Analysis of Factors and Barriers in Health Education: NHS Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of health education, focusing on the factors influencing health status, barriers to accessing healthcare services, and the relationship between health beliefs and illness within the context of the UK's National Health Service (NHS). It delves into social, cultural, environmental, and personal factors impacting health. The report explores the potential barriers service users face, including limited appointment availability, health beliefs, geographic shortages, and transportation issues. Furthermore, it examines the communication strategies employed by healthcare practitioners, evaluating the influences of various factors and health beliefs in their approach to supporting individuals in achieving better health outcomes. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of effective communication and addressing the identified barriers to improve overall health education and healthcare delivery within the NHS framework. It also includes a detailed references section with books, journals and online resources.

Health education in Action
INTRODUCTION
Health is entire condition of living body related to their functional perspectives that
makes them comfortable and healthy living. Health education is an effective strategy to execute
health promotion as well as disease prevention programs (Doyle, Ward and Early, 2018).
Community health education focuses on health of society as whole for seeking health issues along
with trends within citizens with stakeholders for searching solutions to the concerns. For the
project, NHS is taken into consideration which is publicly funded healthcare system of UK.
The assessment examines factors that are influencing health status. It also investigates impact of
health beliefs on illness along with wellbeing.
TASK 1
P1. Range of factors which impact on health status
Heath status is defined to relative level of illness or well-being of a person on the basis
of presence of physiological dysfunction, functional impairment together with symptoms. It
comprises wide diversity of economic as well as social standards, mortality, disease or disability
throughout the community or world. To measure health status, various epidemiology are used for
providing accurate picture of various aspects of nation’s health along with assisting health
authorities to determine requires actions in future. Health is central for individual happiness and
makes essential contribution on progress of economy (Duran and Strelnick, 2019). There are
various number of factors that impacts or influence health status together with ability of
healthcare system to provide quality of services to citizens of nation. Practitioners of NHS makes
large contributions and efforts to enhance health status of the society. The company provides
coverage for diverse approved medical as well as pharmaceutical interventions which impacted
positive of health status of an individual, organisation and nation. With this, rapid growth is
analysed in usage of medicines together with improved public heath with concerned
improvements in growth and development of economy.
Some of the factors which impact diversely on health status of an individual in context to NHS are
examined below:
Social factors: The determinants which impacts lifestyle of an individual are known as
social factors. In context to heath status, social factors are physical determinants related to health
which influences functioning, quality of life results, etc resulting in impacting heath status of a
person. Practitioners of NHS have analysed that social factors such as social attitudes, availability
of resources for meeting daily requirements, public safety, social interactions, socio-economic
conditions and exposure to mass media or emerging technologies impacts on person's health status.
Cultural factors: Impact of culture on status of health is vast. It is analysed that cultural
factors encompasses moral values, language, legislation and beliefs which are constantly evolving
impacts health status of an individual. Practitioners of NHS perceives that cultural factors affects
perception of illness, beliefs for causes of disease, the ways illness and pains are experienced or
expressed, kinds of treatment that are preferred by patients and approaches to promotion of health
education impacts adversely on health status of people.
Environmental factors: The factor which influence living organisms and include
temperature, population density, parasites, food and pollutants are environmental factors. It is seen
that all the environmental determinants increases risk of asthma, cancer, heart disease, etc. that
adversely impacts heath status of a person and community (Hays and Hendry, 2018). Moreover,
environmental factors includes temperature or atmosphere that may or may not be suitable for
health of a person. An individual exposes towards numerous environment in their daily life.
Assistant health advisor of NHS believes that the environmental exposures including weather
conditions, green space, housing conditions and noise pollution triggers mental disorder that
facilitates stress reduction and mental recovery that impacts directly on health status of an
individual of a community.
Personal factors: To great extent, personal factors are those determinants of elements
which are associated to an individual. Factors including where a person live, genetics, their
relationships with family and close ones, income, state of environment and education level have
considerable impacts of status of health of an individual. Behaviour of a person towards their heath
also plays significant role in impacting their own health status. Assistant health advisor of NHS
have analysed that activities performed by an individual have huge role in impacting their own
health status. For example, when a person quit smoking then the risk of developing heart related
disease greatly reduces that improves their health status.

The comparison among the factors that impact health status is underneath: Explaining potential barriers that service users face when accessing healthcare services
Healthcare services are activities that are undertaken by practitioners of healthcare system
to maintain and improve health of people through prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure of
injury, illness or other mental or physical impairments within people. Common healthcare services
that service users expects includes disease prevention, rehabilitation, health promotion, diagnosis
and treatment. While assessing these services, a person faces various barriers or obstacles (Heath,
2020). In case with NHS, service user’s faces following potential barriers at the time of assessing
healthcare services:
Limited appointment availability: There are multiple healthcare organisations that offers
typical set of office hours for patient visits. However, for working adult, a healthcare business is
opened between 8 am to 10 am which is not useful for all people. Service users requires convenient
office hours which allow them to make visits to healthcare practitioners outside their work
schedule. For service users of NHS, limited appointment availability is potential barrier faced as
users have to cancel their working schedule in order to access services.
Health beliefs: In present era, people have different types of beliefs according to their
family background, culture and more that becomes potential barrier when assessing services from
healthcare practitioners. Their cultural perception limits them to seek advices from healthcare
practitioners. For instance, it is a belief of various people that consuming oily or heavy food shows
how wealthy they are because of which they faces complexity in following instructions given by
healthcare practitioners of NHS that becomes barrier for service users to get suitable treatment,
Geographic or clinical shortage issues: There are service users which belongs to rural
areas. These people disproportionately struggles more to access healthcare services than a patient
living in suburban or urban locations. As per NHS, more than 57 million of population of UK lives
in rural areas (Siegel, Coleman and James, 2018). The population faces litany challenges that
ranges from their living places having enough doctors or other medical professional to provide care.
Remote geographic location, limited workforce, shortage of physicians and constrained financial
resources often becomes barrier for service users to assess the services from healthcare
organisation.
Transportation barrier: It restrict patients or service users to see their clinicians. There
are multiple service users that are physically not able to drive or cannot obtain transportation to
hospitals or other healthcare organisation. In a survey, it is analysed that nearby 3.5 million patients
go without care because they fails to access transportation to their providers. Assistant Health
Advisor of NHS believes that transportation is potential barrier which is faced by service users
while assessing healthcare services. It has recently gained worldwide attention.
Barriers in healthcare are the path-blocks which restrict usage of heath related services for
users. All the above mentioned barriers are faced by service users of NHS at the time they make
efforts to assess healthcare services.

