Abraham BordoyHSMG 601Assignment Class Unit 5 Chapter 8, p.151: The term “Vulnerable Populations” is an umbrella term for all the individuals who due to a variety of factors, are at a greater risk for poor health status and health care access. Vulnerable groups are categorized by disease status, such as, chronic conditions, mental illness, & HIV positive status, socioeconomic status, educational attainment, housing situations, racial/ethnic background, & immigration or refugee status, children or the elderly, or those without the ability to access health services, ex: the uninsured, those who live in remote rural areas, and those who lack a regular source of care; Aday, 2001). Chapter 8, p150: The lives of people in these populations are interwoven into our communities and neighborhoods; we see these individuals in our daily lives. They are single mothers who have just lost their jobs, individuals with HIV who sleep in makeshift beds at the steps of our local churches; they are the sons and daughters who have dropped out of high school and are abusing drugs to self-medicate their bipolar depression; even our coworkers who have been increasingly distant and depressed after being diagnosed with diabetes and heart disease; and the elderly couples who are home bound and isolated as a result of decreased mobility.
The United States cannot afford to overlook the needs of these vulnerable populations. While there have been strides towards ensuring all Americans have access to health care, with employer-based health insurance, Medicaid and Medicare, Children’s Health Insurance Program ; the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; there are still millions of our fellow Americans that have yet to benefit from these improvements, which add to the heavy burden of those at highest risk for falling through the cracks. Changing the complex issues that these vulnerable populations face should require us to move away from our silos and look at things from these vulnerable populations perspectives; then and only then would the proper infrastructure be put in place to help the millions of Americans that call the United States home. ReferencesJonas ; Kovner’s Health Care Delivery in the United States Chapter 8Chapter 21 Vulnerability and Vulnerable Populations an OverviewDuration: 11:57 http://healthypeople.gov
