lot of challenges have been faced regarding funding of such health promotion programmes as government doesn’t shows its support in the context. For making a budget first step is to consult a person that has experience in making the budget and then evaluate that whether the projected cost will be sufficient for running the program. The money is required in mainly three segments of any programme which is administration, staff expenses and resource development. To cover all expenses that come under these segments, it is important that organization has sufficient funding.
In order to develop a promotion plan, sharp set of ideas should be put on to work and they are discussed in brief manner. The promotion plan needs an assessment where identification of resources should be done along with the organizations and partners that can be regarded as the first hand in delivery of the promotion plan. Next step is to prioritize the actions according to their relevance and develop plans according to needs. The third step is to intervene the possible outcomes that may come as the effect of the plan and the fourth is implementation of the plan. The final step is developing tools that may help in evaluation of the plan, its effectiveness and how well did it go into the minds of people.
The long term objectives involve checking the number of aging people getting admitted to health centres due to chronic illness. The number should fall over time and that will denote that population is aging healthy. The short term objective involves making sure that target audience is getting the benefit of promotion plan and they are also participating with cooperation.
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Steps in Health Promotion Plan |
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Identification of the resources |
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Prioritization of actions and development of plans |
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Intervene the possible outcomes from the plan |
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Implementation of the plan |
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Evaluation tools for assessment |
In order to develop the plan, one should diagnose the community that is to be undertaken for the health promotion programme. The community should be looked upon for population ratio, number of people who fall in different age groups, percentage of old people, number of people who are healthy, number of people who are suffering with chronic illness and several other factors are to be considered. After the diagnosis of the community the people should be educated and promoted to adopt healthy lifestyle and they should also be demanded to build an environment where they not only can motivate themselves but motivate each other in order to get adapted to the change in lifestyle. The resources should be properly mobilized among the community and it should be organized such that it is available to each and every possible audience with ease. The community can also be divided into several groups that can be asked to work together with trained promoters. This would not only increase the participation of the community people but it would also help the target audience to understand that they are important and a lot of people who belong to them are making efforts in order to make their life and health better. In cognitive mind, it removes the feeling of being unwanted especially among the old people. After the promotion activities are over, the target audience in the community should be provided with regular counselling activities in order to help them to channel how the change has been helping them and what all symptoms cannot be changed by lifestyle modification and when do they need clinical care for their betterment. Counselling also helps old people to freshen up what they have learnt because they are too much susceptible to being forgetful as most of them either suffer from partial dementia, or have developed full Alzheimer’s over time. The plan should also promote mobilization of old people among the community by being invited to central common parks for refreshments, community centre for general vital check-up, or other attractive events where they get driven by themselves and start considering the importance of mobilization.
It is significant to record how a plan has been functioning because a lot of force has been invested in it. Different steps and methods that can be used for evaluation of promotion plans are discussed briefly. The plan should be executed in different communities to solve the problems associated with public health and observe how operational it is when it is subjected to different niche. The evaluation can also be done by identifying the change in patterns and activities of people with respect to management of their health and illness. The people can also be observed to notice their social interaction and mobilization. As it has been discussed mobilization helps in spreading general awareness. (“Health Promotion Strategy Unit – Department of Health”, 2018) In old people, mobilization also helps them to do physical activities that involve movement of their hands and legs. Most of the chronic illness develops because aged people stop mobility and their limbs become dysfunctional and lose flexibility. The evaluation process can also be done by allowing different health agencies to evaluate the plan and also produce the merits and demerits that the plan has in order to make modifications and make plan more efficient. Collaborations are always the best tool for evaluation because they recruit a variety of perspectives that a single organization either fails to notice or ignores in order to make the plan look ideal and simple. (Jancey, Barnett, Smith, Binns& Howat, 2016)
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Evaluation Strategies |
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Execution of plan in different niche for different health problems |
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Identification of change in patterns and activities of people in management of health and illness |
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Identification of change in mobilization frequency |
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Collaboration with different agencies for evaluation |
Conclusion
With the provided literature, tools and discussion it can be concluded that health promotion programmes hold the ability to make people understand the importance of lifestyle modification to their general health and fitness. Especially in old people, where several daily activities put to hold because of age and they lose their physical activity that result in development of chronic illness. Though old people are not a great human resource to the country but it is right of each and every citizen to age without chronic illness and health promotion activity can prove to be the cheapest means for induction of the goal.
References
4430.0 – Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings, 2015. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/4430.0
Abed NA, A., PM, D., & LD, H. (2013). Healthcare needs of older Arab migrants: a systematic review. – PubMed – NCBI. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24329783
Health Promotion Strategy Unit – Department of Health. (2018). Retrieved from https://health.nt.gov.au/professionals/health-promotion/health-promotion
Jancey, J., Barnett, L., Smith, J., Binns, C., & Howat, P. (2016). We need a comprehensive approachto health promotion. Health Promotion Journal Of Australia, 27(1), 1- 3.
Roussy, V., & Livingstone, C. (2018). Surviving neoliberalism, maintaining values: Community health mergers in Victoria, Australia. The International Journal Of Health Planning And Management, 33(2),
Smith, J., Jancey, J., &Binns, C. (2017). System reform in the human services: what role can health promotion play?. Health Promotion Journal Of Australia, 28(1), 1-4.
Smith, J., Griffiths, K., Judd, J., Crawford, G., D’Antoine, H., & Fisher, M. et al. (2018). Ten years on from the World Health Organization Commission of Social Determinants of Health: Progress or procrastination?. Health Promotion Journal Of Australia, 29(1), 3-7.
World health report on ageing and health. (2015). Geneva: World Health Organisation. Retrieved from https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/186463/9789240694811_eng.pdf;jsess ionid=
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