Addressing Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities

This assignment provides a framework for addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health and healthcare. It draws upon various sources, including public health reports and research articles, to analyze the issue and propose solutions. The assignment emphasizes the importance of social determinants of health, a diverse healthcare workforce, and patient involvement in research.

Role of public health in
health and social care

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 are covered in brochure ....................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
2.1 Research to determine current priorities and approaches.....................................................1
2.2 Relationship between prevalence of disease and requirements of services..........................3
2.3 Impact of current life style choices on future needs for health and social care services......3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................4
3.1 Health and well being priorities for individual in a specific health and social care settings 4
3.2 Effectiveness of strategies, system and policies...................................................................6
3.3 Changes that can be made for improving the health and well-being of individual...............6
3.4 Implementation of activity to encourage behaviour change for maximising health for
individual....................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Every individual dream to be healthy and wanted to live their life without any mental
stress or physical problems because in ancient time one quote is very famous that is “health is
wealth”. Therefore, entire society wanted to protect themselves from infectious and non-
infectious diseases by taking extra care (Balarajan, Selvaraj and Subramanian, 2011). In UK,
health and social care is word which relates with services that is offered by organization which
was established for preventing overall community from health issues. For example; NHS is an
association which was formulated for preventing entire society or nation from accidents,
exploitation, health problems, diseases and so on. This assignment is segmented into three equal
parts for highlighting various initiatives and steps which is taken by “Public health England”
which is also one of the NHS organization. However, numerous of groups or agencies are
formed for preventing entire community just like public health England are also outlined in this
project. Furthermore, report is going to throw some lights on certain infectious or non-infectious
diseases that have a greater impact on a human beings living in a UK. Later on, it also shows
various plans or policies implemented by service provider for eradicating health problems with
the support of entire public.
TASK 1
1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 are covered in brochure
TASK 2
2.1 Research to determine current priorities and approaches
After assessment process it is identified that entire world is presently standing up to a
more difficult issue, which is Tuberculosis. Therefore numerous of methodologies are present
and needs for preventing society or general population from harmful diseases or illness which
affect their daily life. Sickness prevention: It is a piece of medicine which needs on serving individuals
maintain a strategic distance from irresistible illness. Treatment: Treatment is the most requested thing for curing the ailment. Presently, it has
been seen that the treatment is devoted on revelation novel and better agent medications,
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pharmaceutical courses which could be spread out to recoup the life of the people with
infections.
 Palliative care: It is isolated from the social insurance which focuses on discharging and
repressing the distress of patients. Different from doctor's facility mind, palliative
prescription is suited for patients who experience the ill effects of entire issue stages, with
those agony medications for repairable contaminations and those buzzing with the
general sicknesses, and furthermore for the patients who are at their end days.
Apart from this overall society is also going through some major problem that is HIV
which is very dangerous for public and affects their health. In fact there are three types by which
this diseases get transmitted to other person which is described as follows-
 Sexual relation with another individuals
 Transferring through blood.
 Last method by which HIV infected to another person is mother to children.
Therefore, if these three things get controlled and regulated then prevention or protection
of HIV become so easy and cure in a minimum time period. It means it essential for national
health service is to make plans or policies for controlling diseases and their effect.
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(Source:- Halls, 2017)
2.2 Relationship between prevalence of disease and requirements of services
It is not easy to assume accurately how many people get infected with specific diseases
because it is not easy to estimate precisely without knowing actual data or information. At the
same time there are numerous of people who are suffering from some kinds of disease or illness
due to maximum usage of junk food, having items from unhygienic places like stalls, drinking
impure water and so many other things which create certain types of problems. In fact society is
not fully aware about some diseases due to lack of education and knowledge. Thus, members of
national health service are responsible for conduct prevalence in order to measuring the necessity
of specific services and take steps accordingly. It is essential for taking steps according to the
requirement of society and implement strategies for removing health issues and hazardous as
well as any dangerous effects from overall community.
2.3 Impact of current life style choices on future needs for health and social care services
According to NHS, there are so many big unwanted present trends which can make the
health and social care of public in future to more and more comprehensive to cater. Thus, it is
very essential to analyse and understand the current grounds and levels of health care in England.
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Illustration 1: Incidence Rates

Cigarette smoking is considered as one of the most dangerous or unsafe long term issues which
are experienced by current generations (Bradley and et. al., 2011). This is due to the present level
of smoking specially among children and women. It is making the question more and more
captious as the influence of smoking are going towards to the coming or future generations. The
another big issue experiencing by the society is existing level of consumption of alcohol. This is
causing heavy and sometimes more hazardous situations for human body.
In addition to these life trends, it is also noticed different level of changes in the human
diet. People are giving high preferences to the junk food items like pizza and burger. This is
especially identified in the case of young children. Due to this, different long term live problems
and damages to the gastritis are shown (Brett and et. al., 2014). It is said by the NHS that there is
an increment of 48 % in the possibility of obesity. This is mainly due to the fretful and
relaxation less busy schedules. This is also creating a sedentary life style which is making the
issues more and more terrible. Therefore some of the solutions are suggested by the NHS which
is listed below :
 The usage of alcohol is probably harming the stomach and lever problems in human. So,
it is recommanded that people should not take alcohol in regular basis.
