Health Promotion Plan

Health promotion empowers the community to internalize behaviors that promote their health. According to the World Health Organization (2022), a health promotion plan is a wide range of social and environmental interventions that aim to protect public health and quality of life by addressing the root causes of ill health rather than focusing only on treatment and cure. Bullying is an important healthcare concern among communities. It causes psychosocial, physical, and educational distress to the targeted population. This assessment will analyze bullying as a healthcare concern, discuss related uncertainties and behaviors, discuss the need for a healthcare promotion plan to address this issue and establish SMART goals to promote community health.

Scenario

Jake is a 12-year-old black boy who used to live in California with his parents. Last year, his parents got divorced, and his mother was granted full custody of Jake in the settlement. Jake moved to New York with his mother and started school there. He often complained to his mother that he was having trouble making friends and adjusting and that some kids at school were bothering him. One day, when Jake did not return home after school for several hours, his worried mother called the authorities.

Jake was found physically assaulted and unconscious in an alley on his way home from school. He was rushed to the Emergency Room and underwent intensive treatment for his injuries for a week. The authorities later revealed that a group of children beat him up in his school. He ended up having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the incident and had to skip the school year to receive therapy and physical rehabilitation.

In-depth Analysis of the Healthcare Concern

Bullying is a common problem worldwide. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines bullying as a form of targeted violence or aggressive behavior towards youth by another group of youth who are not siblings or partners that involves a perceived power imbalance and is likely to be repeated multiple times. Bullying is considered an adverse childhood experience (CDC, 2022). Bullying can take several forms. It can be physical (including hitting, kicking, shoving, beating up, or stealing from the victim), such as what happened to Jake, or verbal bullying (such as teasing, insulting, slurs, threats, name-calling, and slurs).

It may be in-person or online(cyber-bullying). Bullying can target the victim’s physical attributes, religion, culture, disability, or a combination of these factors. Sexual harassment is also considered a form of bullying (PREVnet, 2023). Unfortunately, bullying is prevalent. According to Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center (2023), In the United States, one in every five high school students reported being bullied in school, and one in every six students was bullied online. A slightly higher portion of females (24%) reported getting bullied than their male peers (17%). 49.8% of tweens (9-12 years old) reported being bullied at school, and 14.5% said they experienced bullying online.

NURS FPX 4060 Assessment 1 Health Promotion Plan

Bullying has several acute and long-term effects on both the perpetrator and the victim. It can cause anxiety or depression, psychosomatic issues, sleep problems, poor academic performance, and socialization issues for the victim. In the long term, it can give rise to problems such as stress-induced sickness, mental health problems such as depression with suicidal thoughts, difficulty forging relationships, PTSD (like with Jake), eating disorders, and panic attacks. For the bully, this behavior leads to poor academic performance, a high risk of substance abuse and participation in illegal activities, unemployment, and an increased risk of spousal or child abuse in the future (Advanced Psychiatry Associates, 2021). Thus, bullying should be viewed as an important healthcare concern that endangers the well-being of young people and should be dealt with through evidence-based strategies.

Underlying Assumptions and Uncertainties

This analysis incorporates assumptions regarding the perceived causes of bullying and the effects of specific interventions to address the issue.  Central to the beliefs about bullying is that it comes from complex relationship dynamics. Bullying is still believed to be associated with stereotypical gender norms. It is also considered that cyberbullying is easy for bullies because they are anonymous and are not held accountable for the effect of their behavior on victims. However, traditional bullying takes a more significant toll on the victims but can influence the bullies to reform by seeing the impact of their behavior firsthand (Mishna et al., 2021).

This analysis, however, takes into context the two patterns of bullying behavior as socially marginal, abused, or troubled bullies vs sociopathic or narcissistic bullies (Faris & Felmlee, 2019). Increased visibility, supervision, environmental safety, and socioemotional competencies are believed to impact bullying reduction positively (Francis et al., 2022). These facts drive the role of better research and effective interventions to reduce bullying and create a safe environment in which all youth can thrive.

Importance of Health Promotion

Bullying exerts psychological and physical stress on the victims in both the short and long term. Bullying in adolescents is associated with a significantly increased rate of mental health problems. Mental health problems are 4 times more likely to affect boys and 2.4 times more likely for girls who were bullied as compared to their nonbullied peers (Kallmen & Halgren, 2021). According to Warner (2021), in this digital age, cyberbullying incidence has significantly increased (70%), which harms the well-being of adolescents and tweens. It negatively affects their mental health and may develop into Acute Stress Disorder or PTSD and, in the long term, may lead to poor psychosocial functioning and substance abuse.

According to Galan et al. (2023), factors such as age, sex, ethnicity, sexual activity, sexual abuse, family, socioeconomic events, stress, and school performance were linked with bullying. Bullying can happen to anyone; however, ethnic or religious minority groups and refugees are most likely to be harassed (Sapouna et al., 2022). Black students make up 37% of all K-12 students being bullied in the United States, which is significantly more than their white peers (Yang & McKnight, 2023). According to Kaminski (2020), about 23% of bullying allegations involve being harassed due to race. Youth belonging to minor ethnic, social, or religious classes are also more likely to be academically affected in case of a bullying incident, as in the case of Jake. A healthcare promotion plan to address this worrying situation is thus necessary so that interventions to reduce bullying can be tailored to the specific needs of the most vulnerable populations.

