Discussion 1: Evidence Base in Design

Discussion Board 1: Evidence Base in Design

The health policy that I chose for this week’s discussion is H.R. 586 Suicide Training and Awareness Nationally Delivered for Universal Prevention Act of 2021, also called the STANDUP Act of 2021. This bill would require state and local education entities that receive grant funding for mental health needs (such as funding through Project AWARE) to form and implement evidence-based suicide awareness and prevention training within their organizations (Peters, 2021). This bill is a largely Democrat-led initiative with bipartisan support. This bill hopes to increase training to assist in identifying students at risk for suicide. CDC data states that there were 5,954 deaths of individuals ages 15-24 years of age from 1999 to 2019 (CDC WONDER, 2020). The top three manners of suicide were firearm-related (total of 2,800 deaths), hanging (2,153 deaths), and poisoning (226 deaths) (CDC WONDER, 2020) Discussion 1: Evidence Base in Design.

Adolescent deaths via suicide have climbed from 10.1 deaths (per 100,000 population) in 1999 to 14.5 in 2018 and then down to 13.9 in 2019 (“QuickStats: Death rates* for motor-vehicle–traffic injuries, suicide, and homicide among adolescents and young adults aged 15–24 years — united states, 1999–2019,” 2021). Some factors that correlate with increased suicide risk in teens include failure in relationships/friendships, family involvement/disruption, mental illness, and poor coping skills (Hamed & Mohammad-Rafi, 2020). There is evidence to support a need for this legislation as there is the stigma surrounding mental health and suicide that often causes suffering individuals not to seek help Discussion 1: Evidence Base in Design.

This legislation would require schools to implement training for their faculty and students that would be evidence-based, culturally appropriate, and used to train students in grades six through twelve (Peters, 2021). Students and faculty would be trained to identify self-harm or suicidal ideation signs, resources for students who feel they need help, and yearly training for the students (Peters, 2021). This legislation would also require the agency to report the number of training, the number of students who attended the training, and the number of reports of students seeking help after sitting for these training (Peters, 2021). This is an excellent method for beginning to break through the stigma surrounding mental illness overall by educating our youth. Children and teens need to recognize signs that their friends or even they are at risk for suicide and know where they can turn for help Discussion 1: Evidence Base in Design.

References

CDC WONDER. (2020). Cdc.gov; CDC.gov. https://wonder.cdc.gov/

Hamed Delam, & Mohammad-Rafi Bazrafshan. (2020). Attempting suicide by adolescents: A qualitative study. Payesh, 19(2), 159–166.

Peters, S. H. (2021, February 2). H.R.586 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): STANDUP Act of 2021. Www.congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/586?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22health+policy%22%5D%7D&r=6&s=4

QuickStats: Death rates* for motor-vehicle–traffic injuries, suicide, and homicide among adolescents and young adults aged 15–24 years — united states, 1999–2019. (2021). MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 70(5), 184. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7005a6

response

Your discussion this week is interesting. School-aged children are developing coping skills that will serve as a foundation for their coping skills for the rest of their lives. Stigmas surrounding mental health can serve as barriers to seeking help for adolescents and can even worsen their mental health (Ferrie, Miller, & Hunter, 2020). It is estimated that one in five children have a mental health problem at any given point (Ferrie et al., 2020). Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents (Szlyk et al., 2020). It seems that this legislation would prove to be beneficial for both faculty and students. Adolescents need to recognize self-harming and suicidal ideation in themselves and their peers and know how to respond appropriately to these situations Discussion 1: Evidence Base in Design.

References

Ferrie, J., Miller, H., & Hunter, S. C. (2020). Psychosocial outcomes of mental illness stigma in children and adolescents: A mixed-methods systematic review. Children and Youth Services Review, 113. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104961

Szlyk, H. S., Berk, M., Peralta, A. O., & Miranda, R. (2020). COVID-19 takes adolescent suicide prevention to less charted territory. Journal of Adolescent Health, 67(2), 161–163. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.05.046

response 2

Hello xxx, your discussion post is educative. For example, I have to admit that I have learned a lot concerning health policies. I have reviewed the H.R. 586 Suicide Training and Awareness Nationally Delivered for Universal Prevention Act of 2021 proposed policy. In my opinion, the proposed health policy can be a game-changer if implemented. Suicide is increasingly becoming one of the common causes of death in the United States (Stone et al., 2018). Therefore, the intervention provided by the H.R. 586 is needed to prevent suicide cases that are becoming common in American households. Subsequently, I believe that the STANDUP Act of 2021 can help mitigate this problem because the Bill recommends state and federal training programs regarding factors that influenced suicide cases in different households (Congress.Gov, 2021). I agree with you that cases of suicide are soaring up among adolescents, and this proposed policy can provide recommendations regarding stopping this worrying trend if it is enacted.