 Cigarette smoking is the biggest problem of cancer and many respiratory and heart
diseases. So, it is better to avoid smoking. One who are addicted to smoking, are
suggested to smoke in very less quantity and are also recommended to leave this habit
after some time.
TASK 3
3.1 Health and well being priorities for individual in a specific health and social care settings
There are various types of health priorities that an individual needs to follow by all
people living in England in order to reduce the level of infectious as well as non infectious
diseases. There are seven priorities setted out by the PHE which are based on the informations
and assessment of those regions in greatest requirement of improvement over the next four to ten
years. They aim to :
 Tackling obesity , specially for children : Now- a – days, most of the children are
attracting towards the fast food materials. They are giving more preference to the food
like pizza, burger, chow-min, chocolates, pastries, cakes, etc. Due to consuming such
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type of food items, they are having so many problems related to their health. The major
problem is the obesity which has been increased to a high percentage. And due that, there
are suffering from various heart related diseases. So, it is better to abandon the habit of
eating junk foods. Parents should give a proper diet plan to their children by taking help
of their family doctor. They should also cook healthy and green vegetables for their kids
so that they gain immunity power and can struggle from germs of any type of diseases.
 Reduce smoking : As smoking is causing a serious problem of cancer, tuberculosis and
many respiratory diseases, it is better to avoid smoking. People who smoke in public
places are not only destroying their health but also of other person who are surrounded to
them (Kohl and et. al., 2012). Additionally, if they smoke in private place like their
home, then they are making dangerous situations for their family members. So, people
should avoid smoking habits.
 Reduce harm from alcohol : Alcohol are causing lever and heart related problems like
heart attacks, mental disorder due to collapsing of nervous system, etc. If people want to
lead a healthy life then they have to abandon the habit of drinking alcohol.
 Secure the best start in life for children to tackle the wider determinants of good
health : People should give equal health priorities to their children. They should
discriminate them on the basis of their sex. Some of the people who are not educated are
discriminating between their girl and boy child (Jackson, and Gracia, 2014). They should
not do so as each of them will equally feel the pain of suffering from any disease.
 Transform a generation's risk of dementia : Civilians in England should focus more
on reducing the risk of dementia. This can be done by doing regular physical exercise and
taking healthy diet. This will help brain to develop effectively by increasing blood and
flow of oxygen to the brain.
 Tackle antimicrobial resistance : The risk of antimicrobial resistance are increasing day
on day. People should take initiative to tackle from them. This resistance can be misuse
or overuse of antibiotics as well as poor infection prevention and control. This can be
reduced or prevented by use of antibiotics when prescribed by a doctor. Preparing food
hygienically can be the other option.
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 Achieve decline in tuberculosis incidence : The most dangerous diseases named
tuberculosis is increasing day on day. This causes death of large number of patient. So, it
is better to take prevention and cure from it by taking help of health professionals.
3.2 Effectiveness of strategies, system and policies
In the health and care settings, there are various strategies that can be utilised in forming
better qualities and good habits within the character of human. Some of the strategies and
policies that can be used by health and social care settings are described below :
 Organisation of service provision : Service in health centres of England should be
organised in effective manner so that proper care can provide to each individual who
really needs (Sørensen and et. al., 2012). Organisation providing health and social care
services should hire large number of skilled employees who can handle such a large
number of patients. There must be qualified and experienced professionals present in
health centres so that people get right treatment of their diseases.
 Quality of provision : There must be a provision of maintaining quality in hospitals so
that best services can be offered to the public of England. Quality regarding medicines,
cleanliness, treatment should be focussed more in order to solve the problems of
individuals.
 Complaints policies : Each organisation should make a new policy of complaints.
Under this policy, people facing any type of problem after the treatment can give a
complaint letter to the head of organisation so that proper action can be taken on this.
Complaints can be done on any of the operations related to the heath and check ups.
 Partnership : Small organisation or agencies who are not able to deal with some critical
situations of such a large number of patients can do their work by making parters
(Marmot and Bell, 2012). They can make partnership with various other agencies like
medicine providers, blood bankers, food providers, cloths and various other domestic
commodities providers, etc. This can help them a lot in running their business
effectively.
3.3 Changes that can be made for improving the health and well-being of individual
As lives of people are becoming more and more critical due to the increment of various
infectious and non infectious diseases, care providers need to make changes in the existing
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system so that health of the people gets improved. Some of the changes that can be made are
explained below :
 Enabling people having complex as well as multiple needs for managing their lives better
through providing them services that are person- centred and coordinated. Services would
be provided on the basis of strength of individuals assuming that person can up-grade
their own circumstances and lives opportunities with the right support.
 Mental health can be promoted by doing voluntary works. This includes concentrating on
a hobby like gardening, caring of pet animals, interacting with children, etc. (White, Haas
and Williams, 2012) This can aid in forgetting the worries for a while and can change the
mood of individual.
