Promoting Health and Care Needs for Sickle Cell Anaemia

Introduction

Sickle cell anaemia is referred to as the disorder in which the body lacks the proper amount of healthy red blood cells. In this essay, the health issue that is sickle cell anaemia is to be discussed and assessment of the care needs for the issue is to be explained. The key focus is to develop an effective health promotion for resolving the health and thus the health promotion approach to be used is to be discussed in relation to sickle cell anaemia. Further, the evaluation of the health promotion for sickle cell anaemia is to be provided to understand the effective and improvements required regarding the presented health promotion.

Health Issue

Sickle cell anaemia is referred to the group of blood disorder which mainly happens due to the inheritance of defective genes of oxygen-carrying protein from the parents (Li et al. 2016). In this health disorder, the molecule present in the red blood cells known as haemoglobin which is responsible for transporting oxygen in the blood develops an atypical shape leading it to be known as haemoglobin S and as a result, the red blood cells become distorted or crescent in shape. This makes red blood cells become incapable to carry oxygen to the body. The symptoms of sickle cell anaemia initiates from early childhood and as a characteristics feature of the health disorder people are seen to being affected by infection in repetitive manner, develop episodes of pain and experience low red blood cell counts (Renoux et al. 2016; DeBaun and Strunk, 2016; Hebbel and Key, 2016).

Assessment of Health Needs

The assessment of health needs for sickle cell anaemia is important to avoid unnecessary health crisis, relive patients from symptoms of the disease and avoid health complication created through the disease (Hannemann et al. 2018). This is because patients with sickle cell anaemia when remains untreated develop lack of oxygen as well as low number of red blood cells which eventually leads them to develop episodes of acute pain along with various natures of infections and chest syndrome. It leads the person gets affected by different complex diseases and experience stroke resulting them to die at the end (DeBaun and Kirkham, 2016).

The estimated figures mentioned by the NICE informs that nearly 12,500 to 15,000 people are present in the UK who are suffering from sickle cell anaemia (NICE, 2014). It is informed that 31 of the 76 babies who are born in the UK those carry the sickle cell traits (sicklecellsociety, 2019). This means that the babies mainly contain single copies of mutated haemoglobin beta gene and do not show the symptoms of sickle cell disease (sicklecellsociety, 2019). However, it raises the concern of increasing the prevalence of sickle cell anaemia disease among the population ass when the babies grow and develop they may give rise to sickle cell individuals. It has also been informed that on approx 350 babies are born with sickle cell anaemia disease in the UK each year (sicklecellsociety, 2019). Thus, it indicates that the disease is quite prevalent in the UK and requires effective treatment and health promotion regarding the disease to ensure it to be eradicated.

The target group for the health promotion would be the parents and adults living in the UK as the statistics and previous information regarding the disease mentions that the illness is affected through inheritance and mainly affects children from birth (NICE, 2014; sicklecellsociety, 2019). Thus, proper health promotion is required for the adults and parents to make them take effective precautions and avail treatment to avoid the complications raised due to the disease among their offspring. Moreover, the health promotion is targeted for parents to inform about the treatment available for the children and babies with sickle cell anaemia to allow the parents take proper care for themselves so that their offspring from birth to ensure them healthy lives.

The sickle cell anaemia is to be considered as a public health concern in the UK as it is reported that treatment for the diseased leads the NHS to spend nearly £13 million per year (NICE, 2016). Thus, the figure indicates that quite a lot of money is being spent by the NHS to offer treatment regarding the disease and therefore effective health promotion regarding the illness is required so that finances of the NHS can be saved to be used for offering better healthcare to patients with the more complicated disorder. The children affected by sickle cell anaemia in the UK are found to be at increased risk of experiencing stroke within the age of 2-16 years. It is also reported that nearly 24,000 people in the UK are living with sickle cell anaemia trait (NICE, 2016). Thus, the figures indicate sickle cell anaemia to be a public health issue as many people in the UK are seen to be present who may lead to increase the prevalence of the disease, as well as early health complication, may be experienced by children which may deteriorate their health.

The mutation in the HBB gene mainly leads to the development of sickle cell anaemia among individuals. The haemoglobin is made up of four subunits which are two alpha subunits and two beta subunits. The HBB gene offers instruction for the formation of beta-globin and the mutation of the gene leads to the formation of the abnormal version of haemoglobin (HbS). In people with sickle cell anaemia disease, it is seen that both the beta-subunits in the haemoglobin is damaged (Cai et al. 2018). Thus, it indicates that genetic factor many affects the development of the disease. The health promotion activity is referred to the actions taken for allowing people to have increased control over their health so that they can lead an improved life.

