Healthy People 2020 Case Study

Healthy people 2020 is a guide to promote preventative care. In this plan there are three levels of prevention. Primary prevention is the first level. This level is the most desirable; it promotes activities and health promotion that prevent the disease from occurring in the first place (Ward & Hisley, 2016). Primary prevention can be many things such as physical activity and immunizations. This level is something that parents can provide for their child from beginning at birth by following an immunization schedule that is standard by the CDC, that is provided at their family doctor. According to Healthy People 2020 (n.d.), “Vaccines are among the most cost-effective clinical preventive services and are a core component of any preventive services package” (p.1). This prevention is something I have dealt with a lot when working in a family practice clinic; some parents are for vaccinations and some not so much. It takes education and proper resources to help a family decide on the vaccinations.

People can even get immunizations for free from insurance or the state. It’s just having the resources to find out this information.

The second level is secondary prevention and this is early identification and immediate treatment of an acquired disease to help prevent it from spreading or becoming life threatening. For example a parent noticing that there child is showing flu-like symptoms and keeping him/her home from school that day is an example of secondary prevention (Ward & Hisley, 2009). By keeping the child home meaning the parent can take the child to the doctor to get tested and start treatment immediately before the child will pass it on to friends/family, and possibly cause hospitalization or death. By identifying the sickness can help prevent any further complications.

Last but not least, the tertiary prevention level and it is related to restoring a person’s health to the highest possible state. This ties in with the example provided regarding the sick child and not letting them attend school. The tertiary prevention plan for this child would include keeping the child hydrated by administering fluids, encouraging the child to rest, and giving medications as prescribed by the doctor or as needed. These remedies would continue on until the child’s health was restored (Ward and Hisley, 2016).

Healthy People 2020’s has a significant amount of information on prevention plans.

There were two that really stood out: preventing unintended pregnancy and family planning. Family planning provides many services including: breast and pelvic examination, cervical cancer screening, contraceptive and reproductive services, STI and HIV education, planning, prevention, and pregnancy counseling. In my community, living in a small town, there is not much to do here. Therefore, adults and teenagers will get bored and turn to other activities such as sex for entertainment, which leads a lot ot unintended pregnancies. However, being in this small town we offer a free clinic for people. They could go there or see their regular primary care provider and be educated on the ways to make sure they are having safe, protected sex. These people will not stop having sex, but knowing how to protect themselves and other from infection or pregnancy is a good education

technique.

While doing research according to Healthy People 2020 (n.d.), “unintended pregnancies are associated with negative health and economic consequences” (p.1). For women who have an unintended pregnancy they can experience some negative outcomes. These can hurt the mother and the child, some of these are: delays in prenatal care, reduced likelihood of breastfeeding (which would lead to the child being unhealthy), maternal depression, and an increased risk of physical violence over the course of their pregnancy (“Healthy People 2020,” 2016). In regards to the infant they could have a low birth weight or certain birth defects. The goal of Healthy People 2020 is to have preconception care as part of the routine care for women who are of reproductive age (Healthy People 2020, n.d.). Preconception care and counseling would fall under the category of primary prevention, because these are things that if people are educated about the information at first hand, it can prevent the issue from occurring in the first place.