Factors Contributing to Health Disparities

Many factors contribute to the increased victimization of ethnic minorities in bullying incidents. Bias-based victimization is one of these factors that cause increased bullying due to societal stigma (Xu et al., 2019). Many victims of bullying in these social groups also refrain from seeking help because of their self-perceived difference from their peers, due to the fear of not being believed or fear of making it worse, not knowing how to report the incident, or failure to recognize bullying at all (Gordon, 2021). These factors highlight the importance of a universally available all-inclusive plan to reduce bullying and ensure the health and safety of the youth.

SMART Goals

Regarding bullying prevention, evidence-based practices will make SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound) goals for effective outcomes. I will create a support group that will function as a safe space for victims, improve awareness about diversity and inclusion, create bully awareness campaigns, and harbor anti-bullying ambassadors. This will help create a safe and inclusive school environment, prevent bullying, and mitigate harm from potential incidents.

NURS FPX 4060 Assessment 1 Health Promotion Plan

Specific: An initiative to recruit and train people to be anti-bullying supervisors that will patrol the places where kids are more likely to be bullied. Flyers, posts, and literature will be published and distributed as part of bullying awareness and diversity inclusion campaigns. Bullying incidents will be reported, and victims will be provided with support and counseling (Gordon & Blackburn, 2020)

Measurable: The number of people recruited and trained will be calculated. Engagement with awareness campaigns will be measured. A system for incident reports in person or online will measure cases of bullying (Kaufman et al., 2020)

Achievable: These goals will be easily achievable because they only require volunteers for educational campaigns and supervision and will use online data-sharing for awareness and incident reports (Holt, 2024)

Relevant: These goals will be implemented as part of a safe school environment initiative and encourage parents, children, and teachers to participate to reduce bullying and improve the safety of all youth (Celdran et al., 2023)

Time-bound: The initiative will be monitored for efficacy at the end of the school year by a 30% decrease in bullying incident reports (Gaffney et al., 2019)

Conclusion

Bullying is an important healthcare concern worldwide that impacts the health and well-being of young people. It can happen to anyone but is more prevalent in ethnic and religious minorities, females, and people with disabilities. It is linked with an increased incidence of cause anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, psychosocial issues, substance abuse, and PTSD in victims. An integrated and inclusive plan to prevent bullying and mitigate its adverse effects is now necessary more than ever.

References

Celdrán, M. del C., Leal, C., Suárez, M., Molina, A., & Jiménez, I. (2023). Nursing interventions against bullying: A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(4).

Faris, W., & Felmlee, D. (2019). Bullying | social behavior. In Encyclopædia Britannica.

Francis, J., Trapp, G., Pearce, N., Burns, S., & Cross, D. (2022). School built environments and bullying behavior: A conceptual model based on qualitative interviews. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(23),

Gaffney, H., Farrington, D. P., & Ttofi, M. M. (2019). examining the effectiveness of school-bullying intervention programs globally: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Bullying Prevention, 1(1), 14–31.

Galán, C., Gómez, S., Contreras, N., Adsuar, J. C., Olivares, P. R., & Rojo, J. (2023). bullying and self-concept, factors affecting the mental health of school adolescents. Healthcare, 11(15).

Gordon, S. (2021). Why Victims of Bullying Often Suffer in Silence. Verywellfamily.com.

Gordon, S., & Blackburn, B. (2020). 10 Ideas for Educators on Bullying Prevention. Verywellfamily.com.

Holt, K. (2024). 10 Ways to Stop & Prevent Bullying at School. Momlovesbest.com

Källmén, H., & Hallgren, M. (2021). Bullying at school and mental health problems among adolescents: A repeated cross-sectional study. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 15(1).

Kaufman, L., Huitsing, G., Bloemberg, R., & Veenstra, R. (2020). The systematic application of network diagnostics to monitor and tackle bullying and victimization in schools. International Journal of Bullying Prevention, 3(p75-87).

Mishna, F., Birze, A., Greenblatt, A., & Pepler, D. (2021). Looking beyond assumptions to understand relationship dynamics in bullying. Frontiers in Psychology, 12.

Gökbayrak, N., & Vogel, K. (2022, March 18). Bullying: Definition, Mental Health Effects, and Prevention. Psychcentral.com

Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center. (2023). Bullying statistics. Pacer.org

PREVNet. (2023). Types of Bullying | PREVNet – Canada’s authority on bullying. Prevnet.ca.

Sapouna, M., de Amicis, L., & Vezzali, L. (2022). Bullying victimization due to racial, ethnic, citizenship and/or religious status: A systematic review. Adolescent Research Review, 8.

Kaminski, S. (2020). Bullying of minority students: Getting the facts | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences. Cehhs.fsu.edu.

Warner, M., Faillace, L. (2021). The impact of bullying on mental health. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; McGovern Medical School. Med.uth.edu

World Health Organization. (2022). Health promotion. World Health Organization. Who.int

Xu, M., Macrynikola, N., Waseem, M., & Miranda, R. (2019). Racial and ethnic differences in bullying: Review and implications for intervention. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 50.

Yang, Y., & McKnight, J. (2023, April 28). Students of Color are Disproportionately Bullied and Harassed at School – Public Health Post. Publichealthpost.org.