Essay on Community Engagement and Diabetes Prevention Strategies

This essay examines public health strategies for community engagement in diabetes type 2 prevention. It explores key strategies, including policy formation, employing healthcare professionals, and initiating awareness programs. The essay discusses the importance of capacity building, emphasizing communication and education. It reviews health promotion models, including the educational approach and the health belief model, analyzing their advantages and disadvantages. The author concludes by highlighting the crucial role of community engagement and various models in addressing the health concern of diabetes within a community.

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH
Public Health
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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In most of the countries of this modern world, it is reported that, diabetes type 2 is one
of the major contributors of the overall disease burden of the world. Moreover, it is reported
that, the diabetes type 2 is hugely affecting health of the community people as well.
Therefore, in most of the cases, it is reported that, diabetes type 2 is very much common
among the people of various community as well. Diabetes type 2 is characterized by the
presence of high blood glucose level in the body and the endocrinal disturbances related to
the low amount of insulin secretion in the body. Not only this, but in some cases, insulin
resistance is also associated with the diabetes type 2. From a report of Australia, it was
reported that among the total numbers of diabetes sufferers in Australia, 85% are suffering
from the diabetes type 2. Mostly, the people under the age group of 40 years or above is
suffering from this disease (Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council , 2017). On the
other hand, young generation of the country is also suffering from the disease. In this essay,
the primary strategies to involve the community people in the execution of program of the
health concern, different models of health promotion among the community people and
capacity building process to support the community in preventing the health concerns in the
community.
Key Strategies to Implement Program
According to the Laveracks Ladder of community based interaction model, a
community based health program refers to the empowerment of the members of the
community as part of the community based health programs. This model is associated with
the social aspects of the individual control capacity and health concern of the particular
community. The primary goal of this, community model is to involve more people in the
preventing a particular health concern in a community (Cacari-Stone et al., 2014). So, it can
be said that, the community engagement is the primary importance of this model. Along with
this, another important segment of this model is the leadership which will drive more people

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to take part in the disease prevention process as well. Leadership in the community will allow
the government to recognise the health concern from the perspective of a leader of that
community ( Ross et al., 2014).
The process of community engagement process as a part of the strategy
implementation related to the health concern, diabetes type 2 among the people of a particular
community is very important as the community people are the primary stakeholders in the
implementation plan of a particular health care concern. In order to engage community
people in this implementation process, government may take a few steps. Firstly government
may form particular policies for the people so that they feel motivated for engaging
themselves in the process of disease prevention. As a part of this, government also may take
initiatives to highlight the current programs for the community addressing the health
concerns. And as a result, it may possible that, after knowing the importance of the health
concern, more people may engage themselves in the disease preventing process as well.
Along with this, government should make policy as per the requirement of the community
people that is the government policy will be based on magnitude of the health problems that
is more concentration should be given to those community people who are suffering from
severe form of diabetes type 2 in a particular community as well (Roski, Bo-Linn &
Andrews, 2014). As a part of second strategy, to engage more community people in this
process, government should employ health care professionals in the community so that they
can engage more people in the process as they have proper understanding of the health
concern and it will allow them to give a concrete knowledge session to the community
people. For engaging more people in this process, the health care professionals should pose a
respectful behaviour towards the community people and along with this, they also should try
to build a healthy relationships with the people. The respectful behaviour towards the
community people will help in building a healthy relationship with the people (Bromley et

