Health Sciences and Medicine: Health Promotion Program (Essay Sample)

Health promotion program
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Abstract
Tobacco smoking is one of the major causes of deaths in the world affecting both gender and people of all ages. Respiratory diseases and lung cancer are associated with smoking and can be prevented through adoption of healthy lifestyle. It is important to note that prevention is better strategy than quitting smoking. This is because cigarette smoke has active compound called nicotine that is responsible for addictiveness. This health promotion program is aimed at prevention of new cases of tobacco smoking as well as helping smokers quit. Behavior change model that will be adopted is social norms theory that focuses on clearing misperception and promoting change of behavior. The study will be conducted for period of six months whereby school, community and government will be involved. At the end of study period, various approaches and programs will be evaluated for effectiveness and various recommendations made. Best practices from the study will be passed to other parts of Toronto as well as Canada as whole. This health promotion program will in the long run empower Canadians economically.
Introduction
Toronto will be the city where study on tobacco addiction will be conducted and health program developed to reduce the menace. Toronto is one of the most populous cities in Canada with population of over 2.7 million people. It is rich in culture with higher number of races and more than 140 languages are spoken in Toronto. Diversity in Toronto city is attributed to people migrating from various parts of the world including; China, England, France, Spain, Scotland, Ireland and Britain. The most widely spoken language is English while Christianity is reported to be the largest faith amongst Toronto residents. It is internationally recognized for commercial services including business and finance and social aspects such as arts and culture, movie and television programs production, festival and sport activities. The city is situated in Southern Ontario near shores of Lake Ontario.
Tobacco addiction will be the center of the study though there are several mental illness and addiction reported in Canada. Depression and anxiety causes impaired functioning of the affected. Mental illness and addiction are closely related in terms of prevalence in Toronto and are reported to start as early as childhood or during adolescence. Youth are widely affected by drug addiction and the most affected gender is male who are vulnerable to mental illness. It is interesting to note that substance abuse problem is most common among the poor as compared to the rich. The homeless group living in streets of Toronto often go for some days without food, get little or no medical services and are predisposed to both communicable and non communicable diseases. These factors contribute largely to substance addiction and mental illness which are burden to society as a whole. Tobacco addiction is the leading cause of death amongst Canadians in category of substance abuse, claiming the live of energetic youths. If smoking is not stopped now then it is likely that we will continue losing population and the cost of primary health care will go up. The affected groups tend to lose jobs and it is very unlikely for mentally retarded person to secure job (Keller and Bauerle, 2009). This causes high rate of unemployment in the city that is associated with criminal activities in slams.
Many non-profit making organizations offer physical and mental health programs. One of them is Compassionate health care for Toronto's homeless which gathers for people characterized by unemployment, poor housing facilities, poverty stricken, frequent illness, stress and loneliness. This organization have team of experts including nurses who are able to offer medical services to special group of people who faces stigma due to their mental illness.
Assessment of need
According to WHO (1986), tobacco and alcohol abuse are the major health hazard in the world calling for collective efforts to eradicate this pandemic through development of health public policies. Tobacco not only affects the user but affect the surrounding population with infants being the highest victims from smoking mothers. Food insecurity is one of the major concerns globally and tobacco contributes to food crisis in countries growing tobacco as cash crop. Tobacco is highly taxed by government in hope of raising its price to discourage consumption and promote health of its citizen. However, it has made tobacco one of the most profitable agricultural crop explaining continued production and deterioration of users’ health. It is therefore recommended that governments should commit themselves in lowering tobacco growing and marketing through development of health public policy to benefit its citizen and major population of the world.
Tobacco has nicotine, which is the active component that causes addiction amongst users. Curiosity and exposure are predisposing factors to smoking amongst both children and adults. Teen start by trying and with occasion smoking they end up depending on tobacco use. These youths even though they intended to quit few months or years, they end up in addiction and continue smoking to adulthood. This tobacco addiction leads to other drug abuse such as bang, heroine and alcohol. The schools should therefore enforce measures to prevent their students from using tobacco.
Program goals and objectives
The main goal of this study is to reduce mental illness and mortality due to use of tobacco.
The objectives of this program are to:
1 To reduce smoking amongst youth in schools
2 To provide education programs on smoking to public.
3 To initiate anti-tobacco projects in schools and around homes.
4 To help tobacco-users quit smoking.
5 To increase policies and programs in schools aimed at reducing tobacco use.
6 To increase public awareness on effects of smoking.
7 To reduce exposure of tobacco product to minors
Program outline
Tobacco smoking is one of the leading premature deaths worldwide. It is highly addictive thus; affected individuals find it difficult to quit smoking. Tobacco is known to have carcinogenic substance causing lung cancer, bronchitis and heart diseases (Roberts et al., 2013). The cigarette smoking should be discouraged, as it is harmful to both smoker and individual exposed to smoke. Apart from causing death, the smokers usually cause financial constraints in the family as the money intended for food, clothing and shelter is spent on buying tobacco products.
The health promotion program is aimed at reducing number of as smokers’ as well frequency of taking puff. This program will enable smokers quit and discourage non-smokers from taking up. Behavioral change will help tobacco users quit smoking. The smokers will be taken under anti-smoking programs where they will be trained to reduce number of cigarettes smoked before quitting. Strategies to minimize exposure will be carried out for six months and misperceptions such as smoking make one fashionable or attractive will be discouraged. Training programs will continue in schools even after completion of the project. Increasing knowledge and changing the attitude of a child at a tender age will equip him/her with appropriate skills to prevent from smoking.
Ways will be devised to minimize tobacco access to minors. Parents who smoke will be encourage not be sending children to store to buy cigarettes. Such parents will also be educated not to smoke in presence o their children and proposal to ban smoking in public places will made. Meanwhile storekeepers will be informed not to sell tobacco products to the minors. Exposure of children to tobacco products is predisposing children to start smoking and should be discouraged. This is because if someone starts smoking at an early age it is like to become adult smokers. Many of teenagers who start smoking early are reported to die early compared to non-smokers due to tobacco related complications.
Dissemination of information will help equip users on negative effects of smoking. It is reported that users feels that smoking is no longer harmful to their health; educative programs will help clear misconception. Motivation, information and cessation services will be provided to smokers to help them quit smoking. Public educational campaigns through media and reduction in false information about tobacco during advertisement will be fully discouraged. Tobacco manufactures will be required to indicate in the packets with clear writings that smoking is harmful to smoker’s health. All these interventions will be carried out together with government, schools, colleges and community based organization, ministry of youths and consumer protection organizations. It is intended that at least a few people will quit smoking at the end of the program.
Program implementation
Students can observe what is happening around the school and are likely to try certain kind of behavior in secrecy especially if it is forbidden. Our program will involve checking if there are policies enacted in schools such as forbidden smoking in school compound. Data will be collected on number of smoking cases observed in school irrespective of whether the smoker is a visitor, student or staff. Many countries around the world have developed tobacco free policies to combat smoking amongst students by ensuring that the school is tobacco smoking-free zone.
Ignorance is the silent killer. To reach out on children, school based programs will be conducted which include plays and drama. The education will majorly focus on influence of peer pressure on drug abuse, negative social consequences of smoking and resistance and refusal skills. To reach mass population including childr...