Health Communication Intervention strategy for Dementia in Australia
1.0Introduction and ProblemDescription
1.1Problem Statement
Dementia stands out to be a serious public health menace affecting the elderly populations in Australia. It is ranked as the second leading cause of deaths in Australia, yielding to 10.6% female and 5.4% male deaths annually. Dementia is known to gradually cause brain impairment among elderly groups, which results in conditions that deter memory, speech, mobility, behavior, andcognition.
1.2 The Problem’s relevance to the program.
It is essential to consider Dementia as a public health concern issue in communication intervention plan as overall care is needed for the elderly. The vulnerable groups need to be attended to with care; hence strategized their care providers should consider communication plans. Direct human dialogue is deemed to be vital as Dementia affected populations need patiently channeled discussion to have their memory and cognition on track.
1.3 Interaction of Planning Team and Team members
The planning team for this communication strategy will be the care providers both at homes and in the hospitals and the close family members. The two groups should be on the lookout to devise the best way to approach to the Dementia affected populations. The family members are responsible for giving out details about their loved one while the care providers will attend to the patients. The care providers will choose to use non-verbal cues, tender tone, and careful usage of words to depict love and care. This will help in reducing the impacts of Dementia on the affected patients and families.
1.4 Research to describe the Problem
WHO highly prioritizes Dementia as a public health concern. The global action plan was formulated by WHO in May 2017 to help respond to Dementia. This was meant to increase dementia awareness and identify ways to alleviate the Problem through proviso of better care and treatment among the elderly. Research indicates that the possible interventions for Dementia could be through control of medical conditions affiliated to Dementia such as diabetes and hypertension and encouragement of healthy diets and physical activity considerations.
1.5 Distinct Subgroups affected by the Problem.
The subgroups affected by Dementia in Australia constitute the older men and women with deteriorated health conditions. The women take the most significant percentage of the most vulnerable groups.The families are also affected because they need to invest in the care given to their loved ones either at care homes or hospitals.The family takes their time to interact with the caregivers and give them all the details concerning their affected family members. The overall society feels the impact because significant human and financial resources are channeled to curb the Problem. Thenation loses helpful human resources that would contribute to development in the community to Dementia or depression among the affected families.
2.0 Problem Analysis
Step 2.1 Direct and Indirect causes of the Sub-problems that need Intervention
Alzheimer’s disease is a type of Dementia that results in memory loss and brain impairment among older people. The direct causes of Dementia in Australia are based on risk factors such as age, genetics, or prevailing health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Over time, the aged populations wear out, and they tend to get vulnerable to various diseases, among them being memory loss.Sometimes, Dementia is inherited from family history and might present at later stages of life. Weakened immunity through predisposition to stroke and other diabetic problems could yield to Dementia among the elderly.
The indirect cause of lower socio-economic status for the Dementia affected families could be due to investment in care and treatment to their family members. Time and resources are needed to help in care provisionamong the affected populations.Society tends to seclude people with such problems because they are aware that a lot will be expected from them, such as funding hospital bills through fundraising activities.
Step 2.2 Prioritization and Selection of Sub-problems that need interventions
The subproblems that need interventions could be to address the Dementia affected populations’ needs. There is a need to consider the impacts felt by the affected family and treat them accordingly. The society is expected to understand that Dementia is a terminal problem entirely, and it affects everyone in regards to the predisposing risk factors. Similarly, the care providers’ needs are also considered in this intervention plan.
Step 2.3Ethics of Intervention Options
There are ethical considerations that ought to protect the needs and rights of the people affected with Dementia. These should be put in place to enhance change in behavior for the affected families and society. Privacy options and tender care offered to dementia patients contribute to the improvement of their health conditions. The patients, if in their right mind, should be allowed to make their decisions based on their life or healthcare well-being. If their cognition is lost, the closest family members are given the mandate to decide over what is right for their loved one. Equity and fairness should be displayed by the home or hospital caregivers to catalyze the healing capabilities of patients with Dementia.
3.0 Profile of Audience for Plan Intervention
3.1 Goals and Objectives
The main objective to attend to the Dementia affected patients is to offer behavioralinterventions that will help nurture reestablishment of their memory capacities. There is a need to also indulge the dementia patients inparticipation activities that are elemental in mood improvement.The family and society need to be educated about the causes, risk factors, and impacts of the disease. This will help them to considerthe provision of quality care to their affected family members and community groups. Educating the family and the society also forms a leeway for the treatment of other co-existing health conditions that come alongside Dementia. The goals that address the care providers ‘needs should consider coordination of care to help in quality and patient attendance to the affected populations. The need to build a care team among the health professionals will provide impactful support to the people affected with Dementia.
