Posted: January 28th, 2023

Risk Assessment Nursing Essay

Risk assessment

Strengths and weakness of the aggregate

The aggregate has been identified as RISE program participants from Albany in Georgia. The program is offered at the Aspire Behavioral Health Facility in Albany, Georgia. A review of the aggregate and the community in which it resides reveals some strengths and weakness. Three strengths were identified. The first strength is an awareness of the detriments of opiate addiction and the need to seek treatment. RISE program attends to volunteer patients who recognize that they are addicted to opiates and need treatment to address the addiction. The personal recognition makes the aggregate more receptive to treatment. The second strength is the presence of a treatment program (RISE program) that offers the aggregate both technical and professional assistance to manage the addiction. The program makes use of professional knowledge to leverage technical tools (medication and equipment) that help in managing opiate addiction within a safe and controlled environment. The third strength is that the treatment and counseling services offered as part of the program are freely available to the aggregate (Milstead & Short, 2019).

In addition to the three strengths, four weaknesses were identified. The first weakness is the continued availability of opiates; especially their availability through drug peddlers who consider opiates a profitable business opportunity. The second weakness is discrimination that identifies the aggregate as ‘miscreants’ who are out to cause trouble. This is a widely held notion whereby the aggregate is considered criminal in nature since they are influenced by the addiction to engage in criminal activity. The third weakness is familiar venues of opiates use. The aggregate have an intimate knowledge of their environment and know where they can get opiates so that they can easily access them even as they seek treatment. The final weakness is peer influence whereby the aggregate has created a small community of fellow opiate users so that they are easily influenced to use the opiates as they remain within the same community (Milstead & Short, 2019). As a result, the aggregate and community has three strengths and four weaknesses.

Risk assessment

The community was assessed as a client since the issue of interest is opiate addiction management and treatment, which is of interest to the whole community. The risk assessment was applied in a step-wise process. The first step entailed organizing and planning to engage in community health intervention. This step identified the available strengths and capabilities, such as feasible scope and accessible resources. For instance, the current program acknowledges that there are limited resources thereby restricting the scope of the intervention. The second step entailed engaging the community whereby the community of interest was identified in terms of geographical area and demographics. The present program identified the community as Albany, Georgia. The third step entailed developing a goal/vision for the identified community and aggregate. In the present case, opiates addiction has been identified as a concern in the community thus resulting in the need to identify this concern. As a result, the aggregate restricted to participants in the RISE program offered at the Aspire Behavioral Health Facility since they are opiate addicts seeking treatment for the addiction (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016).

The fourth step involved conducting a community health assessment to determine the specific needs of the population. At this step, the key persons who can identify the principal data themes that represent the popular community opinions were engaged and their opinions collected. In addition, community health statistics was evaluated. The fifth step involved prioritizing the health issues with a focus on organizing the themes in terms of need for attention and impact. This step determined that although RISE program is a tool for addressing opiate addiction in the community, its effectiveness can be improved for better results. The sixth step entailed developing a community health improvement plan that would target the identified aggregate for improved public health. This step suggested the specific strategies for improving the RISE program. The seventh step entailed implementing and monitoring the plan with a focus on applying and collecting data on the performance of the improvement strategies. The final step involved evaluating the plan for process and outcomes with a focus on how well the strategies performed and whether there was a need for changes (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016).

References

Milstead, J. & Short, N. (2019). Health policy and politics: a nurse’s guide (6^th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Stanhope, M. & Lancaster, J. (2016). Public health nursing: population-centered health care in the community (9^th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.