Community Health and Disaster Prevention: Healthcare Assignment Report

This healthcare assignment report delves into community health and disaster prevention, focusing on the Ebola virus outbreak. It explores the importance of community engagement, emphasizing the need for comprehensive emergency plans. The report highlights the bottom-up approach as an effective strategy, stressing the significance of understanding community beliefs and involving community members in the decision-making process. It discusses the five stages of the disaster management cycle, including preparedness, response, and recovery, and emphasizes the role of governmental strategies. Furthermore, the report examines the KSA model and the importance of communication, consultation, and empowerment within the community. The assignment underscores the need for funding and resources to support community-based initiatives, ultimately aiming to protect communities from the devastating effects of disease outbreaks. The report is well-researched and provides valuable insights into effective disaster management and public health strategies.

Running head: HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
The World Health Organisation (2019) mentions community engagement as the
aspects that could be used as the process so that all the organisations working for the growth
and development of the community could be united and collective benefit could be provided
to the community members. As per Kolopack et al. (2015), community engagement programs
are developed so that through effective means, an entire community could be mobilized or
move towards community engagement program. While developing community engagement
and mobilization program the organizers develop emergency program so that safety and
security related awareness could be spread in the community and they could be protected
from emerging hazardous and emergency conditions. Further, as per Sefcik et al. (2018), if
the country or community that is suffering from acute or severe emergency condition and
does not provide or develop an emergency plan, that the rate of morbidity and mortality
increases in the community.
This paper also provides a detailed emergency plan for the community health and
disaster prevention against Ebola virus and in the process discusses about community
engagement. In this process, the paper would use an effective strategy or approach to provide
detailed analysis of the community engagement process.
Discussion
While developing community engagement plan for the Ebola outbreak that is
affecting any specific community, it should be understood that while developing emergency
plan, it is the responsibility of the organizers to provide every detail to the community that
are suffering due to critical health complications (Steinfort, 2017). As per Haworth and Bruce
(2015), it is the fundamental right of the community members to know about their risk factors
so their health and wellbeing could be restored. In this process, it should be mentioned that

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while developing community engagement plan and associated disaster management
emergency plan, the organisations should be able to stick to a principle of community
engagement (Shreve, Davis & Fordham, 2017). This would help them to provide effective
care to the patients affected with the disease outbreak. Further as per Adhikari, Mishra and
Raut (2016), with the usage of proper strategies and principles, it helps to identify the aspects
that could help communities to mobile its assets by developing capacity and decision making
abilities of the community.
As the primary aim of this project is to identify the ability of the community to
develop emergency plan for the Ebola outbreak, it is estimated that development of good
actin plan is an important step. This is because with development of good action plan they
could develop abilities of creating and recognizing the risks and respond to them after proper
evaluation so that a proper risk management framework could be developed and the critical
risk could be eliminated.
However, while developing emergency action plans with the community, a specific
community engagement approach should be developed and implemented so that the involved
community could understand the importance of it and include themselves for the mobility
purposes (Laninga, Austin & McClure, 2019). As per Epstein et al. (2018), while engaging to
a specific community, it is important that the organizers or the healthcare faculties connect to
their myths, beliefs and their abilities so that they could understand the community’s thought
process and them implement intervention to help them to overcome their healthcare
complications. Further, the organizers should also include effective communication strategy
in their action plan as it has been observed that majority of the healthcare disaster
management emergency plan that has successfully helped communities overcome their
critical conditions. Further, while developing this action plan, it is important that the facilities
implement any approach so that they could connect to a large population effectively. This