The screening and care policy regarding sickle cell anaemia informed by the NHS, UK are required to be used in developing the health promotion activity for the disease (NHS, 2017). This is because it would lead the target group understood whom to approach and where as well as which way to access screening and treatment for sickle cell anaemia on getting affected by the disease. The Bradshaw mentioned that there are four types of social needs which are normative, felt, expressed and comparative (AlDossary et al. 2017). The health promotion for sickle cell anaemia according to Bradshaw’s theory is a felt need for the society as awareness regarding the ways to treat and manage sickle cell anaemia is wanted by the people in the society so that they can be able to live a better and healthy life (AlDossary et al. 2017)

Health Promotion Approach

The health promotion approaches are mainly of five types which are medical, client-centred, behavioural change, societal change and education (Eldredge et al. 2016). The educational approach of health promotion is to be used for promoting awareness regarding sickle cell anaemia. The educational approach of health promotion is chosen as it offers individuals with information as well as ensures effective understanding and knowledge regarding health issues among them. This leads to achieve the intention of making the target group in health promotion develop well-informed decisions regarding the way to cope with illness (Minkovitz et al. 2016). The aim of the health promotion for sickle cell anaemia is to provide information regarding the sign and symptoms of the disease, treatment available and the steps to be taken by individual to prevent its occurrence. The objectives of the health promotion for sickle cell anaemia are:

To inform about the concept of sickle cell anaemia disease and trait

To educate people regarding the screening and treatment available for sickle cell anaemia

To provide knowledge to the people regarding the way to prevent the occurrence of sickle cell anaemia

The Dewey’s Education theory informs that successful education can be achieved if the information delivered is provided through effective interaction as well as in continuous manner (Armour et al. 2017). Thus, according to Dewey’s theoretical perspective, the success of educational approach of health promotion taken for sickle cell anaemia can be possible if the health promoter creating awareness provide the information to the target group in continuous manner and through effective interaction using various modes of communication. Dewey's theory also informs that education is to be provided by considering the past, present and future experiences of the individuals (Brinkmann, 2017). This indicates that for successful educational approach to promote sickle cell anaemia information, the health promoter involved in the process is to understand and analyse the experiences of the target group and then develop the education as well as consider the way of delivering information regarding the disease to raise awareness.

The benefit of educational approach of health promotion for sickle anaemia is that it would lead the target group to become self-sufficient in taking decision regarding their care related with the disease which may make the patient's voluntary choice different from the health promoter. Moreover, it would encourage them to learn to take an early intervention to cope with the illness as they are made aware through the promotion about the negative impact of delayed care for the disease (Diniz et al. 2019). The limitation of the educational approach of health promotion that is taken for sickle cell anaemia is that people may show restriction to change due to their strict cultural and social beliefs. The other limitation is that educational approach may not change the behaviour of all individuals in a particular direction as the way the education is interpreted by each individual is different (Cheucheu et al. 2018). This means that people to get protection from sickle cell anaemia through educational approach is going to take healthcare decision on the basis of their preference rather on taking unformed decision that is same with others.

Evaluation

The resources used during the health promotion regarding sickle cell anaemia for the adults in the UK are feedback forms, questionnaires, information leaflets, poster and powerpoint presentation (PPT). The power presentation is beneficial in health promotion as it allows to use images, audios and videos which creates increased engagement of the target individuals ensuring successful education regarding the way to concept and way to cope with the illness (Lebensburger et al. 2015). Thus, the use of PPT has been effective in promotion for sickle cell anaemia as it helped to educate people regarding the illness through effective engagement. The questionnaires are effective to draw information regarding the current and past experiences about sickle cell anaemia among the target individuals, in turn, helping the health promoter understand the way they are to present the information about the illness so that effective awareness can be built among the target group. The feedback forms are used to develop information from the target group regarding the additional information to be mentioned in the next health promotion campaign regarding sickle cell anaemia so that better awareness among them regarding the illness can be created.

The health promotion activity is required to be organised in community settings where parents and adults who are going to be parents are present in increased number. The role of the health promoter would be to use information leaflets and PPT for informing about the screening, treatment and coping strategies to be used by target group to prevent and lower sickle cell anaemia prevalence. They also have the role to provide the information by analysing the experiences regarding the disease among the target audience and need to offer the information in continuous manner through effective interaction with the help of email, facebook and other media. This is because continuous information delivery and interact along with assessing the experiences of target group for teaching is mentioned to be followed by Dewey’s theory (Brinkmann, 2017). The results from the feedback forms inform that most of the individual of the target group provided positive feedback in the sense that they understand what steps are to be taken to prevent the illness. Moreover, they know where to go for screening and which individuals are to be approached in case sickle cell trait or sickle cell anaemia is identified among them or their children. However, few informed that they could not keep flow with the way the health promoter informed the data and few informed they could not understand the language in which the promotion was done. Thus, it indicates that next time during health promotion the information are to be made available to be presented in the different language according to the preference of the target group and the flow of information are to be presented in more systematic way so that all the individuals are able to understand and keep track.

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that sickle cell anaemia is a public health concern as it has resulted many children to face increased health complication and raised the cost of its management for NHS. The health promotion for sickle cell anaemia is done with an educational approach to make individuals aware of the disease and way to manage and prevent it. The target group for the promotion is the adults and parents of children with or without sickle cell anaemia. The resources used are feedback forms, questionnaires, information leaflets, poster and PowerPoint presentation (PPT).

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