3.2 Relevant Models and Avenues for Potential Interventions
3.2.1 Health Communication and Education
Communication strategies and education should be offered to the caregivers and family members on matters about Dementia. This can be done through training of the personnelresponsible for care provision for Dementia affected populations.Direct and polite human dialogues will help to depict care to the affected people in the care homes or hospitals. Education should also be given to the family members to help them deal with Dementia diagnosis grief. This is essential to prepare the family members to be able to cope with the dynamics in behavior for the affected populations hence making their homes Dementiafriendly. Freecounseling should be given to society to help in the creation of a favorable environment for people living with Dementia. The principal purpose for this is to make the disease to attain normality in the community setup.
3.2.2 Health Policy and Enforcement
There is a need to implement health policies to help cover for the people affected with Dementia, their caregivers, and their families. It is vital to consider the protection of the wishes and rights of people with Dementia. The vulnerable groups should be involved in the development of legislation, plans, and policies for matters that concernthem. This is done through proper consultation of the elderly groups of people affected with Dementia. There is also a need to ensure that financial and social protection is offered to the families and the care providers taking care of the sick. The obligation to purchase drugs ad healthy food combinations is executed through enforcement of the law that covers for the targeted groups in this context. The need to consider truthfulness is also an ethical consideration that needs to be observed when taking care of dementia patients. This gives the patients a sense of hope that they will soon get better.
4.0Development of Plan Intervention
4.1 Dominant Communication Interventions
Communication stands out to be a dominant intervention to help mitigate the effects of Dementia among the different categories of people affected. The discussion aims at improving the memory skills of dementia patients such that they can take theirmedications. Also, it enhances the comprehension of language and articulation of words and increases social interaction capabilities among the patients.
The caregivers develop the intense drive to support thee, dementia patients, upon serious training on how to handle these vulnerable groups. In offering skills during exercise, the care providers get fully equipped to facilitate better patient care through effective channeling of information to each to the patients. Communication interventions given by the caregivers should also center on the delivery of valuable content to the patients and affected families in a kind manner.
The families affected by Dementia ought to employ communication interventions through campaigning against discrimination of these people.Improved comfort for these families puts them in a better position to explain the health status of their incapable members of the family. Decision making based on the patient’s lives is made by responsible families and communicated effectively to the care providers at homes or hospitals.
Communication interventions are also crucial in supporting community services to curb public health menaces such as Dementia. Installation of posters to depict compassionate care given to the patients with Dementia and eradication of stigma in the community is attained through communication. Facilitating of funding activities to take care of dementia patients in homes and hospitals is made possible through campaigning strategies in the community setups.
4.2 Segments that Justify Separate Communication Interventions
Separate communication interventions are offered to various segments of the targeted audiences. For instance, there are those patients who inherit dementia health problems from their family members. This case is known; hence they are counseled to take necessary medications to mitigate the challenges that come alongside Dementia such as cardiovascular diseases. For the segments that develop Dementia at an older age, training them to respond to the asked question and facilitating their social interaction capabilities from part of communication interventions offered to them.
Categories of caregivers found at home need intensive address by the public health management to help them attend to the patients. This is because of their inadequacy of skills and knowledge to relate to the problems faced by dementia patients.Most of these categories are customarily older people or illiteratepeople.The care providers at the hospitals are well informed of dementia conditions; hence they have the responsibility of installing communicative posters in the hospitals advocating for care among dementia patients.
4.3 Communication Goals fortargeted Segments
The communication goals attached to the populations living in the environs with dementia cases are vital. They are meant to facilitate the active and social engagement of the communities in campaigning against fatalities of these conditions. Communicating helps a great deal to advocate for better nutrition strategies and adequate medical requirements for the targeted vulnerable groups in the community. The communication intends to relay support functions for care provisions for the people affected by Dementia. Cohesion in the community is attained through the successful implementation of communication intervention strategies that aim at the enhancement of the well-being of patients with public health concerns. The families are motivated o continue supporting their loved ones through effective counseling protocols.
4.4 FormativeResearch to achieve Communication Goals.
Formative research will be conducted to make sure that the community project ideas and the values are consolidated to help information on useful communicative tools. This research will focus on engaging the communities and the families affected with Dementia in participatory information sessions to accrue adequate information to help in the mitigation of health risks factors that come alongside Dementia. The selection of responsible community members to assist in the illustration of valuable skills on taking of medication procedures will be instrumental in the formative research. The youth populations being active in social media platforms will help to engage with other responsible stakeholders who could offer funding facilities. This will be aimed at supporting the health well-being of people affected with Dementia.Formative research will be impactful in sustaining promotional health campaign activities.
