Modern healthcare, being generally divided into the community and environmental health, has now become one of the major research fields due to its relevance in the global context. In order to examine the scope of the various issues, state leaders across the globe reached a consensus in need to create healthcare initiatives. Hence, in the US, Healthy People Initiative was introduced back in 1979, aiming at securing health equity across the state in terms of quality and access (“Healthy People 2030 framework,” n.d.). The initiative encompasses a plan on how to improve the overall tendency concerning a variety of community and environmental health issues.
The major aim of the following paper is to examine community-based issues triggering society today in Miami-Dade County (33010) by addressing the scope of the problem and ways to resolve it on a state level. Among the relevant for the area issues, the aspects of HIV/AIDS epidemics, substance use, and obesity will be closely examined in terms of the essay, as they are some of the most rapid-growing today. Furthermore, local initiatives for the solution of the issues will be discussed, referring to the nationwide framework.
Miami-Dade County and Healthcare
Over the past decades, healthcare authorities in Miami-Dade County have become extremely preoccupied with the overall health conditions of their residents. As a result, the Consortium for a Healthier Miami-Dade Initiative was launched on the basis of the Healthy People blueprint (“About us,” n.d.). While being equally preoccupied with all the health issues, the initiative’s major mission is to establish a system of accessible and sustainable healthcare for all the county residents. However, the most resonant issues nowadays are the problem of HIV/AIDS prevention, obesity, and substance abuse in the area.
HIV/AIDS
Despite the fact that the notion of HIV/AIDS has become less discussed due to it being prevailed by more significant modern issues, the problem is still explicitly vivid in some areas. Although the rate of newly diagnosed HIV infections in developed countries is much lower than in developing ones, the risk of being diagnosed with the virus is still quite high. Hence, according to 2017 data, Miami-Dade County became the leader in terms of the number of newly registered instances in the US (Escudero et al., 2019). Furthermore, over the last thirteen years of report conduction, eleven surveillance results claimed the County’s leadership. While the precedents to HIV/AIDS infection were steadily decreasing in the state, the overall progress was not enough to combat the issue.
According to Escudero et al. (2019), these precedents mostly include injection drug use and unsafe sexual intercourse. The very HIV epidemic pattern in the area is complicated due to geographic, ethnic, racial, and gender diversity. Bearing in mind how beneficial such an environment can be for HIV/AIDS transmission, one should note that the authorities are to constantly address the issue with both socially and federally supported initiatives. However, many residents still struggle with a lack of proper education on the matter. To make a radical change in the tendency, Miami-Dade County created a Task Force, which defined three major goals to achieve by the end of 2020 (Escudero et al., 2019):
- Make at least 90% of HIV positive county residents aware of their status;
- Make the overall number of new instances decrease by 25%;
- Secure therapy for 90% of the residents living with HIV/AIDS.
Meanwhile, the Healthy People 2020 Initiative, when speaking of the aforementioned issue, defined the following goals:
- Reduce the number of new HIV/AIDS cases by at least 10, 000;
- Increase the frequency of HIV testing nationwide;
- Secure frequent HIV testing for the risk groups such as men who have sex with men or injection drug users (“HIV,” n.d.).
Hence, the overall ambition to reduce the number of HIV/AIDS instances can be followed in local and state initiatives. The issue, however, lies in the fact that the latter blueprint is focused on the averagely calculated data, whereas Miami-based authorities should have been more specific in terms of the current epidemics development.
Substance Abuse
The excessive intake of illegal substances, i.e., drugs and alcohol, has been a severe issue for American society since the 1970s, which claimed the genesis of mass culture. However, with the rapid decrease in the amount of illicit drug intake, the average data still remains quite concerning in terms of community health, especially when it comes to youth. Hence, according to the 2015 surveillance data, more than 60% of Miami-Dade high school students claimed lifetime use of alcohol, and 33% of the respondents claimed to use marijuana on a regular basis (NDEWS, 2017). Although such overwhelming statistics urged the community to launch a series of hotlines and preventative programs, there is no evidence of local initiatives that could actually reduce the intake rate.
Healthy People 2020, on the contrary, created explicit objectives on how to reduce the average illicit substances intake among high school and college students to such an extent that less than 20% of the individuals were potentially engaged in binge drinking. Moreover, in the context of the opioid epidemics taking place in the US today, it is crucial to develop a series of educational and preventative programs on drug abuse. Hence, it may be concluded that Miami-Dade County has not paid enough attention to a rapidly developing community health hazard.
Obesity
Another major issue tackling Miami-Dade County residents today is the increasing obesity rate among both children and adults. However, while adults are mostly able to cope with the issue on their own when they secure access to healthy nutrition patterns and physical activity centers, children cannot take responsibility for themselves. For this reason, the County’s authorities launched a series of preventive programs that encompassed training childcare staff members on proper nutrition and physical exercise promotion among children (CDC, 2013). Moreover, the menus of the vast majority and childcare centers were revised according to the nutrition standards.
The nationwide initiatives are as well concerned with the growing tendency of overweight children and teenagers. For this reason, Healthy People 2020, while addressing the issue, divided the objectives on the reduction of overweight children according to various age categories to secure better results. Hence, it may be concluded that Miami-Dade County has been quite preoccupied with the problem even before the nationwide initiative, thus, creating a satisfying outcome.
Conclusion
Today’s US society is replete with potential threats for both community and environmental health. For this purpose, a nationwide initiative, Healthy People 2020 was created, addressing the most significant issues. When speaking of Miami-Dade County in this context, the most crucial problems to deal with included HIV/AIDS epidemics, overweight, and substance abuse. In the course of the discussion, it was estimated that while the county authorities launched some initiatives to cope with the issues, more effort should be put in order to define these attempts as successful.
References
About us. (n.d.). Web.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2013). Community profile: obesity prevention. Web.
Escudero, D. J., Bennett, B., Suarez, S., Darrow, W. W., Mayer, K. H., & Seage III, G. R. (2019). Progress and challenges in “getting to zero” new HIV infections in Miami, Florida. Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (JIAPAC), 18,
Healthy People 2030 framework. (n.d.). Web.
HIV. (n.d.). Web.
National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS). Southeastern Florida (Miami Area) Sentinel Community Site (SCS) drug use patterns and trends, 2017. Web.