Vulnerable Population Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Vulnerable Population - Essay Example Shi and Stevens (2005) offer five reasons to focus national attention on vulnerable populations: these groups have greater health care needs; their prevalence continues to escalate; vulnerability is a societal issue; vulnerability and the nation’s health and resources are interrelated; and there is a growing emphasis on equality with respect to health. This is reflected in the demographic characteristics of the gay men. Although based on opportunistic samples, gay men have higher suicidal ideations, suicide attempts, and completed suicides. Lifetime prevalence rates of 24% to 41% suicidal ideations have been reported. The lifetime prevalence rates of serious suicidal attempts range from 7% to 20% among adult gay men. It has recently been found that 19.3% of men having sex with men would attempt suicide. It has also been found that there are higher rates of reported suicidal thoughts and attempts among adolescents reporting same-sex romantic attractions and romantic relationshi ps. There are considerable social and cultural stressors in these people, which include stigmatization, victimization, and pervasive antigay hostility. The stresses related to antigay victimization may provoke emotional distress that can have both proximal and distal relationship to suicidality. These victimizations may be related to low self-esteem, substance abuse, and subsequent mood disorders that increase their lifetime vulnerability to suicide. Health care disparity is inversely proportional to health status.... Active partnerships between nurses and their intended intervention recipients can be used effectively to plan, implement, and evaluate research and intervention programs that truly address health care and education needs as perceived by the community. Such partnerships need to foster mutual commitment, trust, and respect. Equitable distributions of goal-setting and decision-making power evolve through shared responsibilities and mutual learning among partners. Nurses should move to the forefront in the important research needed to design and implement effective interventions with vulnerable populations capitalizing on their strengths to increase their resources, reduce their risks, and improve their health status with more equitable, quality health care. In this assignment, these issues from the context of gay people and their health care needs will be examined, where a conceptual framework will be utilized to examine the necessities and utilities of interventions designed to that en d. The basic problems with the gay people are lack of recognition or acceptance by healthcare providers, homophobic attitudes, and an absence of awareness regarding the healthcare needs of this vulnerable population. They themselves experience lack of self-esteem, school truancy and drop out, runaway behaviour, and subsequent homelessness. Compounded to this, there is an enhanced incidence of drug and alcohol, abuse, prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases, depression, and suicide. Advanced practice nurses have the opportunity to improve the health of the gay youths through recognition, education, outreach, and advocacy. Shi and Stevens (2005) offer five reasons to focus national attention on