Answer

Adolescence diabetes

Part 1: Health Issue

            Adolescence diabetes affects people below the age of 25 years. Commonly, type 1 diabetes mellitus is experienced with people within the age bracket. However, type 2 diabetes is also continually increasing in prevalence (Altrum, 2014). The condition is caused by an absolute deficiency of insulin and destruction of beta-cells. When diabetes is left uncontrolled, it results in eye and kidney diseases or diabetic ketoacidosis. Common symptoms of diabetes in adolescents include frequent urination and thirst, fruity breath smell, irritability, fatigue, weight loss, and hunger pangs.

Advocacy Campaigns

            The Youth diabetes action by Joana Hotung and Kester Wan is an organization geared towards campaigning to eradicate adolescence diabetes in Hong Kong. The organization which gathers donor and government funding runs campaigns and performs charity work to support families and individuals living with diabetes. The major aspects of the campaign are advocating for individuals living with diabetes, promoting community knowledge and awareness on the condition, supporting young diabetic individuals and their families, and carrying out programs that offer social and educative benefits to the public and affected families. While the campaigns offer financial assistance to acquire supplies such as alcohol swabs, lancets, syringes, strips, and glucometers, it does not operate without challenges. For instance, few Hong Kong hospitals have pediatric nurses and doctors for diabetic children and adolescents and hospitals offer minimal paramedic support. Thus, to care for the diabetic individuals within the age brackets calls for collaboration between the medical community and parents. This collaboration is the major focus on most campaigns held by the organization (Hotung & Wan, 2014).

            The article Implementing a structured education program for children with diabetes: lessons learned from an integrated process evaluation, on the other hand, focuses on recognizing the need to have a clinical intervention for adolescent diabetes urgently. The major reason for the urgent need is to improve the individual’s quality of life and glycemic control. To facilitate the implementation, an education program was launched in which diabetes nurses train using psychological techniques. The training is aimed at teaching on poor diabetic control to parents and adolescents living with the condition over four module. The trainees were then evaluated to check on the perceived impact, fidelity, acceptability, and feasibility of the program (Sawtell et al., 2015). 

            Both campaigns were aimed at raising awareness on effective methods of controlling diabetes in adolescents. They were effective for various reasons but the ability to integrate patients and their families played a key role. The individuals living with the condition and their families, specifically parents were target populations for both campaigns. Besides, they focused on ensuring the community was aware of the condition and how to effectively manage it (Sawtell et al., 2015). The other reason the campaigns were effective is that they pumped resources into ensuring the information is disseminated to reach affected people. For instance, financial resources were input into the Hong Kong campaign to facilitate access to information and medical supplies. Similarly, the training campaign had enough diabetes nursing specialists that could deliver the information to patients and families in a manner it was easily understood and applicable to their real-life situations (Hotung & Wan, 2014).

New Plan

            Management and prevention of diabetes is a health and economic issue. With approximately 30 million united states residents established to suffer the condition, direct and indirect costs to control diabetes consumes about $245 and $69 billion respectively (Altrum, 2014). However, more troubling is the rising trend of youth and children cases with an increased prevalence of both types of diabetes as more incidences are reported every year. Therefore, the adolescence diabetes policy has to undergo constant evaluation even as more individuals contract the condition. For instance, as much as training on how to control the condition are continually being carried out, individuals should be facilitated with resources to manage the condition.

Objectives and Rationale

            The objective of the policy is to involve the public in determining the best procedures to address diabetes in adolescents. Also, the intensity and frequency of training should be determined to increase the effectiveness of campaigns. Recently, prevention of childhood obesity and maintenance of healthy weight has been the major campaign focus by the community of public health aimed at reducing type 2 diabetes cases. To facilitate these goals, the campaigns focus on educating individuals on the importance of engaging in regular activity and healthy eating habits. The programs are achieved through adolescent programs such as having regular support meetings and lifestyle coaching. Besides, grants towards community transformation practices can be offered to improve the health of disadvantaged communities such as racially diverse and low-income groups (Altrum, 2014).

Secondly, the policy should determine various requirements to control the condition and the best facilitation strategies that can enable all affected individuals to access them. Strategies such as developing healthy diets for individuals in various age groups within the population are effective in controlling the glucose levels and consequently reducing the prevalence of the condition. Individuals already suffering from the condition should be furnished with low-calorie diets to enhance management and control since it has been established that diets rich in calories are related to the resistance of insulin in young people (Altrum, 2014).

