Health Education Capstone Assignment -
Imagine you are being recruited by your classmate for their Senior Mental Acuity program. You know you will be working with people from various cultures and want to make sure you are prepared. Based on your classmates' response to how you would be trained on culturally sensitivities, discuss how prepared or unprepared you would be.
Make one more suggestion to improve your cultural competence in working with theses senior citizens.
Part I -
Andrea Volunteers are a vital piece when developing a health education program. Due to the limited amount of funding available for most programs, volunteers are needed in order to allocate resources. Furthermore, volunteers add a special aspect to the program that many individuals do not consider (Community Tool Box, n.d.). Since they are community residents and neighbors to the many individuals they are serving, this generates a relatable connection and common ground between health volunteer and resident (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 2005).
In addition, it ensures that the community is supportive of the health concern being promoted. Training volunteers is also an important aspect of developing a program staff. It is necessary that volunteers are trained because they not only represent the education program, but they also are there to help provide an effective education program (Community Tool Box, n.d.). According to the Community Tool Box (n.d.), There are four aspects that should be implemented into a training program. The first step in developing a volunteer training program is to create a job description. This is to ensure that all volunteers understand their roles and responsibilities.
For example, if you have a volunteer whose job responsibility is to manage other volunteers, it is important for them to understand and know what those responsibilities are. Next, you will need to create a budget for the training program. Although volunteer trainings are fairly inexpensive, they still require resources and materials (Community Tool Box, n.d.). Once the budget has been decided, the next step is to determine what materials will be used to train the volunteers, such as videos or handbooks.
Once this has been decided, you will need to inform your volunteer staff of the duration of the training program and the location such as how many hours to expect to be in the training as well as what days and what facility will be used to hold the training sessions (Community Tool Box, n.d.). It is also important that you give the volunteers these details as early as possible so they can make arrangements to attend such as finding a babysitter for their children or ensuring they do not make appointments on those days.
Lastly, confirm the logistics. Ensure that the reservation for the facility that will be used is confirmed as well as clean and contains all of the necessary equipment needed (Community Tool Box, n.d.). Individuals volunteers for programs they consider valuable and necessary. According to Connors (2011), volunteers will be attracted to the perception of the organization and the health issue getting targeted within their community. Various methods exist for obtaining volunteers for the program, such as contacting the local volunteers center, using past volunteers within the community, advertising the need for volunteers using the media, and coordinating with local schools whose students require volunteer hours to graduate (Connors, 2011).
Part II -
When recruiting volunteers for a Senior Mental Acuity program, I would reach out to a local volunteer center or make personal appearances at local churches and ministries. Due to the program centering around senior individuals, I would not reach out to the local high schools for volunteers. The reason is that if accidents were to occur, an adult would be more physically and emotionally able to handle a situation rather than a youth. I would also try and recruit individuals with past healthcare knowledge so they may be more of an asset to the target population. I would try and recruit these individuals from local doctors' offices or hospitals by placing flyers around and in the facilities and ask supervisors if they knew anyone who would be interesting in the program. Once recruited, I would design a cultural sensitivity training program as well as teach a conversation training which will include fun topics to talk about and what topics to avoid. I would train the volunteers to be culturally sensitive or have cultural sensitivity by having an engaging power point presentation that includes group exercises and games.
This PowerPoint will address the differences between people and cultures that should be encouraged, appreciated, and respected.
Furthermore, they will learn how to appropriately react in a cultural situation that may be uncomfortable (Majumdar, Browne, Roberts, & Carpio, 2004). References Connors, T. D. (2011). The volunteer management handbook: Leadership strategies for success (Vol. 235). John Wiley & Sons. Community Tool Box. (n.d.). Section 1. Developing a Plan for Involving Volunteers.
Majumdar, B., Browne, G., Roberts, J., & Carpio, B. (2004). Effects of cultural sensitivity training on health care provider attitudes and patient outcomes. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 36(2), 161-166. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (2005). Successful strategies for recruiting, training, and utilizing volunteers: A guide for faith- and community-based service providers. Publication No. [SMA] 05(4005).