4.5 Development of Communication Intervention Plan
The intervention plan will entail the participation of the community to help in the communication of better interventional strategies for Dementia affected populations. Community engagement campaigns will be scheduled to occur every month through which essential messages will be passed on to the targeted audiences. To facilitate the entire campaign, there is a need for budgeting to ensure that the resources are sufficient. Involvement of children to help come up with art that demonstrates pity to the Dementia affected population. This will help to pass the message to the funders that the condition is indeed critical and need to be addressed. The fact that dementia care and medical requirements need a lot of attention drives the need to engage the families and the communities in the participation of such campaigns. Photos of the patients with Dementia can be put in the posters and social media platforms to inform the entire public of how detrimental this condition can be to the patients.
5.0 Plan Evaluation
5.1 Identification and Engagement with Stakeholders
The stakeholders taking part in the formulation of the communication plan involve the informed members of the community. These include the community health specialists who have full knowledge and skills of how to handle patients with Dementia and the affected families. The youths are responsible for the engagement of dementia patients with the entire public through art and posters. The pictures of the ill patients help to gain attention from the sympathizers hence increasing their chances of the contribution of support. Fundraising processes can be installed on social media platforms to help gain support from external sources. Engagement of the responsible stakeholders in the development of a communication intervention plan for people with Dementia is imperative. Toenhance the provision of quality services in the communication plan, there is a need to consider other issues concerning the environment and the social perception of the people with such conditions. The program should center on adopting budget-friendly campaigns to minimize expenditure that would otherwise be used in other areas. Motivating the youths to disseminate information concerning the public health concern issue is an essential process in stepping up the intervention plan. Information needed by the stakeholders for the intervention plan consists of the numbers of the affected people, the severity of their illnesses, their distribution in the community, and their absolute numbers in the homes or hospitals. This will help in budgeting and scheduling plans to enforce the management plan.
5.2 Intervention Standards
The intervention standards employed in the formative research are dependent on the capability to attain cognitive training, rehabilitation, and stimulation for the affected populations. Cognitive training for dementia patients is done either in groups or individually. It needs several exercises through which the caregivers transfer to the patients. This is indicative that the caregivers themselves need to undergo some sort of training to be able to handle the patients. It implicates additional expenditure that needs to be addressed by the community or the families affected by the disease.
Cognitive rehabilitation and stimulation are essential intervention standards that need to be considered during the development of the intervention plan. They are fundamental to test the performance of both the patient and their families in everyday life. The needs to compensate for the impairment come with the financial pressure that ought to be communicated to the respective participants. The need to engage the community in fundraising programs promotes social inclusivity in the community setups.
6.0 Launch and Feedback
The official public launch of care navigation trial for Dementia in Australia will be done at the commencement of the Dementia awareness month (held in September annually), to ensure that the affected populations gain access to information and support. Relationship building and community engagement will consequently follow for the next two months to ensure that respective protocols and developed, and participants are assigned the roles during the campaign processes. Inviting the volunteers to enhance the facilitation of the activities in the program that engages youth’s participation in designing posters and drawing of pictures to put on social media platforms will be done. This will be done in the selected communities for a period of every two months in a year.
The final objective for the communicationintervention program in the community set up is to ensure that information concerning dementia awareness and needs spreads across different populations. This helps to attain and implement effective feedbackmeasures. Theparticipants will make use of social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Promotional leaflets will be distributed at the beginning of every year to family homes or health clinics; the posters will be pinned on the walls, and the information on Dementiaand populations affected will be presented in the newspapers to communicate to the respective target groups. The replacement of this information will be done every three months to help in the attainment of positive feedback from the targeted individuals. The caregivers and the health professional will encourage the families affected by Dementia to participate in the intervention program while ensuring protection against stigma. The evaluation plan will also be used to attain feedback through which monitoring processes of the effectiveness of the communication model is accomplished. Success is achieved when there is a massive turn up of people in the communities during the campaigns, and tremendous support is offered to the affected populations.
7.0 Conclusion
It is important to note that communication intervention helps a great deal in responding to public health concerns. The need to analyze the problem, develop the intervention plans, and evaluate the proposals helps to attain the goals of the project. Feedback obtained after the overall analysis of the intervention plan impacts on the needs to counter Dementia in the context illustrated in the text above.