Community Health and Disease Prevention

Running head: COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Introduction:
Health promotion program or process is defined as the process that helps the individual
from different background to enhance or improve their physical condition as well as mental
condition. Health promotion activities include, disease prevention program, awareness program
and education program. It helps in empowering the behavior and life style of the individual. The
topic chosen for the essay is type 2 diabetes and the health concern which is related to the
preventable disease (Freeman et al., 2018). This essay primarily focusses on the community
based interaction with the help of health programs. In the essay, three different strategies are
mentioned by using the community-based interaction guide from Laverack’s ladder. These
strategies can be used in enhancing the engagement of the community in the health program
which is implemented to address the health concerns. Apart from that, core domain of the
capacity building has been identified which supports the empowerment of the community and
also work of the ownership of the prevention program for the type-2 diabetes. In addition,
different approaches and the models that can be used in the promotion has also been discussed in
the essay. These approaches helps in educating, motivating and creating awareness regarding the
adverse effect of type 2 diabetes. Advantages and disadvantages of different models and the
approaches has also been discussed in the essay.
Type 2 diabetes:
Type 2 diabetes which is correspondingly identified as diabetes mellitus is one of the
most common disease among the individuals. It is a metabolic disorder which affects an
individual and increases the blood glucose of the individual (DeFronzo et al., 2015). The
individual has been characteristic by the insulin resistance which is because of the lack of insulin
in the body. The primary reason behind the occurrence of the diabetes type 2 is lack of physical

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activity and obesity. According to Australian Government Department of Health (2019), it can
be stated that the occurrence rate of type 2 diabetes is more in Australia as compared with the
type 1 diabetes. Out of all the individuals who has been suffering from diabetes, 85% of the
individual has been identified to be suffering from type 2 diabetes in 2014. According to a
survey conducted by Australian Government Department of Health (2019), around 1.2 million of
the total population has been identified to be suffering from diabetes which is 1.5 % of the total
Australian population. The prevalence rate of type 2 diabetes has been augmented from 1990 to
2012 in Australia. The most general signs and symptoms of the type 2 diabetes, feeing of thirsty,
blurry vision, frequent urination and lack of wound healing capacity. If proper care is provided to
the individual along with the prevention strategies, this disease can be prevented (Semenkovich
et al., 2915). However due to the lack of proper knowledge regarding the disease and its
preventable strategies, demographic population of the community has been observed to be
suffering from type 2 diabetes. In order to enhance knowledge regarding the preventable disease,
different health programs is to be conducted.
Health promotion:
Health promotion is described as the process that helps in enhancing and improving the
health of the community members. It help in reducing the prevalence rate of the individuals that
has been effected by the disease. The health promotion activity includes, awareness camps and
health promotion strategy. In this case the health promotion strategies that has been implemented
to reduce the adverse effect of type 2 diabetes. To enhance the effectiveness of the health
programs, it is important to enhance the engagement of the community member. It can be
enhanced by applying key strategies that has been identified by the Laverack in their Laverack’s
ladder model.

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Laverack’s ladder of the community-based interaction:
Laverack’s ladder of the community-based interaction is defined as a ladder or process that helps
the community member to enhance their empowerment and also helps in community development.
Different characteristics has been identified by the Laverack’s which is aligned to form a ladder that aims
to enhance the community empowerment. The different characteristics that has been identified by the
laverack is community readiness, community participation, community engagement, community
organization, community development, community capacity, community action and community
empowerment (Laverack et al., 2015).
Key strategies that help in community engagement:
Community engagement is described as the engagement of the community associates in the any
health programs or awareness camps. In order to enhance the engagement of the community members in
the health curriculums that has been applied to address the health issue and concern related to type 1
diabetes, there are certain key strategies which is identified by the Laverack in their Laverack’s ladder
key model (Laverack et al., 2015). These key strategies are, communication and listening, working in
collaboration with other authorities and participation.
Communication and listening: Communication is one of the most effective and finest tool that helps in
building a quality rapport among the individual. By increasing the effective communication, among the
community members and the authorities which are involved in the health promotion programs,
engagement and participation of the community members can be increased. Effective communication
make the community member more comfortable to the setting and hence they will be able to share their
pain and worries more comfortably (Glanz, Rimer & Viswanath, 2015). By using different
communication strategy such as voice modulation, facial expression and gestures, by using practical
examples, community engagement can be increased. Apart from this, active listening also helps in
improving the Community engagement (Matarrita-Cascante, Sene-Harper & Ruyle, 2019). If the