Part 2: Policy Amendment

            Adolescence diabetes is often overlooked considering that major regulations seek to deal with the condition as a whole and mostly it is presumed that diabetes attacks the elderly population. However, the condition has increased among the age group warranting a policy implementation focusing specifically on the adolescents (International Diabetes Federation, 2013). The government plays a key role in regulating the healthcare system. For instance, it facilitates health insurance policy making o ensure its larger populations are covered. The policy process used to analyze and enact FDA, CDC  or Medicaid health insurance requires sophisticated tools and collaboration to enhance coverage conditions (Sparer & Thompson, 2015). However, for the adolescence diabetes, the policies undermine alternative medicine which in most cases is most fruitful. This paper seeks to amend the existing policy on dealing with adolescence diabetes, various obstacles expected and the “three legs” of lobbying can be used to accrue support from policymakers.

Policy Modification

            This policy will be enacted through the modification of existing laws and regulations. The affordable care act seeks to ensure every individual can access treatment regardless of their economic status. This expansion of healthcare insurance systems has played a key role in ensuring many individuals get treatment including those suffering from chronic diseases such as adolescence diabetes. Thus, the law may be presumed sufficient to deal with the condition. However, the advocacy seeks to create awareness on alternative interventions to fight the prevalence of the condition which has continued gaining popularity with the adolescents under the current scheme. This policy enactment is geared towards educating the public on the causes of adolescence diabetes and various lifestyle changes that can be made at the community level to reduce its occurrence and enhance management. Therefore, the policy is a modification of the affordable care act where funds are allocated to conduct civic education throughout the country and ensure every individual adopts a healthy lifestyle out of the will. The policy should also be expanded to include specific interventions that address the adolescence population and not diabetes patients in general.

Effects of Existing Laws or Regulations

            According to Powell, Corathers, Raymond, & Streisand (2015), existing regulations entail therapeutic and diagnostic actions to deal with diabetes. However, this policy aims and creating awareness of the main causes of adolescence diabetes while focusing on the specific age group. As a result, clinical interventions which in the existing regulations form the primary management initiative for the condition will be considered when lifestyle changes fail to yield expected results. As a result, the advocacy program will be tasked to educate people why they need to take up a healthier physical and psychological lifestyle instead of consulting doctors often to be treated for the condition.

            Sparer & Thompson (2015) points out that the advocacy efforts are also affected by policy on affordable health insurance that majority targets addressing general healthcare interventions. The insurance policies such as Medicare and Medicaid ignore alternative medicine interventions on diseases which are the major alterations required to make the fight against adolescence diabetes successful. Also, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) seeks to ensure the health care needs of children are covered by the state’s Medicaid policy. However, lifestyle changes are additional requirements to curb the prevalence of the condition and not merely funding of treatment. Ignoring the long-run benefits on reduced clinical interventions, the new policy may face opposition, especially when educating the masses on healthy lifestyles requires extra state funding.

Lobbying for Support

            The “three legs” of lobbying which include the special interest groups, the regulatory process and legislative process play a key role in planning and successfully gaining the support of policymakers (Bauer, 2016). The legislative leg, also referred to as the capitol leg addresses what should be carried out at the legislature where policies and laws are made (Doerr & Schultz, 2013). At this level, lobby days will be set aside to testify on the importance of including civic education as alternative interventions to adolescence diabetes. Additionally, short position papers will be written and distributed to legislators to communicate on the agenda of the policy revision. Besides, emails will be utilized to send out legislative alerts on a weekly basis to point out issues of priority that ought to be tacked through the legislation.

            According to Doerr & Schultz (2013), the regulatory process, alternatively known as grassroots leg will involve getting legislative alerts in regard to the policy issues to be revised. This will be conducted through constructing a telephone tree policy administrators numbers are issued in card form to the legislators. Besides, meetings will be organized to inquire from the public on various key issues that need to be included in the policy by the group. Leading questions will be asked by facilitators to ensure public information gathered aligns to the policy requirements. Finally, at this level, people are encouraged to vote in the event the policy goes through a referendum to ease its enactment.

            The special interest group will encompass the use of media to publicize the national reports such as the rates of adolescence diabetes and the impact the policy enactment will have in minimization the risk of contracting the condition and facilitating management for those already suffering the disease (Bauer, 2016). Officials will also visit various media houses to speak on the need to revise the current laws and regulations to suit the adolescence population who require more lifestyle interventions than clinical treatment.

