To prepare:
- Consider why you chose the particular public health issue within your community. (Examples might be alcohol use reduction for teens at prom; anti-smoking campaigns for construction workers; HIV/AIDS education programs for elementary students; disease prevention and health promotion for seniors at a long-term care facility; or increasing diagnostic testing participation for colonoscopies with middle-class women over 60 years of age.)
- The specific topic and target population must be selected from your community and must be a verifiable issue. To be verifiable, it must have been a newspaper story, a health department memo or newsletter, a city proclamation, or any issue for which you can provide actual documentation to verify that the issue you chose was one currently—or recently occurring—in your community. That documentation must be provided with your response.
- Choose a specific theory or model, and then consider why you are using this one in creating an intervention to address this public health issue. Your intervention must use the constructs of the theory/model and must be specific to the target group, for that topic, in your community. For example, the social ecological model (SEM), which was introduced in Module 4, is composed of levels, namely interpersonal, intrapersonal, institutional, community, and societal. It is based on the belief that change within the physical and social environments will also influence health behavior within individuals. Consequently, if one chose the SEM as their theory/model, emphasis on the five levels would be critical. If, on the other hand, the social capital theory was chosen, it is based on networks and relationships, with the two important factors being trust and reciprocity. So, your intervention most certainly would address cooperation, working together, and building strong bonds for healthy relationships and communities.
The Assignment
Write an 8- to 9-page paper (not including title page and references) that includes the following:
- Title page
- Introduction of public health issue and target population with documentation and brief explanation
- Theory/model to be employed in addressing issue (explain why you chose this theory/model)
- Identify the constructs of the theory/model and explain how they apply to your community issue
- At least 1 paragraph specifically describing your intervention for each construct
- Evaluation of intervention
- Conclusion
- APA formatted references