5 Steps To Achieve Community Health And Wellness

“Health is Wealth,” as cliche as it may sound, is still practical, whether on an individual or community level. A community is composed of individuals, and a healthy community can positively contribute to building a better place to live. The primary aim of any public health program is to improve the quality of life in communities. It can be done by following a set of standard operating procedures laid down by experts. When it comes to “community health and wellness,” you should know more about it.

Before divulging into the process of keeping your community healthy, let’s see what is “community health?” By definition, community health is a field of study that focuses on people’s physical and mental health in a specific demographic area. Apart from keeping a tab on the well-being of people, it also includes awareness drives for maintaining and improving health. Factors like nutrition, income level, transportation resources, and crime level impact a community. For example, due to low income in certain localities, people couldn’t afford nutritious food and suffered from deficiency diseases. This can be addressed by public health professionals involved in community health by educating about healthy alternative sources. In lower socioeconomic zones, community health centers act as the primary care provider. So, if you want to achieve community health in your area, here are the five steps for it. 

• Start with yourself: 

“Charity begins at home,” and if you want to see your locality fit and well, start from yourself. Introduce healthy food habits and living standards in you and your family. For example, you can include more fruits and veggies in your meals and drink plenty of water. Similarly, encourage your kids to be physically more active and spend time outdoors playing sports. Sports are the best way to connect with and will also keep your kids fit. If you are donating food, make sure to donate low-sodium canned food.

You can reach your HR at the workplace and inquire if they have any employee wellness programs. If there is, you can encourage your colleagues to take part in it. In case if there aren’t any, then you can persuade them to have one. You can also pitch some sustainable ideas like switching to healthy cookies or low sodium products in the office canteen. 

• Start volunteering at local social service centers: 

You can start by reaching out to any non profit organization working in your neighborhood. Try to find out what they do and how they operate. Most of these organizations run solely on skilled volunteers. If you could spare some time from your daily or weekly routine, they will be more than happy to have you. With more volunteers, these organizations can reach more people and make them health conscious. You can encourage kids and adults alike to spend more time outside than on their phone screens. No organization can know any locality better than the residents themselves. As a volunteer, you will be instrumental in pointing the key areas where help is needed most. 

• Encourage Public Transportation:

If your city has a well-established public transportation system, use it more often than personal vehicles. Apart from industries, vehicles on the road are the primary pollution sources. According to the data of the Environmental Protection Agency, people residing closer to the major roads are far more affected by health problems due to air pollution. You can do your bit to lower the air pollution by using measures like carpooling and public transport. Besides reducing pollution, Carpooling can also save you money and time. Generally, a carpool vehicle is treated as a high occupancy vehicle and uses the HOV lane. 

• Use technology to your advantage: 

You can use the technology to strengthen community health. With technology at your fingertips, you can easily research and get a rough idea about the community’s needs and how to cater to them. There are plenty of resources available in research journals, applications, educative articles on different websites. 

With the help of technology, you can quickly mobilize resources at the time of emergency. Technology can also increase the reach as you can give lessons to everyone at once irrespective of location. 

• Pursue a career in Public Health: 

If you want to do more for your community, you can be a full-time public health official. Recently, many cities have shifted their attention to public health and looking for collaboration. You can collaborate with the city officials in designing and creating safe road walks, special lanes for cyclists. This collaboration may serve as a great career opportunity.

All you need is a degree in the related field and some prior experience with any organization in this field. Many educational institutions have started the classroom and degree program in community health. You will learn and gain industry-oriented insights in these courses. 

Once you are in the field, identify and engage local partners. Any initiative needs a famous face, thinking outside the box, and having celebrities involved in your drive can help your cause. Spearhead your campaign around them to get a better reach and turnout. 

Conclusion: 

Keeping your community healthier is not an easy task but no less than a feat if you succeed in it. Although the government has started many programs in collaboration with several partners, most failed to provide results. It’s because the success of any such program needs community engagement. 

Community health and wellness management is a continuous process, and you can’t expect it to give results and accurate data if not done correctly. So, if you want to see the results, you will need to keep it fresh by adding new programs and participants.