Introduction
Chronic illnesses can vary from diabetes to asthma and significantly impact a person’s everyday life. However, some population groups are affected more than others to the particular health problems, specifically African Americans. Racial disparity and inequality remain the primary reason for this process’s absence of decent treatment and regularity. The lack of information and resources to get the proper healthcare and unawareness of the existing problems make them an at-risk group. Hypertension control is significantly reduced among black patients compared to white, Asian, and individuals of other ethnicities (Fontil, 2022). Consequently, the healthcare system requires additional tools and solutions to improve the positions for African Americans. Thus, this paper aims to propose the intervention to deal with the high blood pressure among the black population of New York State.
Evidence-Based Intervention
One of the most efficient ways to address the issue is through the communities, using public places such as barbershops and religious institutions. Combining the community’s everyday aspects of life and healthcare integration increases awareness among the African American population. Barbershops are significant parts of the individual’s routine and regularly visited places by men. Since barbershops are the places that target the male audience, they will influence them specifically. This is an excellent opportunity for them because men tend to suffer more from high blood pressure than women and this type of intervention is beneficial for their health.
Firstly, the lack of information and knowledge about the disease that comes from the poor education and drawback of opportunities cannot understand its importance to the people’s well-being. That is why black people are more likely to neglect the routine and not visit the doctors on fixed appointments. Secondly, African Americans struggle financially to afford medical services because of the low wages and inflexible work schedule. Insurance might as well do not fully cover the expenses, and until the issue is critical black patients can decide to ignore the medical care of high blood pressure.
Implementation Plan
Barbershops’ cooperation with medical experts may decrease the health problems connected with high blood pressure. This kind of intervention is primarily led by the pharmacy’s treatment and emphasizes the active actions taken by the patients under the guidance of their doctors. As evidence of the successful implementation of the program, the results demonstrated the reduction of the blood pressure after half of the year of treatment (Victor, 2019). Moreover, patients needed fewer doctor appointments and medication within the year due to their well-being (Victor, 2019). Additionally, the initial intervention can be considered cost-effective, and the expenses would be between $50 000 and $150 000 per year (Bryant, 2021). It includes medication, professional consultations, and doctor appointments. Pharmacists, as stakeholders in the intervention, should be attracted to the case to provide the barbers with the necessary instructions and guidance for their clients and get them the consultation and treatment after all.
The following step is to work on the method that would be efficient for the general audience, not only males. In order to achieve that, churches might be used for the intervention since they significantly impact people and might promote awareness about high blood pressure. Older adults, who often tend to be more religious than the younger population, have decent trust in the communities and have higher chances of paying more attention to the information they get there. Thus, African Americans inside the communities have better access to information and knowledge regarding different issues if implemented into the daily and routine activities and institutions. Therefore, the faith-based approach combined with the therapeutic lifestyle change can increase awareness and use (Schoenthaler, 2018). This method implies regular group sessions with the professionals who do motivational interviewing and educate individuals on the possible changes that can decrease blood pressure. Practicing those sessions for approximately three months once a week has positive results on the participants. After six months, the outcomes of those interventions showed that hypertension significantly reduced, and the effect persisted at the nine months (Schoenthaler, 2018). As for the expenses of the session, it would not exceed $10000 since the local experts’ services cost relatively low and happen only once a week during a limited period of time. Religious institutions are reliable sources for many people, and combining the faith and scientific and medical suggestions can improve the situation with high blood pressure among African Americans.
Potential Challenges to Implementation
However, certain challenges may appear during the intervention. Some of the barbershops’ visitors may not have their supervising doctor, but in that case, the specialists can be provided from the healthcare center by the community (Victor, 2018). Considering the faith method, some parishioners may still be indifferent to their health concerns, specifically high blood pressure. In that case, to involve them in the participation is to offer them free blood tests with personal recommendations from the doctors. Having the actual visual representation of their blood pressure level and having a conversation about the current state and consequences can motivate people to focus on this aspect of their health if needed.
