Improving Pacific Islander Health through Community Participation

Community participation is vital in ensuring effective and positive health care outcomes. Community plays an important role in determining the acceptability of measures and procedures put in place to curb and eliminate diseases to promote community health. The level of acceptance of these programs can be determined by observing how a community responds to these measures. To attain quality and positive results in health care improvement, it is important for the government or the organization conducting the health care improvement task to include the community living in that specific area. They may include the community in research and planning of implementation to gain the social acceptance. This paper will analyze a case study on improving Pacific Islander health through community participation.

Statement of the Problem

Pacific Islanders community is affected by health issues, and disparities are witnessed across the health sector, causing reduced quality of life among the community living in the area. According to the research done by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2002, the community is at a high risk due to poor health outcome relating to cancer and high mortality (Huff, Kline, & Peterson, 2015). This is mainly attributed to low screening rate preventing early detection of different types of cancer. The insufficient appropriate cancer education in the community and the lack of cancer prevention resources and facilities have also caused increased cancer incidences. Because of this problem, the Asian-Pacific Islander triggered the development of a community-academic partnership that aimed to reduce cancer cases and mortality among the population (Huff, Kline, & Peterson, 2015). This led to the formation of Weaving an Islander Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training (WINCART) group.

The partnership then began addressing the community concerns on poor health outcomes. Poor health outcomes may be attributed to various factors, for instance, the lack of disaggregating the data, making it hard to detect significant variations in education and health status (Gordon, Payne-Sturges, & Gee, 2010). Clear data analysis is critical in making a clear conclusion about a situation since failure to this will lead to an impaired conclusion, which will not be the reality about that condition. This makes it hard to plan and put preventive measures in place since there is no clear idea about the situation.

Causes of the Problem

Poor survival outcomes can be attributed to lack of health education among the population, which leads to poor living habits. In the Pacific Islanders community, the trainees who can offer health education to the people are scarce. Health education is of a great importance to the well-being of any community. It involves educating individuals on practices that promote a healthy life. It helps to educate people on the importance of good choice of diet and exercise to attaining a healthy lifestyle (Glanz, Rimer, & Viswanath, 2008). It also increases awareness among the population, which leads to change in behavior. Therefore, when the population is informed, people are likely to embrace the learned or acquired skill in their day-to-day life, thus promoting good health. Consequently, a good health will reduce the cost that individuals and families would have spent on treatment.

The insufficient number of Pacific Islander trainees in biomedical sciences is also another factor that has contributed to this condition. Health workers are vital in any health facility. At the same time, the lack of sufficient health workers may be attributed to such factors as the migration of workforce and inadequate payments, which causes the difficulties in the distribution of health services provision in the scattered population in the island (Park, Goodwin, & Lee, 2001).

Decision Criteria

Time is a major factor that must be considered in the implementation of any project. There should be enough time for planning and collecting necessary information from the appropriate people. In the case under discussion, WINCART partners held series of group meetings in addressing community concerns. The schedule that shows what activities to take place and time allocation is necessary. The urgency of service to the community may dictate the time for implementation.

The cost to be incurred is another factor that should be considered. One should approximate the necessary cost of implementation and the means to fund a project. In this case, the WINCART group members have agreed to fund the project through granting application. The acceptance by management and the general community is an important factor to consider. This is ensured by including all stakeholders in interactive discussions to include opinion concerning the project.

Another factor to consider while evaluating alternative solution is ethical acceptability. The solution should be in line with the ethical guideline of the professional and should not go against the set code of conduct (Nelson, 2005). This ensures that the possible harm resulting from carelessness and ignorance is avoided.

It is also important to consider the political implications of the project. One should consider the legislation that determines the interactivity between the government and organization, customers and the public. Political stability within a given area should be considered since it affects the operations.

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