Student Task: As a Public Health/EHS professional with the New Orleans Department of Public Health, you have been assigned to a Nationwide task team to develop actionable steps to reduce and ultimately dissolve health disparities caused by Systemic Racism in the United States to bring about health equity within the Black and Latino communities. As a member of this Nationwide team, if you take the position that Systemic Racism is NOT the cause of health disparities within these communities, then what steps would take to dissolve these health disparities and address health equity issues in these communities.
FORMULATING THE MESS
Mess Formulation – Black and Latino communities across the United States are faced with a set of interacting health care disparities and health equity issues, which form a health system of problems that are known as a mess. This health care system mess is the future it is now in. In other words, the implied future is based on the current Health Care System’s plans, policies, programs, and expected changes in its environment. The aim of this phase of Interactive Planning is to determine how the health care system would eventually destroy itself if it were to continue behaving as it is currently; that is, if the system failed to adapt to a changing environment, even one that is perfectly predicted.
Formulating the current state or mess involves the preparation of:
System and Obstruction Analyses – A detailed description of how the health care system CURRENTLY operates for Blacks and Latinos, and identification of those characteristics and properties of Systemic Racism that obstruct the Health Care System’s progress. NOTE: If you do NOT believe Systemic Racism is a major cause of health disparities and health equity issues among Black and Latino communities, then identify those aspects that obstruct the Health Care System’s progress in addressing health disparities and health equity issues in these communities.
Reference Projections and Scenarios of Possible Futures – Projections of aspects of the Health Care System’s future assuming (1) no change in the System’s current plans, policies, programs, etc. and (2) the future environment that it currently expects, along with a description of how and why the Health Care System would destroy itself if the assumptions made were to come true.
The following is a set of questions for you to consider answering in order to write the sections of your final project report. These questions are for you to explore your thinking on the project by considering different aspects of the project. Not all questions may apply to your approach.
***PLEASE INCLUDE SCHOLARLY CITATIONS IN APA 7TH EDITION FORMAT!!!***
MAKE SURE THE SCHOLARLY SOURCES ARE PEER-REVIEWED AND COME FROM A CREDITABLE SOURCE
Questions to consider when Formulating the Mess
Step 1 – Systems Analysis (The Current State of the Health Care System)
- How is the Health Care System for which planning is to be done to be defined?
- How is the Health Care System organized within Black and Latino communities?
- How does the Health Care System operate?
- What Health Care System policies, practices, strategies, and tactics are currently in force?
- What are the primary stylistic preferences of management within the Health Care System?
- How have the financial aspects of the Health Care System performed in the past and how are they performing now?
- How have the medical professionals performed in the past and how are they performing now?
- Who are the Health Care System’s stakeholders and what is their role in the system?
- Who are the Health Care Systems competitors and how do they compete against the Health Care System that serves the Black and Latino communities?
Step 2 – Obstruction Analysis
- What are the goals and objectives of that the Health Care System espouses that are not actually pursued?
- What are the means the Health Care System claims it is using in pursuit of providing health care versus those means it actually uses?
- What are the beliefs about the quality, quantity, and use of resources available to the Health Care System?
- What is the manner in which the Health Care System’s pursuit of objectives is organized and managed?
- What are the Health Care System’s assumptions about its stakeholders and the community environment in which it operates?
- What are the conflicts (e.g., alcoholism, drug abuse, family, financial, legal problems, etc.) that reduce the ability of Blacks and Latinos to perform effectively?
- What are the conflicts within Black and Latino communities?
- What are the conflicts that Blacks and Latinos encounter where they believe they are being treated unfairly?
- What are the conflicting objectives imposed on the Health Care System by higher authorities?
- What are the conflicting objectives within the Health Care System that impact Blacks and Latinos?
- What are the conflicts Blacks and Latinos encounter with special interest groups (NGOs) and government agencies?
Step 3 – Reference Projection
- With no change in the Health Care System’s plans, policies, programs, etc., what are the expected performance characteristics of the System from the recent past into the future?
- With a continuation of the Health Care System’s recent history, what will be the expected future?
Step 4 – Reference Scenario
The Systems Analysis and the Reference Projections are now combined into a Reference Scenario of the possible future the Health Care System will face if it were to make no changes in policies and practices and the environment changed only in expected ways. Reference Projections can reveal the crisis the organization will be in if it does not change its behavior. The “mess” presented in the Reference Scenario must be as realistic as possible, and in as shocking a way as possible. For example, a newspaper prepared five years from now telling the story of the demise of the organization.
Preparing the Reference Scenario
- It is critical that it not be prepared as a forecast of what will happen (e.g., The Limits to Growth, 1972 – confusion).
- The purpose is to reveal the implications of the Health Care System’s current behavior and assumptions.
- It is intended to focus on the right problems (messes) and to produce a shared understanding of the nature of these messes and their interactions.
- This shared understanding of an undesirable future and its sources provides the backdrop for beginning the process of redesigning an organization’s future – Our Next Step.
ENDS PLANNING
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