D1. Evaluation of influences related to factors and health belief within strategies of communication
used by healthcare practitioners in own locality for supporting individuals to attain better
health
Communication strategy refers to the action plan for accomplishing communication
objectives. In healthcare, effective communication strategy is devised for improving safety of
patients is to structure conversations in order to ensure information is transferred in accurate aspects
among service users and healthcare employees. According to Suiter, 2017), it is evaluated that
factors and health beliefs influences communication strategies in the locality wherein health
practitioners work. For example, Nortfolk is the backward locality of UK in which population have
belief that treatment of health requires huge money and they are not able to afford it. However, with
communication strategy that is radio, television and brochures, all relevant information about free
heath check-ups and treatments are communicated by employees of NHS at this locality which
supports people to attain better health.
CONCLUSION
With the mentioned information, it is concluded that health education is the principle
through which people along with groups learn to behave conductively for promoting, maintaining
together with restoring health. The factors that impact health status are personal, environmental,
cultural and social factors. Potential barriers that are users’ faces to gain assess of healthcare
includes transportation barriers, limited appointment availability, health beliefs and clinical
shortage issues.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Doyle, E. I., Ward, S. E. and Early, J., 2018. The process of community health education and
promotion. Waveland Press.
Duran, B. and Strelnick, H., 2019. Beyond the Manuscript: Toward Health Equity: A National
Study of Promising Practices in Community-Based Participatory Research. Progress in
Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action. 13(4). pp.353-358.
Hays, G. and Hendry, A., 2018. 9 Changing education in action. Flip the System Australia: What
Matters in Education, p.9.
Siegel, J., Coleman, D. L. and James, T., 2018. Integrating social determinants of health into
graduate medical education: a call for action. Academic Medicine. 93(2). pp.159-162.
Suiter, S. V., 2017. Community health needs assessment and action planning in seven Dominican
bateyes. Evaluation and program planning. 60. pp.103-111.
Weigel, R. and Krüger, C., 2020. Global child health in Germany-Time for action. Global Health
Action. 13(1). p.1829401.
Online:
Heath. S., 2020. Top Challenges Impacting Patient Access to Healthcare. [Online]. Available
through: <https://patientengagementhit.com/news/top-challenges-impacting-patient-
access-to-healthcare>
To assess the enforced regulation and dominant
administration: This is a proactive measure of
monitoring and review. As there should be proper
and regular checking of implemented standards in
organisation.
Explaining relationship among health beliefs and illness
Health beliefs refers to believes, consideration and related aspects about their health. The beliefs
are culturally determined as well as come together for forming wider health belief systems. At
same time, illness is the period of sickness that affects body and mind of a living organism. It is
specific abnormal situation which negatively affects structure and function of entire parts of body
which do not occur because of any immediate external injury. It is the state related to complete
physically, psychologically and socially wellbeing that is not merely due to absence of any
infirmity or disease (Weigel and Krüger, 2020).
There is direct relation among health belief and illness as when health belief is the latent
capacity for influencing behaviour, cognition as well as govern the ways people think and act for
their illness. At the time when patient of NHS or other healthcare system draft a belief about their
illness then they act for it accordingly. For example, people believes that there body is fit and can
overcome any illness quickly with fast treatments or cure than their capacity for it is in same
manner. However, an ill person makes belief that their body needs huge care and treatment then
they act accordingly.
An individual's belief is immediately related to illness or disease together as health
beliefs are the concepts capturing patient’s addition to healthcare providers' contribution for
making sense of an illness. It is believed that in past, health have been perceived as just absence
of illness. But, with changes in time, presently it is perceived as more as the situation of physical
addition to mental well-being. Heath belief and disease have strong relation that states that
inappropriate or non-suitable beliefs of health are main causes of illness or other disease.
M2. Analysing range of factors which affect communication among users to that of healthcare
practitioners
There are various factors which affects communication between users and healthcare
practitioners. Personal factor, cultural factor and environmental factors plays significant role in
impacting communication among service users and practitioners of NHS. At same time, it is also
assessed that limited appointment availability, different beliefs for health beliefs, geographic or
clinical shortage issues and transportation barrier also restricts communication between users and
practitioners of hospital or other healthcare establishments (Doyle, Ward and Early, 2018).