Healthy People 2020

Healthy people 2020 is a statement of national health objectives designed to identify the most preventable diseases and to establish national goals to avert the diseases. It was developed to provide a ten year science based objective for improving national health for the Americans. This was released by the United States department of health and human services. It is used as a strategic management tool by the federal government, states, communities and private sector partners (Brown et al., 2014). The agenda contributes to family health in ways such as family planning, maternal health, infant and child mortality. This paper discuses what new areas in family health reflects about change in society, how social determinants relate to family and potential areas of needed research in LGBT.

Healthy people 2020’s new areas in family health reflect a number of changes in the society. To begin with, there has been a major focus on the maternal health where previously there were too many cases of maternal deaths. The focus on maternal health is directed at reducing these deaths to a fairly low level. Previously, there have been many risks and complications associated with pregnancies. These are fetal death, infant death and disabilities. The agenda addresses these by improving access to quality care provided before, during and after pregnancy. In the past there were a huge number of young adolescents engaging in sexual activities (Egan, Hutchison & Ferdinand, 2014). This lead to too many unintended pregnancies but this is likely to change with the introduction and availing of contraceptives. This will reduce unplanned pregnancies in teenage girls aged between fifteen and nineteen years.

The social determinants create a social and physical environment which promotes good health in the family. Social determinants are conditions in the environment which a person is born in, brought up, schools in and ages in. These are; education, good housing and job opportunities. Education of a child has a direct bearing on the family. The family should center the responsibility of taking children to school. This will ultimately influence how one lives in the society.  More importantly, it is the family’s responsibility to ensure a secure housing for their children. This affects the child’s esteem and that of others. Finding a good job depends on how the person is educated and the environment one grew up in.

There are several areas of potential  research neede in LGBT. The lesbians, gay, bisexual men and women and transgender persons are viewed as a separate population.  Unfortunately, most research has been focused on gay men and lesbians. It is imperative that research is extended to bisexual and transgender people. Many areas in the field of LGBT require more attention, but more significantly, the areas of needed research are; demographic research, social influence on the lives of LGBT people, inequalities in healthcare and transgender specific needs (Koh, Blakey & Roper, 2014). Under demographic research, the National Institute of Health should carry out research to find out what proportion of the Americans is the LGBT people. It should also find out the races involved to be able to address their challenges, for instance accessing medical services and the fear making public their identities. Concerning minority stress, NIH should consider all common stigma associated with LGBT, and find a way of addressing them.

In summary, the healthy people 2020 was developed to provide a ten year science based national objective for improving health for all Americans. Family planning, maternal, infant and child deaths are some of the agenda of the healthy people 2020. The new areas reflect a number of changes in the society, among them being an anticipated drop in maternal illness associated with pregnancy. Some of the social determinants of family health are safe housing, education and job opportunities. Lastly, the potential areas of needed research include demographic research and inequalities in health care.

Reference

Brown, M. L., Klabunde, C. N., Cronin, K. A., White, M. C., Richardson, L. C., & McNeel, T. S. (2014). Peer Reviewed: Challenges in Meeting Healthy People 2020 Objectives for Cancer-Related Preventive Services, National Health Interview Survey, 2008 and 2010. Preventing chronic disease, 11.

Egan, B. M., Li, J., Hutchison, F. N., & Ferdinand, K. C. (2014). Hypertension in the United States 1999-2012: progress toward Healthy People 2020 goals. Circulation, CIRCULATIONAHA-114.

Koh, H. K., Blakey, C. R., & Roper, A. Y. (2014). Healthy People 2020: a report card on the health of the nation. Jama, 311(24), 2475-2476.