Reflection On Community Health

Explain to individuals about the importance of a healthy diet and encourage and support them to choose healthy options and alternatives.

As a teacher, you have the opportunity to share the knowledge you have gained in this course with your colleagues to support a collaborative approach to shared health, nutrition, and safety goals. For your Final Project, you will create a presentation for other educators in your center that is focused on the development of a program valuing health, nutrition, and safety.

However, this can be hard to promote if a community such as Germantown experiences such health disparities that puts them at risk for chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, all of which could be preventable. Therefore, as nurses we can intervene and plan ways to improve the health of Germantown in the most realistic way possible. The nursing intervention to help try and eliminate the health disparity of knowledge deficit related to nutritious foods primarily focuses on education, as it is a primary means of impacting change. Our intervention would be implemented through an educational program at multiple community locations such as school or churches. The program would consist of weekly meetings discussing the characteristics of a healthy diet, how to read food labels correctly, picking the right food choices based on the options available in the community, and informing the participants about the impacts nutrition has on health such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Each session would encompass pre-briefing followed by demonstration of healthy food recipes and then a debriefing to reiterate the importance of that session. Through education, we hope to impact more people of Germantown to use the public transportation to shop at the local farmer's market or supermarkets and have a positive change in their health. Therefore, there shall be a decreased incidence in obesity, hypertension, and diabetes and increase in the community’s knowledge about obtaining nutritional

Childhood obesity is a major cause for concern within the United States. This is mainly due to children not getting the require nutrition that they need. Although study show that there is a decrease in obesity in children, it still remains at an all-time high. Children are failing to eat as healthy as they should, and it has become an even bigger problem now that they aren’t getting the require amount of food in their diets. The USDA made a decision a couple of years ago to reduce the amount of food given to children while they are at school. This hurts them tremendously, because the majority of the food they eat comes from being at school all day. The other half lies on the parents when they go home and eat dinner. It is very important for children to eat healthy and eat the required amount of food according to various dietary guidelines. First Lady Michelle Obama has started a new campaign to help kids and parents combat obesity in children. One thing that the campaign has placed emphases on is getting healthier food within school. Although they are getting healthier foods in school they are beginning to change the proportion they are giving students. Through the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign students should be giving healthier foods and also be allowed to have the correct proportion to help them maintain a healthy diet.

Many Americans are suffering from nutrition issues. There are approximately 12.5 million children and adolescents aged 2-19 years that are obese (CDC). The proper health and nutrition for children is very critical to their growth and development. The media and its promotion of junk food is one way that affects obese children. Within this paper, I will discuss the long and short term impacts of obesity on children, their growth and development, describe a specific child who is affected by obesity, and give three ways to combat obesity that involves collaboration among schools, families, and communities.

School lunches, curriculum focus, and daily activities have changed in elementary schools over the years. The nutritional value in school lunches often meet a bare minimum. Curriculum is focused strongly on idealistic future careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; but often forget teaching basic healthy habits needed for lifelong health. Physical education is no longer required every single day. Obesity has become an epidemic and not just for adults, it is increasingly affecting children as well. Children spend a generous amount of time in the classroom. They spend more time in school than at home or anywhere else. Therefore, schools have a responsibility in preventing obesity in adolescents by teaching them healthy habits, serving them nutritious food, and providing them with adequate physical activity.

It is important for pre-adulthood intervention because prevention of overweight and obesity in early childhood can in the long run, attenuate the high prevalence of excessive weight among older adults. (Moreno, L) With the assistance of specific health programs and initiatives schools are able to best assist, guide and support students with their dietary patterns and nutritional choices, thus addressing some of the factors effecting adolescent obesity. Two intervention programs/initiatives that can be, and have been, incorporated well into schools are:

Dailey and Ellin quote Levine by saying, “‘The idea is to fight obesity and not obese people’”(579). By learning to cook nutritional meals, students will have the tools neccessary to fight the disease that is plaguing their country. To show that households have lost their way of food preparation, Pollan recalls a conversation with Harry Baltzer: “‘Not going to happen,’ he told me. ‘Why? Because we’re basically cheap and lazy. And besides, the skills are already lost. Who is going to the next generation to cook? I don’t see it’”(584). Schools are designed to supply students with the knowledge to thrive. Therefore, they should include information on culinary arts because it will help reestablish the ideals once thought to be traditional. Likewise, Beebe and Thompson state, “By changing our children’s environment so they have access to healthy foods and physical activity, we improve the opportunity for all members of a community to improve their health”(1). Their statement reinforces the idea that students who learn healthy recipes in school are more likely to lead a healthy

