Essay on Community Health and Disease Prevention for Type 2 Diabetes

This essay delves into community health and disease prevention, specifically focusing on type 2 diabetes. It examines health promotion programs and strategies to enhance community engagement, drawing upon Laverack's ladder of community-based interaction to analyze communication, participation, and collaboration strategies. The essay identifies core domains of capacity building, including participation, leadership, and organizational structure, to support community empowerment and program ownership. Furthermore, it explores various health promotion approaches such as social change, empowerment, educational, behavioral change, and medical approaches, discussing their advantages and disadvantages. The essay emphasizes the importance of addressing the prevalence of type 2 diabetes through comprehensive health programs, fostering community involvement, and promoting healthy lifestyles to improve health outcomes.

Running head: COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Introduction:
Health promotion program or process is defined as the process that helps the individual
from different background to enhance or improve their physical condition as well as mental
condition. Health promotion activities include, disease prevention program, awareness program
and education program. It helps in empowering the behavior and life style of the individual. The
topic chosen for the essay is type 2 diabetes and the health concern which is related to the
preventable disease (Freeman et al., 2018). This essay primarily focusses on the community
based interaction with the help of health programs. In the essay, three different strategies are
mentioned by using the community-based interaction guide from Laverack’s ladder. These
strategies can be used in enhancing the engagement of the community in the health program
which is implemented to address the health concerns. Apart from that, core domain of the
capacity building has been identified which supports the empowerment of the community and
also work of the ownership of the prevention program for the type-2 diabetes. In addition,
different approaches and the models that can be used in the promotion has also been discussed in
the essay. These approaches helps in educating, motivating and creating awareness regarding the
adverse effect of type 2 diabetes. Advantages and disadvantages of different models and the
approaches has also been discussed in the essay.
Type 2 diabetes:
Type 2 diabetes which is correspondingly identified as diabetes mellitus is one of the
most common disease among the individuals. It is a metabolic disorder which affects an
individual and increases the blood glucose of the individual (DeFronzo et al., 2015). The
individual has been characteristic by the insulin resistance which is because of the lack of insulin
in the body. The primary reason behind the occurrence of the diabetes type 2 is lack of physical

2COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
activity and obesity. According to Australian Government Department of Health (2019), it can
be stated that the occurrence rate of type 2 diabetes is more in Australia as compared with the
type 1 diabetes. Out of all the individuals who has been suffering from diabetes, 85% of the
individual has been identified to be suffering from type 2 diabetes in 2014. According to a
survey conducted by Australian Government Department of Health (2019), around 1.2 million of
the total population has been identified to be suffering from diabetes which is 1.5 % of the total
Australian population. The prevalence rate of type 2 diabetes has been augmented from 1990 to
2012 in Australia. The most general signs and symptoms of the type 2 diabetes, feeing of thirsty,
blurry vision, frequent urination and lack of wound healing capacity. If proper care is provided to
the individual along with the prevention strategies, this disease can be prevented (Semenkovich
et al., 2915). However due to the lack of proper knowledge regarding the disease and its
preventable strategies, demographic population of the community has been observed to be
suffering from type 2 diabetes. In order to enhance knowledge regarding the preventable disease,
different health programs is to be conducted.
Health promotion:
Health promotion is described as the process that helps in enhancing and improving the
health of the community members. It help in reducing the prevalence rate of the individuals that
has been effected by the disease. The health promotion activity includes, awareness camps and
health promotion strategy. In this case the health promotion strategies that has been implemented
to reduce the adverse effect of type 2 diabetes. To enhance the effectiveness of the health
programs, it is important to enhance the engagement of the community member. It can be
enhanced by applying key strategies that has been identified by the Laverack in their Laverack’s
ladder model.

3COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Laverack’s ladder of the community-based interaction:
Laverack’s ladder of the community-based interaction is defined as a ladder or process that helps
the community member to enhance their empowerment and also helps in community development.
Different characteristics has been identified by the Laverack’s which is aligned to form a ladder that aims
to enhance the community empowerment. The different characteristics that has been identified by the
laverack is community readiness, community participation, community engagement, community
organization, community development, community capacity, community action and community
empowerment (Laverack et al., 2015).
Key strategies that help in community engagement:
Community engagement is described as the engagement of the community associates in the any
health programs or awareness camps. In order to enhance the engagement of the community members in
the health curriculums that has been applied to address the health issue and concern related to type 1
diabetes, there are certain key strategies which is identified by the Laverack in their Laverack’s ladder
key model (Laverack et al., 2015). These key strategies are, communication and listening, working in
collaboration with other authorities and participation.
Communication and listening: Communication is one of the most effective and finest tool that helps in
building a quality rapport among the individual. By increasing the effective communication, among the
community members and the authorities which are involved in the health promotion programs,
engagement and participation of the community members can be increased. Effective communication
make the community member more comfortable to the setting and hence they will be able to share their
pain and worries more comfortably (Glanz, Rimer & Viswanath, 2015). By using different
communication strategy such as voice modulation, facial expression and gestures, by using practical
examples, community engagement can be increased. Apart from this, active listening also helps in
improving the Community engagement (Matarrita-Cascante, Sene-Harper & Ruyle, 2019). If the

4COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
healthcare staff is involved in the active listening, it will make the community member feel more
comfortable and important which ultimately leads to enhanced community engagement.
Participation: Participation is one of the most effective key strategies that helps in enhancing the
community engagement. During the health promotion programs, if the community members they will
consider themselves as an important part of the community and will engage themselves in such health
programs (Noor, 2017). Effective involvement of the members of the community helps in the health
organization both small and large enhances the participation and engagement of the community members.
Their involvement can be done by conducting a survey regarding their food habits, physical activity,
taking feedback and discussing health promotion strategy and its effect with them (Bryar, 2016).
Working in collaboration: Working in collaboration or working in partnership with the community
members also helps in increasing the community engagement. Before implementation of the community
programs, it is significant to comprehend the needs and preferences of the community members (Jones et
al., 2015). The members which are responsible for the development of the health programs helps should
work in collaboration with the community members in order to proliferate the engagement of community
members. Lack of access to the quality healthcare is commonly observed among the community member
due to their poor socio-economic condition (South, 2015). Hence, in such condition, it is important to
develop a program that helps in increasing the healthcare facility access among the community members
which can be achieved by functioning in participation with the community participants and also helps in
enhancing the community engagement.
Core domains of the capacity building:
Capacity building is demarcated as the healthcare structure that helps in delivering the health
programs related to the health issue (Wallerstein et al., 2015). In this case, the health issue is type 2
diabetes and the policies or the programs that helps in reducing the health risk due to the disease is
considered under capacity building. There are nine core domains described under capacity building which

5COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
helps providing support and also helps in maintaining the community empowerment along with
enhancement in the community ownership for the prevention programs of the type 2 diabetes are as
follows:
Participation: Effective participation between the community members and the healthcare authorities
which helps in providing the better health promotion programs. For enhancing the partnership, effective
communication is necessary. With the help of effective communication, the needs, preferences and the
interests of the community member can be acknowledged which helps in the development of the health
programs which is person centered (Thompson et al., 2016).
Leadership: In order to develop an effective health care programs, it is important to have a leader which
acknowledges all the pros and cons of the each and every strategy. In case of diabetes, a leader should
know benefits of the strategy that he/she is implying in the programs.
Organizational structure: Organizational structure of the healthcare is important as it helps in the
implication of the health programs. Organizational structure helps in providing support and also maintains
the aims and objective of the programs that helps in providing benefits of the program to all the
community members.
Problem assessment: Assessment of the problems such as the prevalence of the type 2 diabetes in
Australia should be considered before implementing a health program (Xia et al., 2016).
Resource mobilization: Resource mobilization among the community members is very
important as it helps in the even distribution of the healthcare facilities. In order to evaluate the
effectiveness of the programs, resource mobilization is necessary.
Asking why: Before implementing the programs, the importance of the programs should be
evaluated. In case of type 2 diabetes, the community members are surveys regarding the
importance of the programs.

6COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Links with other: The health programs are linked with other organization to provide benefits of
the programs to the patient of each and every health care organization.
Role outside agents: Agents are considered as one of the most important factor that helps in the
development as well act as support for the community empowerment. It helps in the facilitation
of the skill development and creates awareness.
Program management: Management of the programs is very necessary for the successful
implementation of the programs in order to support the community empowerment (Peterman,
2017).
Health promotion approaches and the models:
The health promotion approach that helps in motivating and educating the students are as
follows:
Social change approach: This approach focusses on the culture and its role in providing better
health (Golden et al., 2015).
The advantage of this method is that it helps in addressing the social issue such as
smoking. The disadvantage of this method is that, this method is considered as top down method
and the inability of the health care providers to adapt the skill.
Empowerment Approach: This approach focusses on the perspective, needs and preferences if
each and every individual and plays an important role in community empowerment (Laverack,
2017).
The advantage of this model is that it helps in providing person centered care. Whereas
the disadvantage of the method is its time consuming feature.

7COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Educational Approach: This approach focusses on the providing education to the community
members that helps in creating awareness regarding the disease (Sharma, 2016).
The advantage of this model is that it helps in enhancing the knowledge of the individual
whereas, the disadvantages is that the model is time consuming.
Behavioral change Approach: This approach focusses on the encouragement of the people to
change their life style and to adapt healthy life style (Eldredge et al., 2016).
The benefit of this model and approach is that it helps the individual to adapt healthy
lifestyle, whereas the disadvantages are it’s dependents on the health care providers.
Medical Approach: This approach focusses on providing treatment strategy to the each and
every community members (O’Beirne et al., 2018).
The advantage of this model is that it helps it is measurable, whereas the disadvantages
are its incapbilty to determine the determinants.
Conclusion:
From the above essay, it can be determined that type 2 diabetes is one of the most
prevalent disease in both men and women of different age. As it is one of the most prevalent
disease, it can also have negative effect on the life expectancy rate of an individual. If proper
care, treatment and prevention strategy can be applied it can lead to prevention of the disease.
Though the disease is preventable, there are certain community which are not aware of the
strategies that helps in the prevention of the disease. Hence to create awareness regarding the
prevention of the type 2 diabetes is conducted with the help of health promotion strategy is
mentioned in the essay. In the essay, the strategies that has been used to enhance the engagement

8COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
of the community member in order to address the health concern has been included. The notion
of capacity-building that was also explained in the essay has been grounded on the Liberato et al
(2011). Nine different domains of the capacity building approach has been highlighted in the
essay which will provide effective support in order to empower and to enhance community
ownership. In addition to these, different models and the approaches which helps in motivating
and educating the community for the health issue has also been stated.

9COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
References:
Australian Government Department of Health. (2019). Department of Health | Diabetes.
Retrieved from https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/chronic-
diabetes
Bryar, R. (2016). The community dimension. Health Visiting: Preparation for Practice. 4th edn.
Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
DeFronzo, R. A., Ferrannini, E., Groop, L., Henry, R. R., Herman, W. H., Holst, J. J., ... &
Simonson, D. C. (2015). Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Nature reviews Disease primers, 1,
15019.
Eldredge, L. K. B., Markham, C. M., Ruiter, R. A., Fernández, M. E., Kok, G., & Parcel, G. S.
(2016). Planning health promotion programs: an intervention mapping approach. John
Wiley & Sons.
Freeman, K., Hanlon, M., Denslow, S., & Hooper, V. (2018). Patient engagement in type 2
diabetes: a collaborative community health initiative. The Diabetes Educator, 44(4), 395-
404.
Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (Eds.). (2015). Health behavior: Theory, research,
and practice. John Wiley & Sons.
Golden, S. D., McLeroy, K. R., Green, L. W., Earp, J. A. L., & Lieberman, L. D. (2015).
Upending the social ecological model to guide health promotion efforts toward policy
and environmental change.

10COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Jones, S., Walker, C., Miles, A. C. J., De Silva, E., & Zimitat, C. (2015). A rural, community-
based suicide awareness and intervention program. Rural & Remote Health, 15(2).
Laverack, G. (2017). The challenge of behaviour change and health promotion. Challenges, 8(2),
25.
Laverack, J., Weaver, G. G., Mathieu, D., & Paul, J. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 9,067,522.
Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Matarrita-Cascante, D., Sene-Harper, A., & Ruyle, L. (2019). A holistic framework for
participatory conservation approaches. International Journal of Sustainable Development
& World Ecology, 1-11.
Noor, A. L. M. (2017). Understanding Different Forms of Community Development: A Review
of Literature. EUROPEAN CENTER FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH,
103.
O’Beirne, M., Freeman, T., Singer, A., Wiebe, E., Lacasse, M., Viner, G., ... & Rourke, J.
(2018). Family Medicine Forum Research Proceedings 2017Documentation of chaperone
useNormative definition of comprehensive practiceAdherence to Choosing Wisely
recommendations within primary careExperiences with medical assistance in
dyingEffects of a criterion-based competency assessment tool on identification and
management of residents in difficultyWhat’s in an ITER? Capturing resident progression
toward competence using the Competency-Based Achievement SystemRealist Canada-
wide audit of Triple C .... Canadian Family Physician, 64(2), S1-S115.
Peterman, W. (2017). 3 The Meanings of Resident Empowerment. New Directions in Urban
Public Housing.

11COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Semenkovich, K., Brown, M. E., Svrakic, D. M., & Lustman, P. J. (2015). Depression in type 2
diabetes mellitus: prevalence, impact, and treatment. Drugs, 75(6), 577-587.
Sharma, M. (2016). Theoretical foundations of health education and health promotion. Jones &
Bartlett Publishers.
South, J. (2015). A guide to community-centred approaches for health and wellbeing.
Thompson, B., Molina, Y., Viswanath, K., Warnecke, R., & Prelip, M. L. (2016). Strategies to
empower communities to reduce health disparities. Health Affairs, 35(8), 1424-1428.
Wallerstein, N., Minkler, M., Carter-Edwards, L., Avila, M., & Sanchez, V. (2015). Improving
health through community engagement, community organization, and community
building. Health behavior. Theory, research and practice. 5th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-
Bass, 277-300.
Xia, R., Stone, J. R., Hoffman, J. E., & Klappa, S. G. (2016). Promoting community health and
eliminating health disparities through community-based participatory research. Physical
therapy, 96(3), 410-417.