Community Health Care Resources

Demographics of population at risk

Australia is developing as a nation with the high standard of living, but still there are people who are struggling in Australia due to health related issues and poverty. The population vulnerable to health risk includes indigenous groups and person living with poverty and disability. The change in the pattern of societies such as ageing population, immigration policy shift, and different economic status contributes to health risk in children, homeless, ethnic group and older Australians. Increased number of Australians with disability and health hazard will create challenges for health care service in the future (Sunderland et al., 2013). The number of people with disability is increasing everywhere in Australia. It is estimated it will rise to 2.3 million by 2030. With increased number of older people, dementia will be the greatest contributor to disease. About 15% children are living in jobless families, and many people live in the socially disadvantaged area due to poverty. Aboriginal and Torres Islanders suffer due to lack of access to proper health care. Cardiovascular disease, cancer, injury from accidents, diabetes, etc. is the leading cause of death in ethnic groups. Problems like serious illness, substance or alcohol abuse, socioeconomic factors (low level of education, housing, income, and employment) further aggravate the health problem in ethnic groups of Australia (Gubhaju et al., 2013).

Evidence-based strategies to improve health outcomes

There are various community-based interventions to improve health outcomes in developing countries. Infant mortality rate has increased in developing countries since past two decades. Initiatives have been taken by World Leaders at the United Nations Millenium Summit. The major goal was to reduce the death of infants. Their emphasis was on the implementation of cost-effective health care service to save mothers and newborn babies lives. Their aim was to identify interventions which have enough evidence of its efficacy to be included in community-based neonatal care programs. They identified critical gaps in knowledge for conducting future research and program learning. They reviewed all the evidence based on size, location, design and impact on prenatal mortality. The evidence-based study interventions were analyzed for biological plausibility of intervention. Data from the vulnerable population in developing countries helped in the foundation of the integrated approach to neonatal health care (Lassi et al., 2015).

The implementation of clinical practice is a useful tool for improving the quality of care. There was a study on the development of clinical guidelines in Netherland and its experience. The study developed all evidence-based guidelines after a rigorous procedure and selecting strategies. They observed that acceptance of directives was high in vulnerable population. A multi-faceted approach like social consensus, scientific journals and visits by peers helped in effective dissemination of clinical intervention. Such programs should be delivered through conventional channels to improve care (Lindsay et al., 2016). 

Health care resources of vulnerable population

The dimensions of vulnerability depend on social stress and coping method of society. Stigma involved with illness, poverty and race, lack of social support, physical and cognitive impairments contribute to vulnerability in health. Australia already has a high quality of health care resources. Despite this, they have various challenges in meeting health care needs of the vulnerable population and addressing those needs. The common health care resources of Australia are Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. It coordinates in the improvement of heath care service in Australia by identifying problems and recommending solutions or actions to be taken. Australia's Government, health minister, and other health care services deliver health care services in collaboration with government and non-government sectors. There are public health and preventive services, emergency medical services, hospital-based treatment, rehabilitation care and palliative care. The majority of public care is funded by the Australian government. There are services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups and health and medical research services (Masoe et al., 2014)

Nursing interventions provide quality care to the vulnerable population.

Nurses can play a role in addressing health-related risk and giving quality primary health care to people in Australia. From the demographical study of the vulnerable group, it is seen that most people are at risk due to poverty, low access to health care and living in underdeveloped areas. So nurse could recognize the psychosocial burden of individual with disability and disease and play their role in educating them about preventive care methods to manage disease conditions (Grove et al., 2014). Many people don't go for health care service because of high cost, fear of losing confidentiality, not having an idea about treatment process and availability of health care options. Nurse plays a role in this regard by their communication skills. The nurse needs to engage people with health care and educate them about risky behaviors that affect health. They may educate them about the choice of health care providers and how to get linked with them to address their health concern. It will help to bridge the barrier between vulnerable people for accessing primary care. Indigenous Australians experience poor health and have shorter life expectancy. The nurse can play a role in the delivery of culturally oriented care and developing access to quality health care service for them (Melnyk et al., 2014). 

Strategies for plan implementation

Addressing cultural issues: People are often influenced by their culture and because of those views; they do not undergo many treatment procedures. Health care service can play a role in creating heath care literacy and awareness among the vulnerable population of Australia. Programs like Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health will help in decreasing health gaps and giving more knowledge about management of diseases like diabetes, dementia, etc (Purnell, 2014). 

Making health care affordable and accessible to vulnerable groups: Vulnerable groups are living in interior and lower developed areas of Australia. They face significant health-related risk due to lack of access to the preventive clinical test. To remove these problems, the strategy is to make health care accessible to those areas. Healthcare staffs could arrange for a preventive screening test for diseases in the vulnerable population. This is vital for preventing diseases. Secondly, the major problem is faced because many people cannot afford specific health care procedures. There could be approached to develop innovative and low cost health care models. This will give health care equity, and it will also help in maintaining health risk of community (Levesque et al., 2013).

Implementation of policies and better eating habits: Vulnerable population is experiencing risk from diabetes due to unhealthy lifestyle and poor diet. Educating mass about healthy eating habit is crucial. The standard nursing intervention includes preparing charts and explaining the importance of proper balanced diet to affected people. The role of the government is also important in combating diseases and empowering people to live the healthy life. For example, the Australian government has National Health Policy to identify and improve health care system in Australia (Blank & Burau, 2013). 

Reference

Blank, R. H., & Burau, V. (2013). Comparative health policy. Palgrave Macmillan.

Grove, S. K., Burns, N., & Gray, J. R. (2014). Understanding nursing research: Building an evidence-based practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Gubhaju, L., McNamara, B. J., Banks, E., Joshy, G., Raphael, B., Williamson, A., & Eades, S. J. (2013). The overall health and risk factor profile of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants from the 45 and up study. BMC public health, 13(1), 1.

Lassi, Z. S., Middleton, P. F., Crowther, C., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2015). Interventions to improve neonatal health and later survival: an overview of systematic reviews. EBioMedicine, 2(8), 985-1000.

Levesque, J. F., Harris, M. F., & Russell, G. (2013). Patient-centred access to health care: conceptualising access at the interface of health systems and populations. International journal for equity in health, 12(1), 1.

Lindsay, E., Wooltorton, E., Hendry, P., Williams, K. and Wells, G., 2016. Family physicians’ continuing professional development activities: current practices and potential for new options. Canadian medical education journal,7(1), p.e38.

Masoe, A. V., Blinkhom, A. S., Taylor, J., & Blinkhorn, F. A. (2014). Factors Influencing Provision of Preventive Oral Health Care to Adolescents Attending Public Oral Health Services in New South Wales, Australia. J Dent Oral Health, 1, 1-9.

Melnyk, B. M., Gallagher‐Ford, L., Long, L. E., & Fineout‐Overholt, E. (2014). The establishment of evidence‐based practice competencies for practicing registered nurses and advanced practice nurses in real‐world clinical settings: proficiencies to improve healthcare quality, reliability, patient outcomes, and costs. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 11(1), 5-15.

Purnell, L. D. (2014). Guide to culturally competent health care. FA Davis.

Sunderland, M., Newby, J. M., & Andrews, G. (2013). Health anxiety in Australia: prevalence, comorbidity, disability and service use. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 202(1), 56-61.