Community Resources Essay

Community Resources Essay

The American constitution entitles Americans to timely, quality, and convenient healthcare services. However, health inequalities and disparities among populations compromise services accessibility, affordability, and utilization. In this sense, public health promotion and health equity emerge as priorities for the current healthcare systems. The challenges in health promotion and equity manifest through high disease prevalence, compromised quality of life, limited access to quality services, and services discrimination. Unfortunately, these problems are disproportionate to populations with unique social determinants of health (SDOH), including unemployment, low income, poverty, low-level education, and ethnic minorities. As a result, the overriding need to eliminate these challenges prompts the country to fund organizations with adequate capacity to address these priorities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a profound health organization that promotes public health and safety health equity and bolsters the quality of life in communities.

The CDC’s Mission, Vision, and its Role in Promoting Public Health and Safety

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention operates under the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) as a federal agency responsible for actualizing the government’s mandate of protecting public health and guaranteeing safety. Since its inception in 1946, the CDC has played a frontline role in improving public health and safety by preventing health threats such as disease at local, national, regional, and global scopes. The agency’s mission is to save lives and protect people from health threats by tackling and averting diseases through advanced research and data analysis (CDC, 2022). Further, the CDC spearheads health promotion programs by collaborating with local, state, national, and international organizations to strengthen health security preparedness and enhance response mechanisms. Besides, it detects and advises other public health agencies regarding ideal ways of improving people’s well-being during pandemics and other health security threats. As a result, the CDC is central to all national and global activities for safeguarding public health and enhancing community safety.

The CDC envisions the world as a place where people and communities can attain their full health potential of preparedness, response, and recovery. In this sense, the need to strengthen individual and collective health status remains the most profound goal of the agency. According to Tappero et al. (2017), the CDC has established a global health protection platform that encompasses ministries of health (MOHs) and other partners such as host countries, the World Health Organization (WHO), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and academic organizations. The primary objective of forming this multi-stakeholder health platform is to promote inter-organizational collaboration to bolster collective capacity for promoting public health and safety.

The CDC’s Role in Promoting Health Equity and Improving Quality of Life in a Community

Health inequalities are inevitable due to the interrelationships between social determinants of health, including socio-economic, cultural, demographic, and socio-economic aspects such as access to employment opportunities, income levels, education, and neighborhood issues. However, it is possible to manage these health disparities by ensuring equal health accessibility, affordability, and utilization opportunities. The CDC plays a significant role in addressing health disparities by enhancing community and organizational capacity to tackle local, national, and global priorities (CDC, 2022). For instance, the agency established a National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) that operates on the mantra of achieving health equity by eliminating disparities and attaining optimal health for all Americans.

The NCCDPHP enacts various community-based initiatives such as the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Health (REACH), social determinants of health mapping, and surveillance approaches for assessing the community’s health needs and sources of health inequalities (CDC, 2022). The REACH program supports community coalitions to implement society-driven strategies for addressing health disparities among racial and ethnic communities such as Hispanics, Alaska Natives, Pacific Islanders, and African Americans. As stated earlier, health inequalities and challenges are often disproportionate to these groups.

Funding Sources, Policies, Legislation, and CDC’s Service Delivery

As a federal agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention receives funding from various sources, including government appropriations and contributions for the private sector, philanthropists, individuals, and corporations. However, government allocations are the primary source of funds for the CDC, meaning the funding patterns rely massively on health policies and regulations. For instance, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 remains a landmark health policy that changed the trajectories of the CDC’s scope and service delivery. Chair & Glied (2018) argue that the ACA promotes various preventive initiatives, including community transformation grants, immunization programs, education and outreach activities regarding preventive benefits, and congenital heart disease programs. Undoubtedly, these initiatives prompted the federal government to increase funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to enhance its capacity for actualizing these national health interventions.

The Impacts of CDC’s Work on Local Communities

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and stakeholder cooperation in eliminating health disparities and improving health safety. As stated earlier, the agency plays a frontline role in developing and implementing initiatives that target priority areas such as disease prevalence, community capacity building, and health infrastructure development. Further, the CDC’s local initiatives target vulnerable groups such as older adults, children and adolescents, infants, and women. Finally, the agency advises other health organizations on matters pertinent to emergency preparedness, response mechanisms, and safety enhancement approaches. Undoubtedly, these activities promote community health and guarantee improved health quality, security, and outcomes.

Conclusion

The CDC implements the national government’s mandate of protecting Americans against health threats such as disease prevalence and outbreaks. Since its inception in 1946, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has established, sponsored, and implemented diverse programs translating to improved health. For instance, the organization plays a significant role in implementing health provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including community grant programs, health education and outreach, and strategic programs pertinent to vulnerable groups. As a result, the national government should increase its scope and service delivery by allocating more resources.