 Sleep problems are even quite mild ones but can damage some one's well- being and the
quality of life. A little sleep over a sustained period can make individual vulnerable to
mental health problems. This problem of sleep have to be make over. This can be done by
going to bed at same time every day even at holidays and weekends. This routine can
promote better night sleep.
3.4 Implementation of activity to encourage behaviour change for maximising health for
individual
Health and social care settings should bring changes in the daily life of patients in order
to improve their well-being and health. Certain changes can be made in daily routine of service
users which are discussed below :
 Education : Organisation should make a scheme of providing education related to the
heath to their service takers. They should create a classroom for them and give them
knowledge about the symptoms or signs of different types of diseases. In addition to that
they can also provide them education about prevention and cure from those diseases. By
this way, people get aware and can prevent themselves from other issues of health. They
are also taught how to deal with certain situations of health problems.
 Physical exercise : Health centres should include the activity of physical fitness. They
should make a plan where each and every member of their settings are allowed to follow
the rule of regular exercise. They can also arrange yoga classes for them. By this way,
well-being and health of individual can be improved efficiently.
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 Games : As some of the patients are suffering from mental depression so for those
people social care providers should make a plan of developing some indoor games
facilities (Yip and et. al., 2012). This provide happiness and relief from mental pressure
or stress. This game will be advantageous for all of the patients as it equally releases their
stress and also help them in maintaining physical fitness.
 Consultation exercises : Health or social care setting can also include consultation
exercises in the daily routine of their users. For example, focus group. This increases the
level of concentration and help them in recovering from their critical situations.
 Input from specialists : The life of individual is very costly. In- fact, this is price less.
So, health care settings should not take any kind of risk regarding their treatment. They
can take aid of different specialists. This provide special and proper treatment to the
persons as per their need (World Health Organization, 2012). Involvement of
extraordinary doctors can also increase the confidence level of all the patients and they
come in large numbers for taking treatment from them. By this way, a relation of trust get
develop between service users and the health professionals.
 Providing healthy and proper diet : Organisation should provide proper amount of
food their patient as per their age and capacity. They should provide healthy and vitamin
reach food items like fruits, green vegetables, egg, fish, meat, milk, etc. to all of their
service users. This reduces the chance of various diseases which develop from the
deficiency of proteins and vitamins. In addition to that , they should take of quality and
also prepare food in a hygienic way so that no side effect or bad effect of food gets
created after its consumption.
CONCLUSION
From the above based report, it can be concluded that people of England are suffering
from various types of diseases like cancer, tuberculosis, heart attacks , obesity, mental problems,
etc. And due to large number of death cases had occurred. So, organisation of health and social
care as well as public itself need to take appropriate actions against that in order to minimise the
rates of vulnerabilities of such kind of diseases. This can be done by changing the life style of
people. They should abandon smoking, drinking alcohol, eating junk foods, etc.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Balarajan, Y., Selvaraj, S. and Subramanian, S. V., 2011. Health care and equity in India. The
Lancet. 377(9764). pp.505-515.
Bambra, C., 2011. Health inequalities and welfare state regimes: theoretical insights on a public
health ‘puzzle’. Journal of epidemiology and community health. 65(9). pp.740-745.
Betancourt, J. R. and et. al., 2016. Defining cultural competence: a practical framework for
addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care. Public health reports.
Bradley, E. H. and et. al., 2011. Health and social services expenditures: associations with health
outcomes. BMJ quality & safety, pp.bmjqs-2010.
Brett and et. al., 2014. Mapping the impact of patient and public involvement on health and
social care research: a systematic review. Health Expectations. 17(5). pp.637-650.
Jackson, C. S. and Gracia, J. N., 2014. Addressing health and health-care disparities: the role of a
diverse workforce and the social determinants of health. Public Health Reports.
129(1_suppl2), pp.57-61.Murdoch, T.B. and Detsky, A.S., 2013. The inevitable
application of big data to health care. Jama. 309(13). pp.1351-1352.
Kohl and et. al., 2012. The pandemic of physical inactivity: global action for public health. The
Lancet. 380(9838). pp.294-305.
Marmot, M. and Bell, R., 2012. Fair society, healthy lives. Public health. 126. pp.S4-S10.
Sørensen and et. al., 2012. Health literacy and public health: a systematic review and integration
of definitions and models. BMC public health. 12(1). p.80.
White, K., Haas, J. S. and Williams, D. R., 2012. Elucidating the role of place in health care
disparities: the example of racial/ethnic residential segregation. Health services
research.47(3pt2). pp.1278-1299.
World Health Organization, 2012. Dementia: a public health priority. World Health
Organization.
Yip, W. C. M and et. al., 2012. Early appraisal of China's huge and complex health-care reforms.
The Lancet. 379(9818). pp.833-842.
Online
Role of public health, 2017. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.nap.edu/read/23471/chapter/7>. [Accessed on 11th November, 2017]
Public Health Approaches to Infectious Disease, 2016. [Online]. Available
through<http://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/mod/oucontent/view.php?
id=8537&printable=1>. [Accessed on 11th November, 2017].
Halls, 2017. [Online]. Available through<http://breast-cancer.ca/httpbreast-cancer-
camortratings>. [Accessed on 11th November, 2017]
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