Contribution of Community Health to Addressing the Causes of Death of Young People
The health efforts the community makes can affect the leading causes of death for adolescents and the adults in many ways. Adolescents aged between ten and fourteen years have the lowest risk of death compared to other age groups. More than 1.5 million youths aged between ten and twenty-four years died in 2019, approximately 5,000 daily (Han et al., 2017). Young people are affected disproportionately by use of drugs compared to the older generation. This is because the youngsters are exposed to risks of being addicted to these harmful substances. When they begin using hard-drugs at their age, they developmental disorders which are not detected and remain untreated then but emerge later on (England & Azzopardi-Muscat, 2017). As a result of their condition, these youngsters find themselves living miserable and lonely lives, with some dying in their early ages.
Apart from drug-related deaths, other causes of increase in mortality rates among the youth include violence, self-harm, and injuries associated with incidents such as drowning and road accidents. These adolescents are also affected by sexual abuse, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, risks of injury, reproductive health problems, mental disorders, early pregnancy, school dropout, and poor class performance (Han et al., 2017). Because of these aspects, the community should partner with relevant authorities and address these issues by creating effective programs such as rehabilitation centers to help reduce these incidents.
Failure to act on the above factors can result in the increase of mortality rate among the young people and the adolescents. For instance, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) findings, approximately a third of the deaths of the male adolescents in the middle and low-income countries are in the US (Thiede et al., 2017). This is caused through violence with mortality rising to about 37% for females and 42% for males (as cited in Han et al., 2017). Therefore, the society is urged to assist in monitoring and trying to avert such occurrences through community forums and other public awareness methods. Educating the young adults and adolescents on how to be responsible individuals will help save them from living in hopelessness.
Moreover, society can respond to the above issues by promoting early childhood development and parenting, and addressing prevention of bullying in schools. It can also establish approaches to reduce firearms and alcohol access, and initiate programs that develop life and social skills. Offering survivors of violence empathetic care and any other support can help them deal with the psychological and physical consequences (Han et al., 2017). Furthermore, illness and disability among adolescents can also result from depression. The condition is by itself suicidal and a leading cause of early mortality (Han et al., 2017). Young people who develop mental problems cannot lead fulfilling lives as adults. Hence, the health care system should collaborate with the community and create programs to help those who are already addicted to drugs or have developed mental disorders. The initiatives should be focused to reformation and death rate control among the young people.
Effects of Changing Demographics of Older Adults on Healthcare Services
Demography is the study of statistics such as income, incidence of disease, deaths, and births, illustrating the structural change of populations. Older adults’ population growth will impact medical-care system in relation to demand and supply of caregivers. As a result, the provision of these clinicians to medical centers will decrease as they reduce their working hours or retire. Moreover, increase in the older adult population will take a large share of the care services, meaning that demand for the healthcare services will increase. The quality of abilities and healthcare services that the caregivers are expected to deliver will also be affected by the increase of the ageing population. It is because the experienced staff will leave and young inexperienced ones will take their positions.
Increase in the number of the elderly will also put pressure on the healthcare facilities because old people have more health complications, and their frequency of visiting hospitals for check-up or treatment is higher. This means that more healthcare workers will be needed to attend to the rising number of the ageing individuals. Therefore, the likelihood of old people suffering from chronic illness such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease is high and this means they will require special care.
The utilization patterns and needs of the baby boomer older adults may differ in many ways from those of the current ones. This will also affect the future health-care demands placed in future (Thiede et al., 2017). The aged populace increase will affect the health-care services in the urban areas more than in the rural areas. This is because the elderly prefer living in the urban areas where both public transportation and healthcare services are easily accessible. Thus, development and modification of new care models will be affected to serve the increased population of adult persons. Furthermore, understanding of cultural diversity is an important element in the nursing care; older clinicians have better view of society variations and how to incorporate them in to the nursing care. It is, therefore, important to identify opportunities and the negative effects that may result from increasing older adult populations and create and implement approaches that can be used to respond to these effects in the future.
References
England, K., & Azzopardi-Muscat, N. (2017). Demographic trends and public health in Europe. The European Journal of Public Health, 27(suppl_4), 9-13. Web.
Han, B. H., Moore, A. A., Sherman, S., Keyes, K. M., & Palamar, J. J. (2017). Demographic trends of binge alcohol use and alcohol use disorders among older adults in the United States, 2005–2014. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 170, 198-207. Web.
Thiede, B. C., Brown, D. L., Sanders, S. R., Glasgow, N., & Kulcsar, L. J. (2017). A demographic deficit? Local population aging and access to services in rural America, 1990–2010. Rural Sociology, 82(1), 44-74. Web.