Community Care Policy Brief: Environmental Health and Policy Issues

This policy brief examines the impact of environmental changes, specifically smog caused by climatic conditions, on the health of the African American community in the United States. The brief highlights the increasing levels of pollutants due to technological advancements and automobiles, leading to respiratory, eye, and mental health issues. It identifies the lack of adequate health insurance coverage and the failure of policies to address the specific needs of this minority group as major health policy issues. The report details the socioeconomic, environmental, and living condition factors contributing to these health problems, emphasizing the disproportionate impact on the African American community. The policy brief proposes a multi-faceted solution, starting with government audits of existing health and social care policies, followed by staff training and skill development. It also suggests policy revisions to address the community's needs and collaboration with community workers to improve living conditions. The brief concludes by discussing the expected positive impacts of these policy changes, including improved health outcomes and financial satisfaction within the community, as well as the importance of culturally competent communication in policy implementation.

Running head: COMMUNITY CARE
COMMUNITY CARE
Name of Student
Name of University
Author note

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Response to question 1
Environmental changes in the climatic conditions with respect to fog and smoke
accumulation resulting in the causation of smog is a critical factor that has led to the
causation of various respiratory diseases, eye diseases and mental health changes in the
public health framework of the country and it is highly important to note that in United
States, the level of pollutants are increasing day by day given the advancement in technology
and the increase in the number of automobiles that has added to the smoke levels in the air.
The major health policy issue includes the lack of proper coverage of the health insurance in
the African American community, policies not addressing the community needs of the
African American communities (Hyde et al., 2017).
The population that is affected is African American community who are thee minority
groups in the country of United States.
The causation of respiratory, eye and the mental health issues in the African American
community will be studied at a national level.
It has been reported that the African American men, women and especially children
are affected greatly by the climatic temperature fall leading to the formation of smog and this
includes a lot of socioeconomic, environmental, residential and living conditions factors that
actually are vital to be studied (Paterno et al., 2017)
Response to question 2
It is very important to be understood that the community groups have a different
social and economic status than the urban groups in the country and it is highly important to
note that the various factors such as pertaining to that of job and employability status lack,
lack of education and the lack of knowledge about the management and the prevention of
diseases, lack of awareness and the lack of quality health care services accessibility are much

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very responsible in the development of more diseases in the community settings of African
American community than the urban settings of United States (Le et al., 2018). Poor quality
of living, nutritional intake problems, low socioeconomic status of the community based
families are also involved in the development of health and wellbeing issues in the African
American community of United States (Wood et al., 2017). Cars and other forms of
transportation has increased in number due to the advancement in technologies and with
increase in the market demand and this is very critical that the primary pollutants that is
released from the cars and the other forms of automobiles for example smoke and increase in
the number of factories and workplaces that releases smoke also adds to the problem. The
smoke when it comes in touch with the fog leads to the formation of smog that cause
respiratory problems such as emphysema, asthma and dizziness and problems with attention
and eye irritation as well. Smog is a secondary pollutant. As the people living in the African
American community – has food, shelter, clothing and environmental protection issues that
makes them very prone to the drastic climatic changes leading to the smog related health
problems in this African American community. The health policy issues do not cover the
social determinants of health that cause the comorbidities in the patient and the lack of
implementation of policies in the community framework due to lack of skilled workforce, is
another problem. Lack of policies for the health care issues caused by climatic changes is a
huge policy issue as well.
Response to question 3
It is very important that the policy change is started imperatively to address the needs
of community (health and social) in response to climatic changes and smog causing the
respiratory, neuropsychological and the vision problems. At first the government officials,
administrator, community nursing managers must be creating the audit system in order to
understand the efficiency of policy implementation process done by the health care

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(community nurses), social care and the other assistant staffs in African American population.
The actions taken by all these staffs has to be measured and audited and in case of any gaps,
staff training and skill development sessions has to be given to these health and social care
staffs. The policy change would begin with the policymakers making changes in the clauses
in the health policies in accordance to the needs of the American African community and
then in the next stages of the policy changes, proper collaboration with the community
workers and the local social activists should be bought through in order to improve the proper
living and dwelling condition of the community against the foggy situations. Lastly, feedback
from reflection of the social and health process delivered to the community send back to the
government policy makers would complete the policy change cycle (Carlberg-Racich &
Roden, 2017).
Response to question 4
The policy change would surely improve the health and financial cover related
satisfaction of the community living people. The culturally competent communication is
critical to the correct implementation of policy change in the community setting and this
would also bridge the gaps in terms of equity and diversity in health care delivery system.

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References
Carlberg-Racich, S., & Roden, L. (2017). Barriers to patient-centered human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care with African American patients who use drugs:
Social construction of the typical and ideal care visit. Substance abuse, 38(2), 205-
212.
Hyde, J. C., Yedinak, K. M., Talhelm, A. F., Smith, A. M., Bowman, D. M., Johnston, F.
H., ... & Tinkham, W. T. (2017). Air quality policy and fire management responses
addressing smoke from wildland fires in the United States and
Australia. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 26(5), 347-363.
Le, K., Tingey, K., Becnel, T., Giallardon, P., & Butterfield, T. (2018). Building Air Quality
Sensors & Inspiring Citizen Scientists. Chemical engineering education, 52(3).
Paterno, M. T., Hayat, M. J., Wenzel, J., & Campbell, J. C. (2017). A mixed methods study
of contraceptive effectiveness in a relationship context among young adult, primarily
low-income African American women. Journal of racial and ethnic health
disparities, 4(2), 184-194.
Wood, S. N., Li, Z., Shaddick, G., & Augustin, N. H. (2017). Generalized additive models for
gigadata: modeling the UK black smoke network daily data. Journal of the American
Statistical Association, 112(519), 1199-1210.