Kat Oliver
Saint Leo University
Dr. Ortiz

Community Health programs are used to improve community leaders and stakeholders skills and commitments for establishing, advancing, and maintaining effective population based strategies that reduce the burden of chronic disease and achieve healthy equity, according to the CDC. Community programs should assist people in making healthy choices where they live, learn, work, and play that address major risk factors for that community. Community programs must be catered to each and every community. This will require some footwork allowing you to assess the needs of that area. Today, chronic diseases affect almost 50% of Americans and account for 7 of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States (CDC). Chronic diseases and conditions such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, obesity and arthritis cause suffering and limitations to daily functioning. Many of the diseases are preventable and those that are not can be treated properly if patients are properly educated on how to help themselves. The program I will be working on is to help prevent, control and treat diabetes. Diabetes mellitus is a disease in which the body is either no longer making a hormone called insulin or the insulin that is made is not working as it should. Either way, high amounts of glucose (a form of sugar) build in the bloodstream and cause problems from damage to the eyes, kidneys, blood vessels and nerves. Diabetes can cause blindness, kidney failure and due to the damage it can cause to the blood vessels and nerves can lead to limb amputation. There is also pre-diabetes, where those who have not been diagnosed with the actual disease, experience higher than normal blood glucose levels. People with pre-diabetes are at high risk of developing diabetes. The programs objectives are: * To increase knowledge about risk factors, such