Diabetes in Elder People and Community Health Nurse

Diabetes in Elder People and Community Health Nurse

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Community health describes a field of public health that is concerned with the study and improvement of the health characteristics of communities. Community health focuses on geographical areas rather than individuals with shared characteristics. On the other hand, public health involves the art and science of preventing diseases, prolonging and enhancing health via efforts and informed choices of organizations, society, individuals and communities (Fitzgerald, 2006). Public health is usually concerned with top health that is based on population health analysis. There are various differences between public and community health. One of the differences is that community health involves physicians and other health professionals in a certain community while public health involves the health of the entire nation. Besides, community health protects the health of individuals in a given community while public health seeks to protect the health of every individual (Porche, 2004). In addition, public health offers free health care to people while community health ensures water, food and the environment is healthy for a given community.

Diabetes is a chronic disease, which occurs when an individual has too much glucose in the blood since the body is not in the capacity of producing insulin or the body may not be sin a position of utilizing insulin properly. Diabetes falls under two categories; type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Diabetes in Australia has been a common disease among the elder population. According to a study carried out by AusDiab, researchers found out that the incidence of diabetes is exceedingly high among the Australian adults; the study found out that approximately 270 Australians adults are diagnosed to have diabetes in a day. This implies that the population of adults having diabetes in Australia is still high. One of the contributing factors for the rising rates of diabetes in Australian adults is the lack of physical exercises in a day. According to the research, most adults do not engage in physical exercises due to ignorance or because of their occupation. The following data shows the prevalence of diabetes in adults compared to other age groups; the data indicates that the population of adults was mostly affected by diabetes within the time range.

Source: HYPERLINK “http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/D4F2A67B76B06C12CA257AA30014BC65?opendocument” http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/D4F2A67B76B06C12CA257AA30014BC65?opendocument

The adult population, in Australia, can have the intervention of community health in an attempt to reduce the number of adults that have diabetes. The community health can intervene through having education programs in different parts of Australia. The education should focus on educating the local communities on the need of having physical exercises in order to mitigate the rate of diabetes in the local communities (Porche, 2004). Apart from physical exercises, the population based community health can help in reducing the rate of adult individuals having diabetes through educating the community on how to maintain a balanced diet that can aid in preventing diabetes since eating habit is also a chief contributor to diabetes. Mostly, in the rural areas, which have the highest percentage of adults having diabetes, the community health nurses will be in a position to interact and engage with the population having diabetes.

It is ethical for community health professionals to intervene in helping the local people. For instance, educating the elderly people about diabetes is an ethical issue since it follows the ethical requirements of community health nurses of protecting communities from health problems that can lead to death (Colagiuri et al, 2002). Therefore, application of professionalism by the community health officers is a vital aspect that they should apply.

References

Fitzgerald, J. (2006). Lobbying in Australia: You can’t expect anything to change if you don’t speak up. Dural, N.S.W: Rosenberg.

Colagiuri, S., Diabetes Australia., Eli Lilly Australia., Australian Centre for Diabetes Strategies., & M-TAG (Medical Technology Assessment Group). (2002). DiabCo$t Australia: Assessing the burden of type 2 diabetes in Australia. Australia: Australian Centre for Diabetes Strategies.

Porche, D. J. (2004). Public & community health nursing practice: A population-based approach. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.