Introduction
The health needs assessment, and the research of the available interventions in similar contexts provides a solid basis for developing a specific intervention and health promotion plan for a chosen population. As has been identified during the assessment procedure, the most crucial health problems of the Hispanic community in Florida are related to excessive alcohol consumption as a way to overcome acculturative stress. Unsafe sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol lead to STDs, and HIV spread; also, heart diseases, birth mortality, cancer, and diabetes are defined as leading causes of death. All these issues need to be thoroughly addressed, and their threats eliminated through constructive reforming of the population’s attitude to health care and lifestyle as a leading health factor.
Intervention and Health Promotion Plan
The work with the Hispanic community’s health needs should address the areas of education (health literacy), healthy lifestyle promotion, and disease prevention to embrace all the spheres of influence. Since the population is characterized by a specific spectrum of culturally specific beliefs and values, one of the most crucial components is linguistic and cultural sensitivity throughout the multiple interventions.
This element of the intervention plan must align with the National CLAS Standards that clearly require to provide “language assistance to individuals who have limited English proficiency… at no cost to them, to facilitate timely access to all health care and services” (Office of Minority Health, 2016, para. 7). Such a culture-centered approach will facilitate the process of health literacy improvement.
Another substantial component of the suggested plan is establishing contact with vulnerable populations via special community meetings, personal communication with professionals, and promotional information publication. All these efforts must be aimed at the explanation of the harmful outcomes of alcohol consumption and the benefits of sobriety. Finally, since the majority of Hispanic immigrants are underinsured or uninsured, it is important to initiate volunteer-based facilities inclusion in the free-of-charge diagnosis of the most prevalent diseases.
As for the specific group of the population identified throughout the assessment, which is young men and women influenced by alcohol abuse, the intervention components must be aligned with specific areas of influences applicable to this group. It was found that young migrants use alcohol as a moderator of acculturative stress related to immigration (Ertl, Dillon, Martin, Babino, & De La Rosa, 2018). In this regard, the specific determinants of health behavior among young Hispanics should be addressed in community-based interventions. They include unemployment, social disintegration, language barriers, financial disadvantage, and family relationships.
Health professionals should mitigate these factors and apply age-appropriate and culturally sensitive interventions. A preventative measure in this regard might entail the identification of potential risk groups exposed to alcohol abuse to help them avoid constant health threats (Ertl et al., 2018). It is essential to introduce effective ways of acculturative stress reduction as the primary source of health problems of young Hispanics in their mid-twenties.
Evidence-Based Foundations
The core of evidence-based practice is the importance of experience exchange between different organizations and professionals that enable continuous improvement of practice. In the case of developing an intervention and health promotion plan for young Latino/Hispanic immigrants, it is essential to analyze the currently available achievements in the field of culturally sensitive health care to apply the best findings. According to Pérez and Luquis (2014), the Hispanic population is the most numerous of all the national minorities residing in the USA.
Moreover, this minority is regarded to be the youngest one; every third individual is aged under eighteen years old, and the median age is approximately twenty-seven (Pérez & Luquis, 2014). Therefore, the prevalence of health problems in this particular age group of the Latino population should be thoroughly addressed in the course of health improvement. Epidemiological evidence shows that alcohol-induced medical issues constitute a significant segment of health care issues in young Hispanics. Moreover, these groups of people are the most vulnerable since they are very reluctant to receive any special treatment due to diverse socioeconomic issues (Field et al., 2018). Several practices have proved to be successful with the analyzed population and might be used as evidence basis for the intervention plan.
Since illiteracy or linguistic restraints comprise a barrier to sufficient health care access, it is vital to communicate the most important issues in an understandable manner. The use of pictograms for individuals with insufficient health literacy levels is one of the effective methods of medical information delivery. It helps a patient to obtain primary health data, medication description, and the expected outcomes in a smoothly comprehensible way (Wolpin et al., 2016).
Such an approach, when applied alongside the introduction of Spanish-speaking staff, will improve health outcomes and ensure the effectiveness of promotional, preventative, and educational interventions. Another practice that might apply to young Hispanic individuals at risk of alcohol-related health complications is a brief motivational intervention (Field et al., 2018). It embodies motivational interviewing that is “a person-centered, collaborative conversation style aimed at strengthening a person’s motivation and commitment to change by addressing ambivalence about change” (Field et al., 2018, p. 2). When applied with linguistic assistance, such an approach will form a basis for better health choices and improved levels of immigrants’ trust in the US health care system.
Cross-Cultural Collaborative Opportunities and Strategies
To succeed at meeting the identified health need of the culturally specific vulnerable population, the groups of professionals must work collaboratively to deliver the best results. According to the National CLAS Standards, any organization should perform its health care services based on the continuous cultural education of its staff (Office of Minority Health, 2016). Therefore, it is imperative to initiate courses and special educational interventions for health care professionals to improve their knowledge about the Hispanic population as a culturally specific group. One of the best ways to study the culture of a minority is to become integrated into the community.
Therefore, some cross-cultural community-based practices are needed to implement change to the health quality of the target population. Self-help organization’s initiation based on communities might be a significant facilitator of marginalized and underinsured individuals’ attraction to health care services (Bhuiya, Hanifi, & Hoque, 2016). Ongoing work of health care professionals with communities is anticipated to provide a higher rate of access to care and the overall improvement of health in the Hispanic community.
Conclusion
In summary, such primary health problems of young Hispanics as STDs, HIV, heart diseases, and cancer are imposed by excessive alcohol consumption as a moderator of acculturative stress. To meet these health needs, the professionals must integrate educational, health promotional, and preventative measures within the intervention and health promotion plan. Such practices as illiteracy elimination, linguistic assistance, pictogram use, brief motivational interviewing, and initiation of self-helping organizations in the communities, as well as the culture-centered educational measures among health care professionals, will help to meet the identified health needs.
References
Bhuiya, A., Hanifi, S. M. A., & Hoque, S. (2016). Unlocking community capability through promotion of self-help for health: Experience from Chakaria, Bangladesh. BMC Health Services Research, 16(S7), 105–117.
Ertl, M. M., Dillon, F. R., Martin, J. L., Babino, R., & De La Rosa, M. (2018). Alcohol use exacerbates acculturative stress among recently immigrated, young adult Latinas. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 20, 594-602.
Field, C. A., Cabriales, J. A., Woolard, R. H., Tyroch, A. H., Caetano, R., & Castro, Y. (2015). Cultural adaptation of a brief motivational intervention for heavy drinking among Hispanics in a medical setting. BMC Public Health, 15(724), 1-12.
Office of Minority Health. (2016). The national CLAS standards. Web.
Pérez, M. A., & Luquis, R. R. (Eds.). (2014). Cultural competence in health education and health promotion (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Wolpin, S. E., Nguyen, J. K., Parks, J. J., Lam, A. Y., Morisky, D. E., Fernando, L.,… Berry, D. L. (2016). Redesigning pictographs for patients with low health literacy and establishing preliminary steps for delivery via smart phones. Pharmacy Practice, 14(2), 1–9.