The evaluation of the Arlington community has shown high regard for the alleviation of tobacco use and alcohol consumption. The population has been highly concerned to abolish the use of tobacco and alcohol among the youth. There is overwhelming evidence of declining cases of tobacco and alcohol use among the youth. This is in line with the national goals of reducing tobacco and alcohol use among the youth.
Nevertheless, the analysis of the Arlington community has shown that a small number of young people are still engaged in alcohol and tobacco use. Despite the efforts and strategies which have been set to ensure make sure that the population is free from tobacco and alcohol use, the crisis is still prevailing in the community. An assessment of the community has offered overwhelming results on health concerns. An assessment of middle school children in Arlington has demonstrated the threat to the community as far as alcohol and tobacco use was concerned. As it has been observed, the community has overwhelming goals for the reduction of alcohol and tobacco use.
As far as tobacco and alcohol use is concerned, the Arlington community has set admirable goals for the population’s health. Notably, the community is focusing on increasing the percentage of youths who are tobacco and alcohol-free. In the light of the ideas of Stanhope and Lancaster (2011) no community can succeed in the war on drugs without setting specific goals and objectives. The case of the Arlington community is hereby appealing in the sense that realistic goals on alcohol and tobacco use termination have been set (Stanhope and Lancaster, 2011).
Due to the high vulnerability of youths to alcohol and tobacco use, the young people in the Arlington community are under strict parental and teacher supervision. As it is provided in this study, the youths between 12-17 years old have little time to spend out of school or beyond the supervision of adults. This is very beneficial in countering the use of alcohol and tobacco. As noted by Nies and McEwen (2010), one of the best ways to keep children out of tobacco and alcohol consumption is to ensure supervision as much as it is possible.
This has been considered in the community whereby the majority of the children spent much of their time with adults both in school and at home. Notably, a small percentage of around 10% are engaged in the habit. With these statistics, it is evident that the vulnerability of the user in using the substance is limited (Nies and McEwen, 2010).
The involvement of the youths in extra curriculum activities is also a great achievement in the war against alcohol and tobacco use (Kayser-Jones, 2009). Despite that majority of the youths spent little time on extracurricular activities, great efforts have been put to engage them. It is appealing to note that a high percentage of youth are active in extracurricular activities. This has a significant effect in preventing them from bad behaviors and more specifically, alcohol and tobacco use.
It is commendable that the schools in the community have been at the forefront to ensure that the youths are fully engaged, thus limiting their vulnerability to tobacco and alcohol use. The engagement of the youths in physical activity is also commendable in addressing the issues of alcohol and tobacco use. As observed in the assessment, all young people spend some hours a week doing sports or some other physical activity which in this case has a good influence on their health (Stanhope and Lancaster, 2011).
As far as cigarette smoking is concerned, a majority of the youths have demonstrated overwhelming results. A high percentage of youth of around 90% have never smoked cigarettes. It’s only around 4% of young people who have smoked a cigarette in their time. The current engagement in smoking is only represented by 1-2% of the youth who smoke on average 4 cigarettes a day. With this in mind, the community has succeeded in countering the evil of alcohol use among a larger population of its youth. However, a lot needs to be done to address the smaller proportion of the youths who are still entangled in the behavior (Nies and McEwen, 2010).
The case of alcohol use among the youths in the Arlington community has also demonstrated appealing results. Over 75% have never sipped alcohol. Only 6% of youth in the Arlington community have tasted it at the ages of 10 and 8 respectively. The evaluation of the Arlington community has demonstrated that around 7% and 6% of the youth have also tasted alcohol at the age of 12 and 14 respectively. Based on these statistics, it is evident that much has been done in eliminating alcohol and tobacco from the community (Anderson and McFarlane, 2010).
The overall assessment of the Arlington community has demonstrated appealing results as far as health was concerned. The issue of alcohol and tobacco use in the Arlington community has been adequately addressed. The goal of an increasing number of youths who are alcohol and tobacco-free has been prioritized. This is evident through the commitment of parents and teachers in engaging students in extracurricular activities, physical activity, and supervision. The current prevalence of alcohol and tobacco use among the youth in the Arlington community is the lowest: 90% and 75% is the number of youths who have never smoked and taken alcohol respectively. Nevertheless, there is a need to be cautious in addressing the small percentage of youth who are still overwhelmed by alcohol and tobacco consumption.
References
Anderson, E. and McFarlane, J. (2010). Community as partner: Theory and practice in Nursing. New Jersey: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Kayser-Jones, J. (2009). Nursing homes: A health-promoting or dependency-promoting Environment? Journal of Health Promotion Maintenance, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. S66- S74.
Nies, M. and McEwen, M. (2010). Community/public health nursing: Promoting the Health of populations (5th Ed.). Washington, DC: Saunders.
Stanhope, M. and Lancaster, J. (2011). Public health nursing. Populations-centered Health care in the community (8th Ed.). New York: Mosby.