Other Obstacles

            The major obstacle in the legislation process entails the financial muscle to carry out educational campaigns. Since the motion is self-sponsored, it is challenging to come up with enough funding to spearhead the agenda at all advocacy levels. Another challenge expected is lack of adequate community participation. Since people acknowledge that adolescents are covered by the Affordable Care Act CHIP, most individuals will ignore the call for alternative interventions. This may lead to low input from the community on the underlying issues hence reduce the chances of approval. The other challenge expected is that adolescents shy away from self-declaration on conditions that are known to affect the aged population. This may compromise the statistics on the actual rates of people affected by the condition among the age group (International Diabetes Federation, 2013).

Part 3: Ethical Considerations

Ethical Dilemmas

The ethical dilemmas associated with advocacy campaign on adolescence obesity include the associated stigma, the responsibilities, and rights of parents, considerations for individuals that require special health-care needs, and the intended role advertising and marketing is set to play (Martin, 2012). Obesity in adolescents is faced with serious stigma especially because it is normally termed a disease for the aged. Besides, it is believed that those who suffer obesity engage in unhealthy feeding habits and are lazy hence do not participate in any physical activities. This dilemma can be addressed by sensitizing the public on other causes of adolescence obesity and how best those suffering can be accommodated in the society and assisted to overcome the menace.

Many parents do not understand their role in dealing with obesity among their children. Besides, they do not know their rights when it comes to seeking assistance for their suffering young ones. Therefore, the advocacy campaign should also clearly define the responsibilities and rights of parents whose children are suffering from obesity. This means that the parents should know when and how to inquire about the welfare of their children. Also, they should know what is expected of them to enable the adolescents to overcome the condition such as offering requisite moral and financial support. The role marketing and advertisement of the advocacy campaign plays must be clearly defined as to attract more people and to create awareness on the adolescence obesity menace. Thus, all promotions must adhere to this requirement to avoid indulging in unnecessary conflicts of interest. Finally, individuals with special health care needs pose an ethical dilemma for the campaign. For instance, a child who may be suffering heart problems and obesity may not be able to engage in a rigorous physical activity. Thus, the campaign should be tailored to accommodate methods that such special people can use to deal with the obesity condition without compromising their welfare (Martin, 2012).

Ethical And Lobbying Laws

According to Gostin, Pomeranz, Jacobson, & Gottfried (2009), the ethical and lobbying laws applicable in advocating for adolescence diabetes include the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) which offers states the flexibility to review their Medicaid programs as deemed appropriate to ensure adequate reimbursement to healthcare providers dealing with obesity cases and the Federal Trade Commission Act which regulates advertisement of food to avoid unfair advertisement. The Food Conservation and Energy Act also known as the Farm Bill also enables individuals to supply and access healthy foods while the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) campaign addresses the risk factors associated with adolescence obesity and schools take up education toles and engage students in physical activity. The School Bullying policies on the other hand deal with discrimination against obese students where schools are required to develop and enforce regulations against the practice (Gostin, Pomeranz, Jacobson, & Gottfried, 2009). 

Ethical Issues Associated with the Population

According to Hurlimann, Peña-Rosas, Saxena, Zamora, & Godard (2017), the ethical issues associated with the adolescents are the confidentiality clause and the parental involvement. The law states that when dealing with adolescents’ health concerns, the parents or guardians should be actively involved and they comprise of the major decision makers. However, it is crucial to assure the confidentiality of information provided by the adolescent. Therefore, striking a balance between information that should be divulged to the parents and the content that only the adolescent reserves the right to raises a major ethical concern. It is also important to establish the extent to which the child’s health is being compromised by the condition to arrive at the appropriate weight loss intervention (Hurlimann, Peña-Rosas, Saxena, Zamora, & Godard, 2017). 

Summary

Adolescence diabetes is a public concern as more people fall victims daily. As a result, policies must be reviewed that address the immediate concerns and increasing trend of occurrence. Supporting treatment is a good course but for it to succeed, it must be supplemented with some civic education that trains patients, parents, and the general community on various lifestyles that can be adapted to deal with the condition. However, the advocacy faces challenges such as contradiction with existing laws and regulations and the approval of policymakers are crucial to ensure inclusion of the enactment into the policy. Thus, lobbying at all levels is essential to attract support towards this policy revision.

Various ethical dilemmas are associated with adolescence obesity advocacy such as the gm associated with the condition, the role of parents, the intended role of marketing and advertisement, and the considerations for special health care treatment. Besides, when running the obesity campaign, it is crucial to consider the applicable regulations and laws that affect its success. These include the NCLB campaign, Food Conservation, and Energy Act, the Federal Trade Commission Act, and the Deficit Reduction Act. If any governing laws and regulations are broken, the campaign will be termed illegal and may attract civil cases against the planners.