References

Stone, D. M., Simon, T. R., Fowler, K. A., Kegler, S. R., Yuan, K., Holland, K. M., … & Crosby, A. E. (2018). Vital signs: trends in state suicide rates—United States, 1999–2016 and circumstances contributing to suicide—27 states, 2015. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(22), 617.

Congess.Gov,(2021,February02).H.R.586-117thCONGRESS(2021-2022):Standup act of 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2021, from https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/housebill/586?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22Suicide%2Band%2BThreat%2BAssessment%2BNationally%2BDedicated%2Bto%2BUniversal%2BPrevention%2BAct%22%5D%7D&r=3&s=3

When politics and medical science intersect, there can be much debate. Sometimes anecdotes or hearsay are misused as evidence to support a particular point. Despite these and other challenges, however, evidence-based approaches are increasingly used to inform health policy decision-making regarding causes of disease, intervention strategies, and issues impacting society. One example is the introduction of childhood vaccinations and the use of evidence-based arguments surrounding their safety.

In this Discussion, you will identify a recently proposed health policy and share your analysis of the evidence in support of this policy Discussion 1: Evidence Base in Design.

To Prepare:

Review the Congress website provided in the Resources and identify one recent (within the past 5 years) proposed health policy.
Review the health policy you identified and reflect on the background and development of this health policy.

By Day 3 of Week 7

Post a description of the health policy you selected and a brief background for the problem or issue being addressed. Explain whether you believe there is an evidence base to support the proposed policy and explain why. Be specific and provide examples.

By Day 6 of Week 7

Respond to at least two of your colleagues* on two different days by either supporting or respectfully challenging their explanation on whether there is an evidence base to support the proposed health policy they described.

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Initial Post: Evidence Base in Design

According to the CDC, health-related policies are formal or informal written statements that are designed to protect or promote employee health (n.d). The health policy I selected is a policy requiring healthy foods to be served at company meetings and events. ANA believes that advocacy is a pillar of nursing (n.d). This policy is one that is in place to try and advocate for healthier living, starting at the workplace. Decreasing the amount of obesity in communities starts with small adjustments as the policy listed above. The issue of obesity is very prominent in Americans and there have been many changes that have helped improve the percentage of Americans suffering from obesity. To reverse the obesity epidemic, community efforts should focus on supporting healthy eating and active living in a variety of settings such as in early childhood care, hospitals, schools, and food service venues (CDC, n.d). I do believe there is an evidence base design to support the policy. For example, eating and lifestyle habits can be learned behaviors. An interactive healthy lifestyle intervention focused on low‐SES families significantly improved parental knowledge of the pediatric healthy lifestyle. Changes in parental knowledge are a key preliminary step in behavior change to ultimately affect behavior. Informing and encouraging parents of toddlers to guide healthy lifestyle development early remains a promising point of intervention for prevention, rather than remediation, of childhood obesity (LoRE et al, 2019). With that being said, I believe obesity can be prevented in most American people if interventions and healthy lifestyle choices are started at a young age. To fight against obesity, it is important to have policies such as requiring healthy foods to be served at company meetings and events. Policies such as this one can be a start to decreasing the rate of obesity in Americans.

References

American Nurses Association. (n.d). Advocacy. Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/advocacy/

Centers of Disease Control (CDC). (n.d). Health-related policies. Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/model/implementation/policies.html

Centers of Disease Control (CDC). (n.d). Strategies to prevent and manage obesity. Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/strategies/index.html

LoRe, D., Leung, C. Y. Y., Brenner, L., & Suskind, D. L. (2019). Parent‐directed intervention in promoting knowledge of pediatric nutrition and healthy lifestyle among low‐SES families with toddlers: A randomized controlled trial. Child: Care, Health & Development, 45(4), 518–522. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1111/cch.1268 Discussion 1: Evidence Base in Design

response

Great post! It is definitely paramount to safeguard the health of employees or Americans in general. Advocating for improvements in population health is a role that nurses should take up more often. Furthermore, if nurses and other healthcare workers are not healthy, then the whole healthcare system is bound to crumble and fail. Obesity is becoming an epidemic, particularly among people of color. I think that you have done well addressing it because there is a need to develop more interventions to reverse the disorder. I also believe there is a need for social media campaigns to educate Americans on the importance of healthy lifestyles (Kite, 2018). I believe in social media’s power to bring social change, mainly because it is the “viral” era. Nurses and members of the medical community need to be each other’s keepers to practice what they preach. Policies that encourage healthy eating at the workplace are definitely an excellent spectrum to start as far as the fight for obesity is concerned.

Reference

Kite, J. D. (2018). Using mass media and social media for the prevention of non-communicable diseases Discussion 1: Evidence Base in Design.