As culture impacts the improvements in the healthcare of different neighborhoods, it involves the ensuing problems. One could blame the issues in an area on the nature of people inhibiting it; therefore, a strategy for enhancement must be introduced. Before formulating such a strategy, it is necessary to assess the level of productivity and current problems of a neighborhood. As such, in this essay, I will define the list of problems and strategies for Boston healthcare.
Boston community faces a range of specific problems, three of which are of the greatest prominence. First of all, there is a piece of evidence that in several neighborhoods of Boston, females experience severe difficulties in childbirth; moreover, these are usually Black and Hispanic women (Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2017). Secondly, research suggests an issue concerning ethnic and racial minorities with non-heterosexual orientations’ health.
For example, “approximately 40% of youth reported symptoms of depression and/or anxiety and nearly one in five attempted suicides within the past year” (Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2017, p. 179). Thirdly, large population groups in Boston do not have access to grocery stores and resort to fast food, which causes overweight and heart problems (Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2017). Thus, even in culturally and technically advanced Boston, the health of its residents is exposed to adverse external conditions.
The problem that I decided to discuss is one of the LGBTQ+ teenagers in Boston who face mental health issues. Namely, the population at risk involves minors of color who identify as gender minorities with non-heterosexual orientation. First of all, these young people try to commit suicide more than the heterosexual and cisgender populations of the same age (13 to 17), as well as appeal to self-harm and substance use more often (Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2017). Moreover, research suggests that people of color face more mental health challenges (Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2017). Therefore, there is a disproportion in the mental health of teenagers with different gender identification, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and race.
Fortunately, to reduce the disparity, a health plan for clinical health nursing might be developed. Namely, the recommended interventions are training for nurses about LGBTQ+ issues, additional training for guaranteeing the comfort of both nurses and patients, and inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals in the nursing sphere for forming a personal acquaintance with the group (Morris et al., 2019). To ensure that these interventions are culturally appropriate, clinics can assess the existing state of interaction between teenagers and nurses and collaborate with the specific centers existing for helping the population at risk so that they would promote the effectiveness of the interventions to the stakeholders.
The interventions proposed in the earlier paragraph seem to correspond to the category of secondary mental health problem prevention. Precisely, such type of intervention “focuses on supporting people who are more likely to develop mental health problems, either because of characteristics they were born with or experiences they’ve had” (Mental Health Foundation, 2021, para. 4). Since LGBTQ+ teenagers manifest self-harm and the presents of traumas, the proposed strategy of specific training of the nurses for appropriate help, the interventions belong to the mentioned category.
To achieve results in implementing the plan, I would try an experimental teaching strategy. This strategy involves learning by performing actions related to the subject. The main benefit, then, is that nurses can experience the issue and acquire a personal connection to it, further transforming it into practice. To make the studying appropriate for nurses of all ages and cultures, I would prepare individual tasks based on the knowledge of the different nurses’ values.
The key stakeholders that should be included in the planning and implementation of the strategy are mental health experts, health care managers, and parents of the neighborhood. The medical specialists in mental health can provide appropriate information for the further training of the nurses. Next, health care managers should be involved in the strategic planning process since they are professionals in organizing novelties. Finally, parents of the children in the group at risk might be useful for providing personal information about the existing issues.
Next, there should be certain measures to ensure participation and buy-in from the community. Primarily, I would try to assess the current perception of the problem among the community as well as to determine the predominant views, beliefs, and values of its participants. Then, I can formulate the strategy in a way that is following these values. The effectiveness of my approaches would be demonstrated by implementing the strategy gradually within the supporting neighborhoods.
Finally, the proposed strategy aligns with the objectives of Healthy People 2020 for the LGBTQ+ population. The program aims to provide multiple surveys on the topic, which complies with my proposition to assess communities (Healthy People, 2020). Moreover, there is a mention of safe access to medical services in a tolerant environment. This can be achieved through proper training of the nurses that I mentioned earlier.
To conclude, the Boston community has several health problems due to the general socio-economical causes and environmental factors. One such problem is the high rate of mental issues in LGBTQ+ youth who experience depression, commit suicide, and resort to substance use. To prevent the most negative outcomes of the problem, it is recommended to increase the knowledge of the clinical nurses about the issue and make the nursing environment more tolerant of teenagers.
References
Healthy People. (2020). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender health. HealthyPeople. Web.
Massachusetts Department of Public Health. (2017). Massachusetts state health assessment. Web.
Mental Health Foundation. (2021). Prevention and mental health. Web.
Morris, M., Cooper, R. L., Ramesh, A., Tabatabai, M., Arcury, T. A., Shinn, M., Im, W., Juarez, P., & Matthews-Juarez, P. (2019). Training to reduce LGBTQ-related bias among medical, nursing, and dental students and providers: a systematic review. BMC Medical Education, 19(1). Web.