Phase 1 Social Assessment

Childhood vaccinations remain integral to health optimization and thriving among children. Vaccines help protect children from common infectious diseases and deaths related to those illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends routine vaccinations against potentially serious infectious diseases by the second year of birth to improve the survivability of newborns in the US. Nevertheless, there are growing concerns about the decline in the rate of vaccine intake and vaccine inequities among American children. Routine childhood vaccines among children in kindergarten plummeted to less than 93% in the school year 2023-2024 from 95% in the 2019-2020 school year. The number of people applying for vaccine exemptions rose to 3.3% from 2.6 % in a similar review period (Hill et al., 2024). These statistics reveal a worrying trend in vaccine intake among American communities and give insight into possible health threats among childcare centers, such as preschool centers.

Preschool centers are public or private institutions that provide early childhood education among children aged between three and five. These institutions play an important role in child development. However, the low rate of vaccinations of children attending preschool continues to threaten the foundational health fabric necessary for their thriving. It makes them vulnerable to infectious illnesses and subsequent health consequences of these diseases. This warrants concerted efforts to curtail the declining rates of childhood vaccinations.

Addressing the declining rate of childhood vaccination is necessary to protect children against infectious diseases. A lack of immunization or poor vaccine rates makes children vulnerable to infectious diseases. Shaw (2021) notes that unvaccinated children or those who do not receive full vaccinations are more susceptible to pain, suffering, disability, and even death associated with infectious diseases. These children may also spread these diseases to others, resulting in a community-level problem. Combating the declining rate of childhood vaccines provides a pathway toward health promotion among school-going children. It helps protect individual children against infectious diseases and limits the spread of infections among them. It also fosters strong emotional, cognitive, and physical development among children by maximizing school stay days (Nandi & Shet, 2020).

The decline in childhood vaccines has been attributed in part to vaccine hesitancy and vaccine-related misinformation. This has been evident in the recently witnessed controversies on vaccine safety and misinformation on the safety status of some vaccines. Some of the common misinformation on vaccines include the associations of measles-mumps rubella vaccines with autism, thimerosal with neurodevelopmental disorders, and vaccine-induced GBV. These factors contribute to the mistrust of vaccines among parents. Likewise, the growth of the anti-vaxxer’s online communities has resulted in the perpetuation of misinformation on vaccines (DeStefano et al., 2019). Curtailing these threats through sound education on vaccines can help reverse the childhood vaccination trends.

The fight to bolster vaccine uptake among children draws diverse stakeholders. These include parents of children in preschool and other childcare settings, healthcare professionals, and public health faculties, such as the CDC. Parents, in this case, are the target audience. They are the decision-makers on whether their children are vaccinated. Healthcare professionals play a role in educating the parents on the significance of vaccines. The CDC also plays a role in informing parents on the significance of vaccines.

The campus has specific strengths that can help the initiative. Foremost, the abundance of learners who are well-informed on the significance of vaccines contributes to the fight. Students may act as educators to educate parents on why they should consider vaccinations. The campus can also organize community outreach programs to aid the vaccination campaign. These efforts may help reverse the childhood vaccination trends.

References

DeStefano, F., Bodenstab, H. M., & Offit, P. A. (2019). Principal controversies in vaccine safety in the United States. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 69(4), 726–731. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciz135

Hill, H. A., Yankee, D., Elam-Evans, L. D., Mu, Y., Chen, M., Peacock, G., & Singleton, J. (2024, September 26). Decline in vaccination coverage by age 24 months and vaccination inequities among children born in 2020 and 2021 – National Immunization Survey-child, United States, 2021–2023. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7338a3.htm

Nandi, A., & Shet, A. (2020). Why vaccines matter: Understanding the broader health, economic, and Child Development Benefits of routine vaccination. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 16(8), 1900–1904. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2019.1708669

Shaw, D. (2021). The side effects of not being vaccinated: Individual risk and vaccine hesitancy nationalism. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 19(1), 7–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-021-10141-z

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

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With this assignment choose something that will relates to children in a childcare setting.. maybe related to vaccines…

Phase 1 Social Assessment (aka Needs Assessment) Submit a 1 – 2 page document with the following information:

• A. Health Problem of your choice
• B. Why you are choosing the health problem (with peer-reviewed data to support your rationale)
• C. The Setting for your proposed program (community, worksite, hospital, etc)
  

  Phase 1 Social Assessment

1. Health Problem and Setting- Describe the health problem using data and also describe in a few sentences the setting that you have chosen (Recall my example of HPV vaccine among college age students on the Ole Miss campus). I would describe the Ole Miss Campus (# of students, public health program, student health services (where vaccines are administered). Describe using data, HPV vaccine rates among the college population. Use existing data (secondary data). You can include in this section any data that you think needs to be collected as well: example “A survey will be administered to find out the knowledge of students at Ole Miss around Vaccine hesitancy”. However, if you use this, know that you will need to make up data since we do not have time in this class to collect it. If this is confusing, don’t worry – it will not be at the end.

2. Answer the quality of life questions. Why is combating this health problem important. An example for HPV would be “because we can prevent cancer!!”

3. Who are potential stakeholders? HPV Example: Public health faculty and students, American Cancer Society, UM American Cancer Society (we have a chapter on campus), William Magee Center UM Health Center, Sororities/fraternities who may have interest in cancer prevention, local cancer survivors…

4. Campus Assets/Strengths/ Resources: HPV Example: Students have the ability to receive vaccinations on campus at the health center. We have a CDC grant to focus on HPV vaccine on college campuses. Through this grant, we can hire a graduate assistant to work on this project. We also have two faculty members who conduct research on HPV, and we have a strong relationship with Willam Magee Center.