Public Health Theory
In order to achieve progress in the interventions, it is better to do the with the support of the public health theory. Each suggestion is based on the health belief model, and it helps to identify the causes of the issue and possible solutions. The health belief model allows us to understand people’s thinking and perception of healthcare services (Glanz, 2022). Using this analysis model gives a perception of why people neglect the prevention or treatment, especially regarding asymptomatic diseases such as hypertension, and how their beliefs impact their willingness to care about their health (Glanz, 2022). This theory explains why African Americans struggle a lot from high blood pressure and receive few opportunities for treatment. The absence of financial resources and accessibility to greater education and information lead to the unawareness of the disease’s presence and its influence on the individual’s life.
Expected Outcomes
The desirable outcomes for the intervention would be the reduction in high blood pressure among the black population due to the greater awareness about the diseases and accessible means of healthcare. The data will be collected from the medical institutions that cooperated with the barbershops and churches for the first time after six months to see any changes in the results. If the outcomes will not be satisfying, the first step is to review all the methods from the beginning to the final points and do a questionnaire with the patients to detect the mistakes. Then, after the thorough analysis, work on developing more effective ways to promote awareness about hypertension and think of ideas on how to eliminate the obstacles of African Americans getting the treatment.
Additional Contributing Factors and Advocacy for At-Risk Group as Doctoral Learner
As a post-graduate learner, I can identify other factors contributing to the pervasiveness of high blood pressure among the black population. Firstly, it is connected with the socioeconomic positions of the majority of African Americans, which are defined by systematic discrimination and inequality in society. Consequently, it impacts their lifestyle because limited education and job opportunities may not allow them to lead an active lifestyle and have healthy nutrition. Therefore, damaging eating habits, smoking, or other addictions, along with the many routine responsibilities to maintain a certain level of livelihood, leave little space to learn and be concerned about the possible chronic diseases. From my position, I have an opportunity to research urgent topics regarding the well-being of social minorities and identify the problems they struggle with the most compared to the more privileged groups. Through this, I can create solutions to the issues for the unrepresented ethnicities, races, and LGBTQ community members. Eventually, this can be applied to any healthcare field, such as sexual or mental health, by always focusing on the representatives of social minorities. This can be achieved by researching and comparing the statistics of venereal diseases among white and black women, for instance, or identifying the most frequent causes of depression in African Americans.
Conclusion
Overall, three ways of intervention can be applied to improve the situation with the high blood pressure among the black population: cooperation with barbershops, faith method, and improvement of treatment intensification. If the desired outcomes will not be achieved, the first step is to analyze from beginning to end all the processes and interview the patients who were part of the interventions. The overview of the mistakes can allow to work and develop more reliable and effective methods to help black communities to deal with hypertension. Nevertheless, professionals from each medical field should pay more attention to the needs of minority groups. From my perspective, I can contribute to this by researching different issues and identifying solutions to them to bring awareness and help them get access to quality healthcare.
References
Bryant, K. B., Moran, A. E., Kazi, D. S., Zhang, Y., Penko, J., Ruiz-Negrón, N.,… & Bellows, B. K. (2021). Cost-effectiveness of hypertension treatment by pharmacists in black barbershops. Circulation, 143(24), 2384-2394.
Fontil, V., Pacca, L., Bellows, B. K., Khoong, E., McCulloch, C. E., Pletcher, M., & Bibbins-Domingo, K. (2022). Association of differences in treatment intensification missed visits, and scheduled follow-up interval with racial or ethnic disparities in blood pressure control. JAMA cardiology, 7(2), 204-212.
Glanz, K. Social and behavioral theories. Behavioral & Social Sciences Research. Web.
Schoenthaler, A. M., Lancaster, K. J., Chaplin, W., Butler, M., Forsyth, J., & Ogedegbe, G. (2018). Cluster randomized clinical trial of FAITH (FAITH-based approaches in the treatment of hypertension) in blacks: main trial results. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, 11(10), e004691. Web.
Victor, R. G., Lynch, K., Li, N., Blyler, C., Muhammad, E., Handler, J.,… & Elashoff, R. M. (2018). A cluster-randomized trial of blood-pressure reduction in black barbershops. New England Journal of Medicine, 378(14), 1291-1301.
Victor, R. G., Blyler, C. A., Li, N., Lynch, K., Moy, N. B., Rashid, M.,… & Elashoff, R. M. (2019). Sustainability of blood pressure reduction in black barbershops.Circulation, 139(1), 10-19. Web.