Health Campaign Research Paper

Health Campaign II

University of Phoenix
Rebecca Brown
April 15, 2013

Health Campaign II
In the US, HIV/AIDS is a major concern and about 1.1 million people are affected with the condition. About 20% of the HIV patients may actually not know about their HIV status. Every year more than 56,000 new patients get infected with the disease. One of the measures of the Healthy People 2020 is to develop preventive strategies for better management of HIV illnesses and deaths. This is because currently, the problems due to HIV/AIDS are resulting in several health problems, the cost of care is rising and human resources are being lost. Several agencies in the US are taking care of managing problems due to HIV/AIDS. These include
the National Institute of Health (NIH), US Center for Disease Control (CDC), US Department of Health (US-DOH), Ryan White HIV AIDS Program, City Councils, State Department of Health, and various NGO 's. These organizations operate at the federal, regional, state and the local levels. The NIH performs various research studies on HIV/AIDS and brings out effective preventive and management strategies. The CDC provides leadership in the management of HIV/AIDS and is responsible for leading programs including research, surveillance, evaluation and prevention programs. The DOH is responsible for development of policies regarding HIV/AIDS and ensures that funding initiatives are available to tackle the disease. The Ryan White Program provides help and support to people living with HIV/AIDS in case they are unable to help themselves. The Ryan White program works with governmental and non-governmental organizations. At various cities the City Councils provide specialized programs meant for the prevention and management of HIV/AIDS, working closely with other organizations. The state DOH is similar to the DOH at the federal level, but is responsible for the development of policies at the local levels. Besides, various NGO 's work with governmental and non-governmental organizations to carry out tasks at the community level. It has been found that the incidence of HIV/AIDS is rising in the female population belonging to various other racial groups. Having such a trend is suggestive of the efficiency of HIV/AIDS programs. In the US, many of the people belonging to the lower socioeconomic groups and other racial groups (who are at a higher risk of getting infected with the disease), may not have good facilities to protect them from the disease. For example, these people find it difficult to access healthcare and usually do not know that they are infected. Hence, HIV/AIDS programs should aim at targeting such groups who are unable to take care of their health and are facing grave issues concerning HIV/AIDS. About 47% of the patients with HIV/AIDS are actually African-American women and are actually 19 times more prone to develop the infection compared to the Caucasian women. Hence the target population has to be Women of Color. Some of the strategies that need to be employed for the management of HIV/AIDS include active and sentinel surveillance. (CDC 2012) There needs to be employed other tools for surveillance of HIV/AIDS in the Women of color population including quality of life questionnaires, surveys to determine the presence of risk factors and questionnaires that can be used to identify the social, cultural, family and lifestyle risk factors that predispose the patient to HIV/AIDS. In this paper, I would go on to developing a program meant for Women Of Color, who are at a high risk for HIV/AIDS, have several factors that predispose themselves to develop the disease and who do not have the necessary resources to protect themselves from the disease. The program would also try to bring about changes in the HIV/AIDS landscape in the US. The ultimate objective of this program is to develop necessary behaviors in the high risk population so that they are fully equipped to take care of the disease including prevention and effective management of the condition.

Target Population
The target population is women of color that are present in the US and who have been identified at a high-risk of getting infected with HIV/AIDS. According to various statistics presented by various Health organizations in the US, HIV/AIDS is one of the leading causes of deaths in the African-American populations in the US in women between the ages of 35 years and 44 years (highly sexually active age-groups). About 47% of the populations who are infected with HIV/AIDS are actually African-American women (Alcmena, 2011). Besides, it has been found that more than half the populations who have reported having HIV/AIDS are actually African-Americans. It has been noticed that African-American women are at a 19 times higher risk of getting infected with HIV/AIDS compared to Caucasian women (Alcena, 2011). In 2009, though the African-Americans compromised about 14% of the US population, about 44% cases of new HIV/AIDS were noticed in African-American populations (CDC, 2012). Some of the main reasons why African-American populations are at a high risk of getting infected with HIV/AIDS include high poverty levels (as they would only get poor healthcare facilities and their education levels would be lower), higher rates of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI 's) in this population, stigma and discrimination faced that allow them from using HIV facilities or screening services, lack of awareness in the population, and greater chances to have sex with partners from the same group (who are more commonly infected) (women health,2012) These populations are unable to identify their risk for HIV/AIDS or to even identify that they are infected with the HIV/AIDS. Hence, they cannot take measures to protect themselves or their partners who are usually African-American men. Some of the common measures that can be employed to prevent the disease from spreading include use of latex condoms, using fresh syringes, having sex with a faithful partner, and consumption of antiretroviral drugs to prevent vertical transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child (Women 's Health, 2012).

