Question 1
How could the existence of health disparities complicate SnS plans? How can you prevent problems from occurring?
posted by Health Disparities Education Core @ 12:04 PM
4 comments
Health Disparities
The Health Disparities blog is for anyone interested in discussing health disparity topics. Post your thoughts, experiences, recommended readings, ideas to reduce disparities, etc. Also, check out our website http://ncrhp.uic.edu/healthdisparities to learn more about disparity issues.
Monday, June 12, 2006
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- Name: Health Disparities Education Core
- Location: Rockford, Illinois, United States
Project EXPORT Center for Excellence in Rural Health University of IL College of Medicine-Rockford
4 Comments:
Health disparities such as language barriers can complicate SnS plans because residents of the county may not understand the media material presented to the community. By finding bilingual volunteers in advance, the media material could be translated into other languages such as Spanish so that the Hispanic population living in the county would not be left out of the SnS plan.
C.M.D.
There are many disparities that can and probably will affect sns plans. One such problem is language barriers. Spanish or other language speaking residents may have difficulties understanding English-only media. Therefore, it is vital that media be created in several other languages besides English. Another disparity could be the lack of education of residents. Residents who lack a basic education may have difficulties reading and/or comprehending media releases. To prevent this from occuring, educational sessions need to be occurring regularly throughout the community.
s.d.
Hard to reach areas of both large and small communities present problems for the health care team in many ways. One example if the bayous in Louisiana. They are still an obstacle to overcome to get food and medical treatment and supplies to. Many of the people in these areas are poor and may not have access to media or travel as easily as others. Planning ahead may help overcome that problem.
Health disparities literally add another element to the process of collecting and dispensing SnS. As if the issue of getting vaccines to a community within 12 hrs., and then vaccinating the people of that entire community (be it 25,000 or 100,000 people) within another couple of hrs. isn’t a big enough task already, adding the element of providing care to the underserved in a pop. is a much bigger challenge. Whether the underserved are of low SES (socio-economic status), minority group or race, particular gender, kids, elderly, disabled, or the mentally challenged, this is an issue that is still being dealt with in many public health arenas.
Like most other healthcare tribulations, the key to really solving this problem is planning, planning, and some more planning, ahead of time. The number one way to make sure everyone is taken care of is by advertising and communicating to inform all the residents of the community about the SnS; this way no one particular SES, race, or gender will at least be excluded from the knowledge that protective measures are available to them in case of an emergency. It is thought that perhaps providing ramps and wheelchairs at the SnS dispensing sites can take care of some of the physically challenged population, however several others will still be left behind due to other reasons. So, often communities are deciding to form collaborations between SnS dispensing sites (involving the health department and Red Cross to take care of obvious needs such as dispensing med’s, interpreters at site, etc) and hospitals, nursing homes, and other acute and chronic care facilities. The plan here is to either ask that the individuals be transported to the dispensing site, or the vaccines will have to go out to them; thus the details in this case are still being worked on.
It probably is best and wise to prepare for the worst and assume that the underserved might not get served at all if preparations are not made for them ahead of time. Nonetheless, just to add another perspective to this issue, as was seen in severe cases of emergency such as the relief provided after hurricane Katrina from emergency crews such as IMERT (IL Medical Emergency Response Team), people come up with exceptionally creative ways to help others who are disadvantaged in some ways during urgent situations (college students volunteered to help the disabled, stocked med’s, served as interpreters, etc). Hence it is true that simply because it is human nature to do so, a lot of people would help one another during such crisis times and thus help the underserved populations.
- SP
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