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References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, February 25). Mission, role, and Pledge. Retrieved March 6, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/about/organization/mission.htm

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, March 3). Health equity. Retrieved March 6, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/healthequity/index.htm

Chait, N., & Glied, S. (2018). Promoting prevention under the Affordable Care Act. Annual Review of Public Health, 39(1), 507–524. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040617-013534

Tappero, J. W., Cassell, C. H., Bunnell, R. E., Angulo, F. J., Craig, A., Pesik, N., Dahl, B. A., Ijaz, K., Jafari, H., & Martin, R. (2017). US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its partners’ contributions to Global Health Security. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 23(13). https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2313.170946

Professional Context
Many organizations work to better local and global communities\’ quality of life and promote health and safety in times of crisis. As public health and safety advocates, nurses must be cognizant of how such organizations help certain populations. As change agents, nurses must be aware of factors that impact the organization and the services that it offers. Familiarity with these organizations enables the nurse to offer assistance as a volunteer and source of referral.

This assessment provides an opportunity for you gain insight into the mission, vision, and operations of a community services organization.

Demonstration of Proficiency
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

Competency 1: Analyze health risks and health care needs among distinct populations.
Explain how an organization’s work impacts the health and/or safety needs of a local community.
Competency 2: Propose health promotion strategies to improve the health of populations.
Explain how an organization’s mission and vision enable it to contribute to public health and safety improvements.
Competency 3: Evaluate health policies, based on their ability to achieve desired outcomes.
Assess the impact of funding sources, policy, and legislation on an organization’s provision of services.
Competency 4: Integrate principles of social justice in community health interventions.
Evaluate an organization’s ability to promote equal opportunity and improve the quality of life within a community.
Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication strategies to lead health promotion and improve population health.
Organize content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions; contains few errors in grammar/punctuation, word choice, and spelling.
Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references exhibiting nearly flawless adherence to APA format.
Preparation
You are interested in expanding your role as a nurse and are considering working in an area where you can help to promote equal opportunity and improve the quality of life within the local or global community. You are aware of several nonprofit organizations and government agencies whose work contributes to this effort in some way. You have particular interest in one of these organizations but would like to know more about its contributions to public health and safety improvements. You would like to report the results of your research in a scholarly paper that you could submit for publication.

Research a selected local, national, or global nonprofit organization or government agency from the list provided. Determine how the organization or agency contributes to public health and safety improvements, promotes equal opportunity, and improves the quality of life within the community. Submit your findings in a 3-5 page report.

As you begin to prepare this assessment, it would be an excellent choice to complete the Nonprofit Organizations and Community Health activity. Complete this activity to gain insight into promoting equal opportunity and improving the quality of life in a community. The information gained from completing this activity will help you succeed with the assessment.

Choose the organization or agency you are most interested in researching:

American Red Cross.
Habitat for Humanity.
United Way.
Doctors Without Borders.
The Salvation Army.
United Nations Children\’s Fund (UNICEF).
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
National Center for Transgender Equality.
National Resource Center on LGBT Aging.
Advocacy & Services for LGBT Elders.
Equal Justice Initiative.
National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Urban Triage.
World Health Organization.
The Arc: For People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
Alliance for Retired Americans.
Futures Without Violence.
Blue Campaign: What Is Human Trafficking?
Covenant House.
Cultural Survival.
Note: Remember that you can submit all, or a portion of, your draft research paper to Smarthinking Tutoring for feedback, before you submit the final version for this assessment. If you plan on using this free service, be mindful of the turnaround time of 24-48 hours for receiving feedback.

Instructions
Research a selected local, national, or global nonprofit organization or government agency from the list provided. Determine how the organization or agency contributes to public health and safety improvements, promotes equal opportunity, and improves the quality of life within the community. Submit your findings in a 3-5 page report.

As you begin to prepare this assessment, it would be an excellent choice to complete the Nonprofit Organizations and Community Health activity. Complete this activity to gain insight into promoting equal opportunity and improving the quality of life in a community. The information gained from completing this activity will help you succeed with the assessment. After completing this activity, choose an organization or agency from the list that you are most interested in researching.

Document Format and Length
Format your paper using APA style.

Refer to the APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX] to help you in writing and formatting your paper. Be sure to include:
A title page and references page. An abstract is not required.
Appropriate section headings.
Your paper should comprise 3-5 pages of content plus title and references pages.
Supporting Evidence
Cite at least three credible sources from peer-reviewed journals or professional industry publications published within the past 5 years that support your research findings.

Graded Requirements
The research requirements, outlined below, correspond to the grading criteria in the assessment scoring guide, so be sure to address each point.

Explain how the organization’s mission and vision enable it to contribute to public health and safety improvements.
Include examples of ways a local and/or global initiative supports organizational mission and vision and promotes public health and safety.
Evaluate an organization’s ability to promote equal opportunity and improve the quality of life in the community.
Consider the effects of social, cultural, economic, and physical barriers.
Assess the impact of funding sources, policy, and legislation on the organization’s provision of services.
Consider the potential implications of funding decisions, policy, and legislation for individuals, families, and aggregates within the community.
Explain how an organization’s work impacts the health and/or safety needs of a local community.
Consider how nurses might become involved with the organization.
Organize content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions; contains few errors in grammar/punctuation, word choice, and spelling.
Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references exhibiting nearly flawless adherence to APA format.
Write with a specific purpose and audience in mind.
Adhere to scholarly and disciplinary writing standards and APA formatting requirements.
Additional Requirements
Before submitting your paper, proofread it to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it difficult for them to focus on your research findings.

SCORING GUIDE
Use the scoring guide to understand how your assessment will be evaluated.