Abstract
Providing the members of a specific community with the necessary services is a challenging task unless the local infrastructure is flawless. Therefore, it is crucial to make sure that the community institutions cooperate successfully. Thus, efficient healthcare services can be provided to the target population. The Indian Creek Foundation will be able to deliver the healthcare services of the necessary quality to the residents of the Pennsylvanian community as soon as social networks are incorporated into the information management process, and the local institutions start managing data faster and more successfully.
Main Body
To improve the well-being of a community, one must consider the unique intrinsic factors that affect its members. Which is even more important, the issues mentioned above must be considered as integral parts of a single system in which the community in question operates. As a result, the foundation for an all-embracive analysis can be created. Herein lies the significance of asset mapping (Cutts et al., 2016). Applying the principles of asset mapping to Pennsylvania will help develop the model for addressing the current environmental, societal, economic, and educational issues since it will shed light on the connection between these problems and, therefore, point to the solution, particularly, the use of sustainability in environment and economy.
Analysis
As the map provided above shows quite clearly, Pennsylvania has a rather well-developed system of institutions. The family-related services deserve a special mentioning as the part of the local social infrastructure that has branched out especially extensively and is now represented by a number of organizations. As a result, the families living in the community can receive the necessary support.
One must mention, though, that there seems to be a considerable lack of the institutions that represent the environmental stance of the Pennsylvania residents. The identified issue is especially important in the wake of a global concern for the sustainable use of the available resources and the environmental friendliness of the approaches used in modern industries. In fact, the local communities have been experiencing a significant need for the management of the issues related to the environment; for instance, the protection of endangered species, public parks, etc., has been on the agenda of the state for quite a while (Warner, Christie, Jackson, & Vengosh, 2013).
According to a recent study, the problems associated with waste management must be resolved as soon as possible: “The chloride concentrations 1.7 km downstream of the treatment facility were 2−10 times higher than any chloride concentrations recorded in any background western PA streams that we examined” (Warner et al., 2013). Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the environmental issues should be incorporated into the current approach toward the management of the social, economic, and financial issues of the Pennsylvanian community.
The current collaboration strategy used by the organizations listed above can be deemed as quite efficient in case of a crisis. For instance, should the community have to face serious economic issues, the family institutions will provide emotional support for the community families, the economic ones will outline the available solutions, the educational ones will shed light on the education options, the political ones will advocate for the residents’ rights on the statewide level, and the religious ones will provide spiritual support.
Similarly, in case of a health crisis, the institutions operating in the Pennsylvania community are likely to provide extensive support to its members. The identified issue is especially important for Indian Creek, the organization that addresses the needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (Indian Creek Foundation, 2017).
One must admit, though, that there is a certain lack of connection between the representatives of different institutions in Pennsylvania at present. While the organizations operating in the context of a specific area can share the available information, which informs their decisions, the identified process becomes much more complicated when it comes to managing information within a chain of the local institutions belonging to different fields.
For instance, the connection between the economic organizations and the ones that address the religious issues is rather loose. Consequently, there is a threat that, in case of a crisis, some of the organizations will not be informed to the degree that will allow them to provide the residents with efficient and immediate support. As a result, the residents of the Pennsylvanian community will face the threat of suffering a severe crisis. Indian Creek may have to focus on promoting the active use of IT tools as the means of raising awareness in the community.
Therefore, there is a necessity to introduce the tool that could help the organizations and the community members manage information in a more efficient manner. For this purpose, the Indian Creek Foundation should consider modern media, particularly, social networks. Offering a way of transferring the relevant information within a stunningly short amount of time, social networks can serve as the means of informing every community member about a specific concern, as well as provide detailed instructions regarding the issue.
The focus on providing the target population with the relevant information in a manner as fast and expeditious as possible is bound to trigger a significant drop in the number and severity of health issues from which the residents of Pennsylvania suffer. One might argue that the connection between the management of health issues and the infrastructure of the community organizations is rather loose. However, a closer look at the subject matter will reveal that PTSD can be viewed as a result of significant health problems, such as substance abuse disorders (SUDs) (Ford, Russo, & Mallon, 2007). The latter, in their turn, often occur as a result, of the social, economic, and financial problems in the community:
Even in later stages of recovery, addressing issues other than SUD symptoms is often assumed to interfere with 12-step recovery or to trigger relapses. Several myths about trauma survivors and PTSD treatment perpetuate the philosophy of don’t tell, don’t treat with co-occurring PTSD–SUD. (Ford et al., 2007, p. 477)
Therefore, there is a need for the residents of the community to receive sufficient support from the local organizations especially in cases of disasters, economic and financial challenges, and other sources of distress. Furthermore, the healthcare system must be developed successfully so that the members of the community could receive the required support. To achieve the identified goal, Indian Creek will have to encourage cooperation between the Pennsylvanian organizations aimed at providing the target population with the access to the resources containing the relevant information, as well as the opportunities to receive the necessary services and study healthcare in depth.
In other words, the collaboration of the local healthcare institutions and educational organizations should be encouraged by introducing the latest IT tools for successful information management. Furthermore, the Pennsylvanian residents must be provided with the access to the databases containing detailed instructions about managing health issues and addressing the appropriate experts after detecting specific symptoms.
As far as the Pennsylvanian community is concerned, it will be safe to say that the local healthcare and social support organizations provide enough assistance to every single member of the community. Furthermore, the emphasis on equality, which is currently on the political agenda of the state, creates prerequisites for catering to the needs of all residents. As a result, the chances to assist the people from all cultural, social, and economic backgrounds are created.
Nevertheless, one must admit that the current approach toward addressing the needs of the community can be deemed as rather efficient. By using social networks as the means of building awareness and providing the community members with the relevant information about the societal, environmental, health- and education-related, and other factors that define the quality of peoples’ life, Indian Creek will be able to improve the target population’s well-being significantly. It is important to make sure that the available resources are used in a reasonable and sustainable way, and the adoption of the latest technological innovations will help make the current infrastructure more efficient.
As the analysis and the examples provided above have shown, it is crucial to create the basis for a healthier and a more sustainable attitude toward the use of community resources. Furthermore, there is a consistent need for the enhancement of the communication process. Even though most of the community members participate in the social media discussions, very few efforts are currently made to manage the current problems since they are not viewed as a part of the community development.
Therefore, a different attitude toward the subject matter must be promoted among the members of the Pennsylvanian community so that the identified dilemmas could be handled in an appropriate fashion. As soon as the members of the Pennsylvanian community realize that all processes in it are connected, and that a comprehensive model must designed to handle the emergent issues, a rapid improvement and successful management of the contemporary problems, particularly the ones associated with the environment and education, can be expected.
References
Cutts, T. F., King, R., Kersmarki, M., Peachey, K., Hodges, J., Kramer, S., & Lazarus, S. (2016). Chapter 6. Community asset mapping: Integrating and engaging community and health systems. In T. F. Cutts & J. R. Cochrane, Stakeholder health: Insights from new systems of health (pp. 73-96). Gaston, NC: FaithHealth, Inc.
Ford, J. D., Russo, E. M., & Mallon, S. D. (2007). Integrating treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder. Journal of Counseling & Development, 85(4), 475-490.
Indian Creek Foundation. (2017). Mission and philosophy of care. Web.
Warner, N. R., Christie, C. A. C., Jackson, R. B., & Vengosh, A. (2013). Impacts of shale gas wastewater disposal on water quality in western Pennsylvania. Environmental Science and Technology, 47(20), 11849-11857.