Assignment: Healthy People 2020 Impact Paper

Assignment: Healthy People 2020 Impact Paper

Assignment Healthy People 2020 Impact Paper

Improved healthcare practices around the world have resulted in a significant rise in the geriatric population. The geriatric population is a sensitive category of people as regular wearing out of the body, coupled with decreased immunity levels, exposes the older adults to a myriad of diseases and mobility issues. As people get older, they tend to become lax with routine activities, and one of them is oral care and hygiene. Also, medical conditions that are associated with the geriatric population, such as schizophrenia and dementia, may render the older adults incapable of remembering to carry out oral hygiene or even any personal hygiene at all. Oral health is especially crucial in this particular population due to their compromised immunity levels. Research conducted on this population has shown a connection between oral hygiene and a myriad of potentially life-threatening medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, pneumonia, and denture-induced stomatitis, among many others (Gil-Montoya, 2015). This report seeks to review the problem of oral hygiene within the geriatric population in the state of New Jersey in line with the objectives of the Healthy People 2020 federal program.

New Jersey is ranked among the highest in the United States in relation to oral health, especially among older adults. However, there are still a lot of oral health disparities within the state, such as untreated gum disease, loss of teeth, oral cancer, and chronic diseases, among others. Many people do not have medical insurance that caters for oral health. Many others do not have access to oral health care due to low socioeconomic status. According to the authors in “Oral Health and Well-Being | New Jersey State Fact Sheet (Infographic),” (2015), oral health issues significantly affect the daily routine activities of most people.

Additionally, there is also a significant number of people who cite reasons for not visiting their dentists’ offices, among them lack of finances, lack of medical insurance cover, reduced mobility, and mental health issues, especially for the geriatric population as well as fear. About a third of the adults in new jersey cite fear as their primary reason for not visiting their dentists’ offices regardless of their socioeconomic status (Oral Health and Well-Being | New Jersey State Fact Sheet (Infographic), 2015). The state of New Jersey has rolled out several programs such as water fluoridation that aim to educate and encourage the community concerning the starting of oral health hygiene from childhood into adulthood.

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The primary medical conditions of interest while reviewing the epidemiology of oral health, hygiene and diseases within the geriatric population include loss of teeth, periodontitis, dental caries, oral cancer, and overall oral health-related quality of life

(OHRQoL). Due to decreased immunity as a result of advancing age, the majority of older adults are rendered vulnerable to developing other medical conditions that are associated with poor oral hygiene such as pneumonia, diabetes, and heart disease. For instance, research has continually shown that heart attack and stroke among the elderly is closely associated with periodontitis (Singhal & Rai, 2017). There are also older people who have neglected their oral hygiene practices due to other medical conditions that are associated with advancing age. For instance, older adults living with dementia and schizophrenia are rendered incapable of taking care of general hygiene hence oral health conditions.

Additionally, the geriatric population is exceptionally prone to malnutrition, which is related to poor oral health. An excellent example is where a person is unable to consume the required types of food because they lack teeth or they have gum diseases that prevent or hinder their food intake (Wu, Cheung, Lam & Gao, 2018). Complications arising out of poor oral care and hygiene not only lower the quality of life for the already immune-compromised geriatric population but it also significantly reduces their life expectancy. Diseases such as diabetes, pneumonia, and heart disease are potentially life-threatening conditions that may arise or be worsened by poor oral health and hygiene.

Healthy people 2020

The main objective of the Healthy People initiative, which is sponsored by the federal government, is to create and establish physical and social environments that ensure good health for the entire population. Further, the federal government-sponsored initiative seeks to not only improve the quality of life for its residents; it also seeks to extend their life expectancy through a significant reduction of preventable diseases, injuries, and untimely death. Further, the initiative aims to attain health equity through the elimination of disparities, thus improving the overall health of all groups, their socioeconomic status notwithstanding (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2016).

The primary goal for the healthy people 2020 in relation to oral health in the United States is to prevent, control, and manage oral and other craniofacial illnesses and injuries sustained. Additionally, the Healthy People 2020 also intends to improve access to oral health care services. Like other healthcare needs, the state of oral health in the United States is also dependent on the socioeconomic conditions of the residents. Also, the Healthy People 2020 initiative plans to significantly reduce the number of children with dental caries through hygiene –focused civic education as such measures are bound to last way into adulthood, thus better oral health for all age groups (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). The initiative also seeks to ensure that all other factors that contribute to poor oral health, especially among the geriatric population, are considered. This includes the vulnerability of this particular age group in relation to the complications and risk factors associated with oral health as well as advanced age.

Viable intervention measures

There are many angles that can be taken to tackle the issue of oral health and hygiene within the geriatric population. The most important of them is oral health-focused civic education which will help in educating the population regarding the gravity of the situation in relation to their decreased levels of immunity and vulnerability to a host of infections that have the capacity to rapidly become life-threatening in a relatively short span (Levin –Zamir et al., 2016). Secondly, the government, both at the federal and state level could initiate free medical camps where the geriatric population could have their oral health checked and medication issued at minimal costs upon diagnosis, in line with its objectives for equity and health for all in the Healthy People 2020 initiative (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2016).  Thirdly, the health agencies could deploy community health nurses who follow up on the geriatric population, especially the ones with mobility issues, to ensure that they are in compliance with their medication and other management plans that have been specifically tailored for them.

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Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?

Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• Student paper example
• Citing Sources
• The Writing Center is a great resource