PERSPECTIVES IN COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION

Assessing a Targeted Family applying the MAP-IT steps Glen Williams

Access the areas of greatest need in your community; in this case, assisting your target family to access health care, as well as the resources and other strengths that you can tap into in order to address those areas.
Incorporate the goals of Health People 2010 when feasible.
Overarching Goals * Attain high-quality, longer lives free of preventable disease, disability, injury, and premature death. * Achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and improve the health of all groups. * Create social and physical environments that promote good health for all. * Promote quality of life, healthy development, and healthy behaviors across all life stages.

INTRODUCTION

The MAP-IT approach is a step-by-step, structured plan devised to tailor one's community needs and improve the health of a community. To increase the quality and years of healthy living for all Americans and to eliminate disparities in health status, individuals and communities must works together to make certain the benefits of health are available to all. There are five steps in the MAP-IT process. The second step in building a healthier community is to assess the greatest needs of the community with the goal determining what you want to improve.
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Assessing a Targeted Family applying the MAP-IT steps

The second step in building a healthier community is to assess the areas of greatest need in your

community. To get a better sense of what you can do, versus what you would like to do, you

will need to take stock of the needs, strengths, and resources in your community. In a family

where the parents (42 year old father and a 40 year old mother) have two children, a 14-year old

son and an 18 year old daughter. They (the parents) are obese, smokers, and have a history of

heavy drug use in their late teen and early adult years. The father has only a high school

education while the mother has a BA in English Literature. Due to their weight, the mother has

diabetes and high blood pressure, and the father has high blood pressure and liver aliments. The

son suffers from asthma while the daughter has had two previous abortions. She may be drug

dependent. The parents are a moderate-low income family with minimal insurance

As a Health Educator your goal is to create a healthy family. A healthy family leads to

healthy community. As a Health Educator, you must assess the greatest needs of the individual

or family. The family mentioned above has many risk factors such as the parent’s years of

obesity and substance abuse which has lead to diabetes, high blood pressure and

liver ailments. Their second hand smoke could be a factor in their son’s asthma. Their daughter

also has issues with risky sexual behaviors. Once the risk factors have been identified assessing

the greatest health need is your next step. An excellent place to start for research purposes is

assessing the top 10 Health Disparities and Top 10 Causes of Death across populations to include

age groups and gender. ("Closer look: Health," may 2012) Of these health disparities the number one cause

of death of Americans 65 or older is heart disease followed by Malignant neoplasm (cancer).

Based on the age of the parents and the fact that the average life expectancy for Americans is
77.6 years, a record high according to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control
Assessing a Targeted Family applying the MAP-IT steps

and Prevention (CDC), you can estimate what the cause of death will be based on the risk

factors. Statistics still show that among African Americans and Caucasians there were record-

high life expectancies: White males - 75.4 years; Black males - 69.2 years; White females - 80.5

years; Black females - 76.1 years. (""deaths: Preliminary data," 2003) A fact that proves healthy

people 2020 overall goals and objectives are working.

Diseases of the heart include various risk factors such as chronic kidney disease,

diabetes, heart disease and stroke, nutrition and weight status, tobacco use. Malignant neoplasm

includes types of cancers and tobacco use. To intervene mitigate or prevent these risk factors

you need help from other agencies and resources. As a Health Educator you must mobilize a

team. An educator must also assess the resources chosen to ensure they are best equipt to help

the family, individual or community. The value of working with strong community-based

organizations should not be underestimated. Local businesses, service organizations, medical

associations, civic groups, faith communities, and community leaders are themselves resources

that should be identified. A major issue facing Americans today is access to healthcare which

makes groups such as these vital to the success of community efforts–because of their access to

the community who they know in the community and financial aspects. These community based

organizations provide many preventive programs to the public such as nutrition and exercise

classes, diabetes, hypertension classes smoking cessation classes. The local governments even

assist with passing local laws such as no smoking in public establishments and taxes on tobacco. Assessing a targeted family applying the MAP-IT steps

Conclusion

Health Educators and community members are able to do remarkable things without

very much money simply by knowing who in the community, who has what resources and what

resources works best based on risk factors. Money doesn’t have to be your only resource. Every

community has a wealth of nonmonetary resources that can be used to address these areas of

concern. Health Educators continue to use the MAP-IT process with great success, especially

how it has been used at the state and local levels, with the focus areas that have been identified as

priorities for Healthy People 2020 and its predecessors, Healthy People 2010 and Healthy People

2000. The overarching goals and meeting the objectives of all will be focal points of discussion

for the remaining modules. ("implementing/assess," feb 2012)

Assessing a targeted family applying the MAP-IT steps

REFERENCES

1. Center for Disease Control, CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. (2003). "deaths: Preliminary data for 2003
2. Healthy people. gov, (may 2012). Closer look: Health disparities. Retrieved from website: http://healthypeople.gov/2020/chart.aspx?raceId=10&ageId=15&genderId=3&race=All races&age=65 years and over&gender=Both
3. (feb 2012). implementing/assess. implementing/assess, Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020