To touch on poor nutrition, research shows that almost one-third of U.S. children between the ages of four and nineteen eat fast food every day; this results in weight gain of approximately 6 extra pounds on a growing child each year (NACHRI, 2007). Fast food consumption has increased fivefold among children since 1970. Not only is fast food an issue, but when parents reward their children with sugary foods and/or use fruits and vegetables as a punishment, this may cause children’s views toward nutritious food to be negative. Some great educational tools that can be shared both in and out of the classroom are “The Food Guide Pyramid” and “My Plate.” Both show that appropriate number of serving of each food category. “My Plate” does a great job of even providing games, activity sheets, kid-friendly recipes, and physical activity tips to elementary aged children (My Plate, 2015). They also provide great resources for adults so parents and educators can practice what they preach and set good examples for children. Educating children on an what a healthy diet consists of and why it is important is probably the greatest preventative tool we can use to prevent obesity. As the famous saying goes, “knowledge is

A community health assessment is a fundamental instrument of public health practice. Its objective is to depict the health of the community, by presenting information on health standing, community health needs, resources, and epidemiologic and other studies of present local health problems. It seeks to recognize target populations that may be at augmented risk of poor health results and to increase a better understanding of their needs, as well as evaluates the larger community surroundings and how it relate to the health of people. It also identifies those areas where better information is desired, particularly information on health differences amid different subpopulations, quality of health care, and the incidence and severity of disabilities in the population. The Community Health Assessment is the foundation for all local public health development, giving the local health component the instance to recognize and network with key community leaders, businesses and concerned residents about health priorities and concerns. This information shapes the foundation of improving the health status of the community by way of a strategic plan (The Municipal Public Health Services Plan Community Health Assessment Guidance and Format, n.d.).

Community wellness is very important. The wellness of others greatly affects the population as a whole. The community must work as a whole to promote a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, community nurses are the main operation for communities. The purpose of this assignment is to discuss an issue in my community, analyze it with Milo’s framework, compare it to the national goals, and provide short and long term goals.

The community chosen for this health assessment is Odessa, Missouri. Odessa is located in rural Missouri, east of the Greater Kansas City area. The small population of Odessa citizens making up a tight knit community. This small community was chosen to look at the population diversity, health concerns for this community and other rural populations and how this community comes together, working together to battle these concerns.

Childhood obesity has expanded tremendously within the past thirty years (CDC, 2015). It is not only a state, but also a nationwide issue. For many children, they depend on their school lunches to provide them the nutritious meals they cannot afford to have at home. As a community, we need to get our children into better shape. Not only will they become more astute, but they will also live healthier lifestyles, and have less health complications as they age. When you are overweight or obese, you are much more likely to develop health problems like heart disease, diabetes, or even a stroke. It is our responsibility as a community, state, and nation to offer nutritious meals and activities for our youth and future.

Of all of the problems that dishearten children today, the one that bothers them the most is being unhealthy. Five out of six students from the Manalapan Englishtown Middle School agree that there should be a change in the schools' cafeteria foods; they came up with a solution to help kids be healthy. Unhealthy foods should be eliminated in schools for many reasons. First of all, kids concentrate better when they are healthy. Being healthy helps children to concentrate better because if they are healthy in the inside and the outside, they will not have to worry about their health or how they look. Secondly, having only healthy foods in school help parents to take good care of their kids. For instance, imagine a mom that is a seventh

Should changes be made to the regulations for the foods that are served in public schools? This can be a very controversial question to most people; children with obesity, parents who do not care and for who does care about the health of the children and teachers who only wants what is best for the benefit of the children. This paper will attempt to explain and convince the unknown of why it is very important for our public schools to have a healthy eating curriculum for the children that attends there. If society can find a way to come together for the children of the community to fight to have healthier foods in the community, come together and provide counsel to the children of what healthy eating is all about. This paper will