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al., 2015). As a part of the third strategy, the government should initiate awareness program
regarding diabetes type 2. This session comprise of sessions regarding the bad effect of the
disease, food habits and lifestyle choices related to the diabetes type 2. The community
people should know about the association of food habits and lifestyles of people so that they
can take initiatives by themselves. Hence, it can be said that, the enhancement of knowledge
regarding the health concern will allow the community people to be involved in the
prevention process of the health concern (Eldredge et al., 2016).
Capacity Building
Capacity building refers to the establishment of sustainable and operative plans for
increasing the community actions. Community capacity building commonly includes the
opportunities or threats correlated with the environmental, political and economic condition
in which the community is living. The main domain of the community capacity building
developed by Liberto et al. can be used in case of recognizing the health concern in the
particular community. It can be easily said that for decreasing the impact of the particular
health concern, capacity building can be easily used. Under this program, communication is
one of the most important part of capacity building program as it will help in the increment of
knowledge level of the people of the community (Laverack, 2014). The study of Hovmand
(2014), reported that, maintenance of a good and appropriate communication skills in the
health care setting will help in building capacity of the particular community so that they can
easily handle the adverse situation related to the health concern that is diabetes type 2. Not
only this, maintaining a good communication skills in the health care settings will also
improve information sharing process and thereby improve the knowledge level of the
community people. In the capacity building process, teaching is an important part of this
process and teaching also helps in the community capacity building process. Along with this
it is also evident that, the issue of capacity building in a community, also encourage the

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human resource development process that is empowering the community by increasing their
knowledge and skills related to the health concern. So, it can be said the increase in the
understanding level of knowledge regarding the health concern will also help in gaining
knowledge (Hong & Scardamalia, 2014). Moreover, the advancement of technology in recent
time, also help in improvement in the communication process in the health care settings as
well. Hence, it is so crucial to support the people in the prevention process, so that they can
combat against the adverse condition regarding the health concern as well. Moreover, it is
also true that, providing a positive support to the community people will help in the capacity
building process. The enhanced capacity of a specific community may improve the ability of
the community regarding the response against any health concern of the community people
(Laverack, 2014).
Models and Approaches of Health Promotion
In case of health promotion for a particular community, the educational approach and
health belief model may be used. The educational approach model is that model which
follows more realistic approach that is based on current data unlike .the health belief model.
This model is based on the current research related to the community people and their
knowledge regarding the health concern that is diabetes type 2. This model is mostly based
on the recent data of research and findings and understanding of relevant data of the
particular health concerns. The model also extract data from the research process. So, it can
be said that, this model will give an actual scenario of the condition as it is based on current
data. Along with this, the educational model is also very reliable as the research data are also
reliable and it can be marked as one advantage of this model. On the other hand, while
analysing the disadvantage of this model, it can be said that the high costs of conducting
research is the disadvantage of this model (Stenberg & Carlson, 2015).

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The health belief model permits to construct the program as per the knowledge that
are already available regarding the populations of the particular community. This model was
initially developed by the Public Health Service in 1950 for explaining the psychological
viewpoint of the community people. Along with this, the health belief model also helps in
recognizing the causes of absenteeism of the community people in the health care programs
as well (Green & Murphy, 2014). Apart from that this model also help in understanding the
patient’s non-compliance and compliance directed towards the intervention programs and
prevention process of a particular health concerns for the community population. Not only
this, but this model also helps in the construction of the basis of understandings of the
requirements of the community population and this feature can be marked as an advantage of
this model. This health belief model is also capable of describing the combination of personal
risks, way out of risks as well. While analysing the advantages of the health belief model, it
can be said that, this model also helps in the understandings of the procedure by which an
individual initiate the health care initiative and simultaneously recognise the importance of
the health care initiative as well (Skinner, Tiro & Champion, 2015). Therefore, it can be said
that, this quality of this model can help in the process of identifying the gaps in the existing
process of preventing any adverse condition related to the health concern as well. On the
other hand, while discussing the disadvantages of this model, it can be said that, this model
may have negative impact related to current scenario that is as this model is based on the
existing knowledge and no current knowledge is considered during the application of this
model and this may counted as the disadvantage of this model as it may possible that due to
consideration of existing knowledge, current scenario may differ (Green & Murphy, 2014).
Hence, it can be concluded that, addressing the problem of community people is very
crucial as it is associated with a huge of number of people in the world. In order to restrict the
prevalence of this condition, various model can be applied to increase the understanding of

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the current scenario of the disease condition in a particular community. Therefore, two types
of models can be applied in addressing the health concern and it is evident that, both the
models have a few advantages and disadvantages as well.

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