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paper identifies the bottom up approach for developing action plan as Scolobig et al. (2015)
mentions top down approach as one of the most effective processes for developing an
approach that helps to divide the complications effectively. However, the bottom up approach
is also helpful in identifying the aspects that helps to collaborate the aspects that helps in the
identification of the strategies that helps in the collaboration of the community members (De
Albuquerque et al., 2015). Further as per Parsons et al. (2016), one of the primary aim of this
bottom up approach is to develop abilities so that all the fundamental aspects present in the
disaster management could be provided its importance and then after understanding each
aspects, the collaborative approach is developed.
Further as per De Albuquerque et al. (2015), the primary disaster management action
plan should be inclusive of five primary stages of disaster management cycle and in the
process it should be inclusive of governmental strategies. These aspects are poverty, loss of
property, environmental complications, and health complications and loss of human life,
should be targeted through the five stages of disaster management cycle so that critical
complications could be overcome. These aspects are understanding disaster stage, the disaster
response stage, recovery stage, risk reduction stage, and the preparedness stage that helps to
develop important infrastructure so that people could be provided with effective abilities to
fight with the disaster. This requires all the stakeholders in the process to be active and
include all of their efforts in fighting the process so that the population that is suffering from
multi-hazardous conditions, could be provided with effective and appropriate help to
overcome their disaster condition.
Hence, in this condition, it is important that the organizers include the bottom up
approach in the disaster management process so that they could effective plan their steps,
their approaches and with effective modifications in their principles, they could help the
community to overcome their critical conditions (Cutter, 2016). With development of smaller

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strategies it helps people to understand that majority of the people that are suffering from the
disaster should be educated about their complex condition and then with the help of effective
interventions, their complication would be addressed (De Albuquerque et al., 2015). In this
process, application of disaster management model or the KSA model should also be
discussed so that the effectiveness of this approach could be understood. As per Youssef,
Pradhan and Sefry (2016) the KSA approach is a set of recommendations that help people to
understand the importance effective preparedness and the care competency so that they could
take part in the disaster management process and help the community to overcome this
critical condition. The following section involves the competencies or strategies that would
be used to overcome the Ebla virus outbreak or help to limit the spread of this complication
throughout the society.
Community engagement
In this aspect, all the participants that are working in the disaster management
process, should be able to understand that their ability to take part in the effective disaster is
because of their ability to communicate to the population or community (Adhikari, Mishra &
Raut, 2016). They should be able to understand the mental and emotional state of the
community prior to implement any strategy on them and should be able to understand that to
develop effective community engagement it is important that they understand or know about
the critical condition that they are suffering from or are at risk of (Cutter, 2016). Finally, to
include the communities in the care process, it is important that the organisation planning for
this disaster management strategy should be provided with funding so that they could collect
their own and required necessities effectively (Scolobig et al., 2015).
Consultation
This community that is suffering from Ebola outbreak should be provided with
effective strategies so that they could educate or spread the literacy about the community

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engagement plan or the approach for overcoming or combating the disaster to the community
members. Further, the healthcare organisations in the community should also be active so that
they could identify the patients that are suffering from Ebola and isolate them from the
community members. This would help the community organizers to limit the spread of
disease to the entire community (Scolobig et al., 2015).
Participation and action plan
Community members should be encouraged to take part in the community
engagement and disaster management plan so that they could help their own community
effectively. It is an important strategy as they would be able to understand the sensitivity of
their community and then provide them with intervention accordingly (Guernsey & Levine,
2017). Further all the community workers involved in this process should be provided with
abilities and information so that they could judge the situation on their 2on and then help the
community members to overcome their critical conditions effectively. They should also be
educated about the importance of medication safety, hygiene and sanitation and other aspects
so that they could also help in prevention of this disease effectively (Scolobig et al., 2015).
Empowerment
This disaster management strategy would help to empower the community, the
volunteers, the healthcare professionals and all the stakeholders involved in the care process
so that they could take their own decision and help to support this co munity engagement and
disaster management drive (Parsons et al., 2016).
Conclusion
This paper discusses about the disaster management strategies and community
engagement principles that helps in identification of the strength of the community and then
help their own community to overcome the risk of disaster. In this paper discussion about the

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disaster of Ebola outbreak has been discussed so that through the application of effective
community engagement principle and disease outbreak management approach, a specific
community could be protected. This paper mentions Bottom Up approach as the most
effective approach to deal with critical conditions associated with disease outbreak and
management.

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References
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