Free The Interventions Essay Example

Interventions for Tackling Second Hand Smocking Among the Pregnant Teenagers in America

Interventions for Tackling Second Hand Smocking Among Pregnant Teenagers in America
Tobacco smocking is increasingly becoming a major concern in teenage health in America. Certainly, there is a need for the medical fraternity to rise up and tackle the problem. Substance abuse is significant among the adolescents of Native America, Hispanic, Whites, and the multiple race and ethnicity groups (Wu et al., 2011). The statistics concerning second hand smocking among the teenagers in America are quite alarming. The medical, social, economic, and behavioral effects of smocking are obvious. For instance, second hand smoking affects both the mother and her fetus negatively. As such, proper interventions must be set to help reduce the prevalence. The focus of this paper is to document a viable intervention model to address second hand smocking especially among the pregnant teenagers.

The interventions for this problem will fall into two main categories: the primary intervention and the secondary intervention processes. According to Neinstein, the primary interventions are tied either to the entire population or to the selected portions of the populations. The secondary interventions mainly involve the whole community in addressing the medical issue (Neinstein, 2008).

Behavioral interventions

Behavioral interventions can play a key role in reducing the second hand smocking among the pregnant teenagers. One of the crucial factors propelling the behavior as identified in the previous research is peer pressure. Therefore, the attempts towards enhancing behavioral change can help them make informed decisions on their habits (Dossey & Keegan, 2013).

Community approaches

Additionally, community approaches are a productive intervention measure. For instance, Secker et al. conducted various interventions aimed at reducing the prevalence of smoking among the women. Apparently, they used the community organization approaches to creating task forces and the coalitions. As a result, the coalitions were to develop and enforce the multi-component interventions in New Hampshire and Vermont. In the final analysis, the study found out that there were favorable changes in women smoking behavior after the intervention (Secker et al., 2000).

Motivational interviewing

Motivational interviewing is an emerging area in addressing teenage behavioral issues (Jensen et al, 2011). Precisely, it involves having one-to-one sessions with the teenagers. Particularly, these sessions aim to explore the issues contributing to the second-hand smoking among the pregnant teenagers. Indeed, they open up chances for them to receive guidance and psychological support. Ideally, there are various measures in this regard. For instance, it will involve open-ended questioning and reflections on the clients lives (Neinstein, 2008). Indeed, the behavioral counselling interventions have been used successfully to address alcohol misuse among the pregnant women and the adults (Benjamin, 2011).

Legal intervention

Legal intervention involves lobbying for government and state legislations against teenage smoking. Indeed, the legal interventions will seek to reduce teenagers the exposure to second-hand smoking (Callinan, 2010).

Summary of the intervention plan

Thus, the intervention plan will take a multi-faceted approach, which combines various models as outlined above. Certainly, it will require teamwork among various stakeholders for it to address the problem in an effective manner.

The details of the evaluation plan

Part of the evaluation plan will involve both pre-intervention and the post-intervention telephone surveys to monitor the progress (Secker et al., 2000).The behavioral intervention will involve the teenagers making self-developed written plans as to the behavior changes they would want to see. Thus, the evaluation will involve occasional meetings with the clients to assess the progress of behavior modification in their lives (Neinstein, 2008). The intervention will employ capacity intervention rate measures to assess the productivity of the interventions (Edejer, 2003).

The potential formative and summative approaches to the evaluation

Process evaluation will involve the collection of information from the clients and the participants in the .Certainly it will consider the changes in the program outcomes. Particularly, it will involve tracking the teenagers and documenting their attendance participation and exposure (Linnan & Steckler, 2002). Additionally, the evaluation will use a comparative analysis of the interventions among the experimental group besides a control group (Secker, 2000). In addition, it will use the meta-analytic review process involving research on the secondary data surrounding second hand smoking (Jensen, 2011). Self-evaluation will involve the clients conducting self-assessment of their progress in avoiding their exposure to secondary smoking (Dossey & Keegan, 2013).

Conclusion

In sum, this intervention will require the contributions of various parties including the parents of the teenagers. Additionally, it requires a firm commitment among the participants to realize productive results. Therefore, it requires collaborative efforts among the medical fraternity as well as the community.

References

Benjamin, R. M. (2011). National Prevention Strategy: America’s Plan for Better Health and Wellness.  Collingdale, PA: DIANE Publishing.
Callinan, J. E., Clarke, A., Doherty, K., & Kelleher, C. (2010). Legislative smoking bans for reducing secondhand smoke exposure, smoking prevalence and tobacco consumption. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 4.
Dossey B.M., Keegan, L. (2013) Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice. Michigan, MI: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Edejer, T. T. T. (Ed.). (2003).Making choices in health: WHO guide to cost-effectiveness analysis (Vol. 1). World Health Organization.
Jensen, C. D., Cushing, C. C., Aylward, B. S., Craig, J. T., Sorell, D. M., & Steele, R. G. (2011). Effectiveness of motivational interviewing interventions for adolescent substance use behavior change: a meta-analytic review. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 79(4), 433.
Linnan, L., & Steckler, A. (2002). Process evaluation for public health interventions and research (pp. 1-23). San Francisco, California, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Neinstein, L. S. (Ed.). (2008). Adolescent health care: a practical guide (Vol. 414). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Secker-Walker, R. H., Flynn, B. S., Solomon, L. J., Skelly, J. M., Dorwaldt, A. L., & Ashikaga, T. (2000). Helping women quit smoking: results of a community intervention program. American Journal of Public Health, 90(6), 940
Wu, L. T., Woody, G. E., Yang, C., Pan, J. J., & Blazer, D. G. (2011). Racial/ethnic variations in substance-related disorders among adolescents in the United States. Archives of General Psychiatry, 68(11), 1176-1185.