Community-based response
Through a range of community activities, HIV/AIDS needs to be adequately managed and prevented in African-American women.
Some of the measures that are required include mobilization of initiatives, capacity-building, campaigns and spreading awareness, etc. Mobilization initiatives include greater education of Women Of Color , encouraging and motivating testing for the disease, preventive strategies, reducing the stigma associated with the disease, removing the barriers that are present with HIV/AIDS testing, stimulate the plan towards disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS, HIV prevention through work, learn and play processes, connecting the women with the resources, providing the community with resources that are required for effective response and improving the women 's ability to take care of their general and sexual health better. Community leaders can play a vital role in the program and help to build faith within the group. Besides, men can also be involved in the program who can contribute immensely towards improving the status of women 's health. A community workstation needs to be launched, which would provide a one-stop solution for all the HIV/AIDS needs of the target population. Events can be chalked out by the community workstation. Community planning should ideally be evidence-based, which depends on qualitative, quantitative, epidemiological, and evaluation data of various health programs. In such a circumstance, the interventions would be more
effective. Community training programs can help implement community-level preventive programs and create an environment that is conducive for the prevention of HIV/AIDS in the population (Florida DOH, 2012).

Institutional and community leadership roles
A leadership role in HIV/AIDS plays a very important role, as community leaders have a critical role to perform as HIV/AIDS is becoming a pandemic across the world.
There is a need for well-trained leaders in healthcare in various sectors including clinical, research, development, program management, policy, advocacy, etc. In countries that have a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS and where the population is at a risk for developing the disorder, community leaders are required. Leaders may be required at various levels and may be having different types of policies of leadership. One area where leadership is critical is the training of healthcare personnel who would be ultimately responsible for managing the disease in patients. Whenever leadership changes occur, the transition should be smooth. Leaders may be found at the community level and at the institutional level. The community leaders are more effective and they would be leading a bigger population compared to institutional leaders. On the other hand, institutional leaders would interact with the population at the personal level and would be providing customized solutions for the management of the condition. Community level leaders would operate at the general level and would be tackling issues that are affecting the community as a whole (Szekeres,
2010).

Economic factors and funding intervention strategies
Some of the socioeconomic factors that affect the funding interventions include poverty, migration, and poor access to the productive resources, training and lack of education.(cheng,2009) Most of the economic factors are very intrinsic to HIV/AIDS. The African-American community in the US is therefore resource poor and people from this community belong to the lower-socioeconomic groups, making it difficult for them to take proper care of their health. Having such poor economic factors would only increase the risk for HIV transmission, remove the obstacles for prevention of the disease, and reduce the community 's ability to cope with the disease. Besides, there also seems to be a gender-based socioeconomic and cultural inequality in the African-American groups. There have been various suggestions recommended to tackle these problems. These include using greater amount of resources for tackling the disease in women and children, providing ways of empowering women to tackle the disease, structural determinants addressable in the African American populations, providing sex workers with resources required to take better care of their health, having greater number of vocational training and education programs, and developing progressive steps for empowering women over the disease. Article 10 and Article 11(1) of the Constitution speaks about reducing discrimination amongst women in the society and efforts should be made to educate the women about the same (UN General Secretary 's Task Force on HIV/AIDS - ICASO, 2007).

Role of social marketing in promoting public health
Social marketing refers to the design, planning and implementation of a program that has the potential of affecting ideas at the social level and involves providing changes to product planning, pricing, distribution and research of the markets. It applies marketing principles and techniques to convey the right idea to the targeted population. Social marketing has been developed for the benefit of the society and the target audience and rely on various marketing strategies. With relation to public health, social marketing can be applied in 4 major areas including health promotion, prevention, environmental protection and community mobilization. All these four areas have a major role to play with respect to HIV/AIDS. In the past, social marketing has been used in various communities for reducing HIV risks, preventing smoking in teens, better utilization of community health resources, tackling chronic diseases, and better sexual health protection and family planning. Social marketing can be applied at the global level and can be combined with other efforts to tackle the disease in the African American population. They can be used to build partnerships with NGO 's and governmental organizations at the local, national and the international level. (Florida DOH, 2012) Lastly, corporate social responsibilities can be encouraged through social marketing, where a corporate can contribute towards the program for the benefit of Women of Color. (Cheng, 2009). These measures will help ensure that the strategies used to combat HIV/AIDS among women of color are objective. In addition, the measures will ensure that the strategies are improved with changes in the HIV/AIDS landscape.

References
Alcena, V. (2011). Health Care Disparity in the United States of America. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse
CDC (2012). HIV among African-Americans, Retrieved on December 22, 2012, from CDC Website: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/aa/
CDC (2012). HIV/AIDS and African American Women: a Consultation Supporting CDC’s Heightened National Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis among African Americans, Retrieved on December 22, 2012, from CDC Website: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/aa/resources/reports/women_consult/pdf/womens_consult.pdf
Cheng, H., Kotler, P., & Lee, N. (2009). Social Marketing for Public Health, New York: Jones & Bartlett.
Florida DOH (2012). Community Prevention, Retrieved on December 22, 2012, from Florida DOH Website: http://www.doh.state.fl.us/disease_ctrl/aids/prevention/Community_Prevention.html
ICASO (2007). Economic Factors, Retrieved on December 22, 2012, from ICASO Website: http://www.icaso.org/publications/gender_EN_4.pdf
Szekeres, G., Coates, T.J., and Ehrhardt, A. A. (2008). 'Leadership development and HIV/AIDS ', AIDS, 22(2): S19-S26. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2810248/
Women 's Health (2012). Minority Women 's Health, Retrieved on December 22, 2012, from Women 's Health Website: http://womenshealth.gov/minority-health/african-americans/hiv-aids.cfm