Addressing Healthcare Issues in Vulnerable Communities

This assignment examines the work of the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) in addressing healthcare challenges faced by vulnerable populations. It identifies three key issues: lack of knowledge about available services, social barriers to access, and postpartum depression. The paper discusses strategies to mitigate these issues, including awareness campaigns, accessible healthcare facilities, and targeted support for mothers experiencing postpartum depression. Two nursing diagnoses, depression screening and blood tests, are proposed for managing postpartum depression.

Running head: HEALTH RESOURCES & SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
Health Resources and Services Administration
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1HEALTH RESOURCES & SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
Introduction
The Health Resources & Services Administration (HSRA) is an agency of United States
Department of Health and Human Services. HSRA is a primary agency that provide healthcare to
the people belonging to the community that are medically and economically vulnerable, and as
well as geographically isolated. HSRA programs are directed for the people that are living with
health complications like HIV/AIDS, mothers and pregnant women. HSRA also has the
responsibility to train the health professionals, distribution of the healthcare providers to the
areas that need health care and also works to improve the healthcare delivery. HSRA also
supervises the blood donation and bone marrow donation. This study is based on identification of
3 key issues in healthcare and the steps taken to address them and the two possible nursing
diagnosis with rationales.
The study emphasizes on the people do not have the knowledge and access to healthcare
provided by HSRA. There are other issues like social barrier that which states that often people
belonging from a community that is socioeconomically backward faces hindrances in accessing
the healthcare. The last one is the postpartum follow up and it has been seen that after the
delivery of cesarean baby, the mothers face difficulties in receiving the follow up care. While
one of the major issue is the post-partum follow-up is the postpartum depression.
Key issues
 Knowledge- People living in rural areas away from the connectivity of the cities often are
not informed and do not possess the knowledge that specific healthcare services are
available for the people belonging from different communities. This hinders the people
from accessing the healthcare that is specifically directed for them. This creates a gap in

2HEALTH RESOURCES & SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
the delivery of healthcare and hampers the betterment and health promotion plans that are
designed for a specific community (Levesque, Harris & Russell, 2013).
 Social barrier- there are several social barriers like lack of the transportation, housing
and nutritious food hampers the health of pregnant women. It has been seen that proper
access to nutritious food is similar to the benefits arising from access of direct healthcare.
The people living in rural and remote areas face the challenge of improper housing and
transportation which hampers their proper access and maintenance of the health care
needs. However, on the other hand unavailability of nutritious food leads to improper
buildup of health of the mother and their child.
 Postpartum follow-up- Pregnant women after delivering their new born in hospital, go
through certain issues related to nervousness, anxiousness and become sad and tired at
the same time.
Steps to reduce the issues
To address the issue related to lack of knowledge, campaign and awareness programs can
be organized for specific communities in order to disseminate the information related to
healthcare delivery especially designed for them. Although lack of prevents a person from
receiving healthcare, social barrier is an issue which prevents a person from receiving or
accessing it. Thus, to mitigate such issue, health camps and out branches can be set up at the
remote and rural areas. this step will enable them to both receive and access the healthcare in an
efficient way. Postpartum follow-up is a specific issue that targets the mothers. Thus, talking
with the new mothers and informing them with the necessary information related to the
postpartum depression can effectively reduce the nervousness and anxiousness (O'hara &
McCabe, 2013).).

3HEALTH RESOURCES & SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
Nursing diagnosis
The two nursing diagnosis in order to diagnose the postpartum depression are as follows-
 Depression screening questionnaire- through the questionnaire, the degree or the levels of
depression can be effectively measured.
 Blood tests- through the blood tests, it can be determined that whether the underactive
thyroid is responsible for the signs and symptoms of postpartum depression (Yawn et al.,
2012)
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, HSRA is an effective
institution that can effectively work for the better health outcomes in people belonging from
different communities that face issues like lack of knowledge, social barrier and postpartum
depression. Although the problems are can be met effectively with strategies and nursing
interventions. The awareness among the people of the different communities must be increased.

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Reference
Levesque, J. F., Harris, M. F., & Russell, G. (2013). Patient-centred access to health care:
conceptualising access at the interface of health systems and populations. International
journal for equity in health, 12(1), 18. https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-9276-12-18
O'hara, M. W., & McCabe, J. E. (2013). Postpartum depression: current status and future
directions. Annual review of clinical psychology, 9, 379-407.
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050212-185612
Yawn, B. P., Olson, A. L., Bertram, S., Pace, W., Wollan, P., & Dietrich, A. J. (2012).
Postpartum depression: Screening, diagnosis, and management programs 2000 through
2010. Depression Research and Treatment, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/363964