Social determinants of health are factors within one’s family and community that affect their access to healthcare services. Arthur’s family was interviewed in the previous project. The assessment showed the existence of significant health-related needs for the family. Nurses and other healthcare providers should collaborate with the family in developing healthcare plans to transform their lifestyles and behaviors. Therefore, this paper examines the social determinants of health affecting Arthur’s family, age-appropriate screenings for the family members, and appropriate health model that can be used to develop a plan of care for the family.
Social Determinants of Health Affecting the Family
As noted above, social determinants of health are factors within one’s environment that influence their access to healthcare services. The factors include those in places where one was born, work, grew, aged, and died. The interview with Arthur’s family showed the existence of several social determinants of health affecting them. One of them is the lack of awareness about their health needs. Education is an important aspect in health that increase population’s awareness about health risks and how to avoid them. However, Arthur’s family is not aware of the health risks associated with sedentary lifestyles. The family members rarely engage in active physical activity despite being obese and Arthur suffering from hypertension (CDC, 2022). Arthur and his son consume high amount of high calorie foods, which increases their risk of health complications such as cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and stroke. Therefore, their lack of awareness about the health risks of their lifestyles and behaviors is a crucial determinant of the family’s health.
The other social determinant of health seen in Arthur’s family is the affordability of healthcare services. Despite Arthur and his son suffering from hypertension and obesity respectively, they rarely visit the hospital for assessment and treatment. The family noted experiencing financial hardships, which makes it difficult for them to access and utilize the healthcare services that they need. The American healthcare system is among the most expensive in the world (Palmer et al., 2019). As a result, families from low socioeconomic backgrounds often experience challenges in affording the healthcare services they need for their health and wellbeing.
The other social determinant of health evidence from the family assessment is social and community contexts. Arthur’s family demonstrated the lack of adequate family support system during the assessment. This could be seen from the family members failing to provide their daughter her desired social support when she experienced a relationship failure. The family also does not discuss about issues related to sexuality and relationship due to the influence of their religious beliefs (Palmer et al., 2019). The wider social and community system also does not support healthy habits for its members. This can be seen from the easy access to fast foods for the family members and the lack of community systems to increase the population’s awareness about the importance of healthy lifestyles and behaviors (CDC, 2022). Therefore, Arthur’s family social and community contexts act as their social determinants of health.
Age-Appropriate Screenings
Arthur’s family members should utilize different age-appropriate screenings for their health promotion. The age-appropriate screenings for John Arthur include eye examinations, hearing tests, blood pressure screening, skin, dental, and testicular examinations. Age-appropriate screenings for Cate Arthur includes skin, dental, blood pressure, hearing, and eye examinations. The age-appropriate screenings for Chris Arthur includes eye, blood pressure, hearing, dental, and skin examinations. Mr. Arthur’s age-appropriate screenings include blood pressure, testicular, blood glucose, cholesterol, colonoscopy, and prostate screening tests. The age-appropriate screenings for Mrs. Arthur include ovarian cancer screening, mammography, bone density, cholesterol, blood glucose, blood pressure, pelvic, and cervical cancer screenings (Fragala et al., 2019). These screenings are important for early detection and prevention of potential health problems that may affect the family members.
Health Model for the Family
A health model that can be adopted to assist in creating a plan of action for the Arthur’s family is the transtheoretical model. Transtheoretical model is a theory of change used to facilitate behavioral change among the target populations. It promotes long-term behavioral change through multiple adaptions and actions over time. The model postulates that people are in different stages of readiness to embr
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