Community Plan of Action There are many responsibilities that have to be met to satisfy the needs for personal satisfaction, and this may need changes in work schedules and adjustments. The objective here is to judge the possibilities of obtaining satisfaction from three different types of activities that can be conducted -- helping pregnant teenagers, teaching the methods of care to individuals who have recently found out that they are diabetics, and helping the elderly get on with their daily lives. The first of these is the problem of teenage pregnancy, and the best method to help such teenage children in not getting pregnant. Once they are pregnant, then a lot of other social questions come up and the most important of that is that we should not interfere in the personal lives of people. For teenagers not to get pregnant, they require close monitoring. (Teen Pregnancy Prevention)

For this purpose, the community should get involved and may decide to hold a meeting, with regular reviews about what rules should be followed by teenagers in the community in terms of curfews, standards of expected behavior, and communication. Since the school ends at 3 PM and many families are not able to have adults in the house before 6 PM, it may be advisable to set up a teenager's center where the teenagers may be helped with their education under the supervision of an adult. Most of the time -- 75% in the case of girls, and 50% in the case of boys, the sexual act takes place because of the curiosity of the boys. The dangers of STD and what it can do to a human being may also be highlighted in this section of teaching. This curiosity can be met through education, and teachings from different religions which tell us that the sexual act should be controlled till marriage takes place. This also may be taught as a part of education. When there are significant age differences, the girls tend to feel that the boys are better and have a sort of hero-worship about them, thus the community should keep a close watch that this is not happening. This can be found out and discussed at the review meetings.

Another important source of influence to children is their parents, and thus the parents have to be careful. The parents should demonstrate responsibility in their actions. This aspect can also be discussed mildly at the community meetings so that parents may become careful about some actions that may be setting wrong examples to children. The children should be taught to value education seriously and this can be done through institutions of community recognition for good students. Apart from this, they also should be taught about the sexual act and connected avoidance of pregnancy. It may also be emphasized that some methods of prevention of pregnancy also stops STD from being passed on. This also can be done through their special center, and this will at least prevent pregnancy. The children should be taught to build up their own self-esteem through development of different skills. While some may not be very good at education, they may have other significant skills which are as useful in life. These may be developed by special training sessions at their study center taking place after school hours. This will keep them busy in some matter so that sex will not be on top of their minds. (Teen Pregnancy Prevention)

The next set of activities may concern diabetics in the community. This may be done through a regular monthly session where a doctor may come and be the chief advisor. The material to be taught here has to center around how to find out about diabetes and its types, causes, and what the treatment is expected to achieve; the needed changes in lifestyle in terms of "exercise, diet, meal planning, weight management and prevention of hypoglycemia or low sugar"; the methods of management of insulin, the basis for its usage, the ways in which...

All these are important not only to the new diabetic, but also to an old diabetic whose disease has progressed and reached a new level. The patients also have to be taught about insulin, insulin pumps, oral agents, etc. For this purpose, special sessions may be held occasionally. (The Diabetes Teaching Center)
Another set of people who require help are the elderly more than sixty five years old and they consume more medicines of both the prescription variety and over the counter type than people of other ages. The reason for this is that older persons have many long-term chronic diseases which are not really curable and these diseases may be like arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart conditions, etc. Younger individuals do not have these types of diseases. There are a lot of problems with these medicines and often they may react with each other. This may happen when two drugs are introduced in the body and in the body they mix and cause a reaction. The results may cause discomfort or even dangerous situations. (Medications and Older People)

An example of this is that an individual who is taking a blood thinning medication should not take aspirin as aspirin will have a blood thinning action of its own. Another set of common medicines like antacids will interfere with the absorptions of drugs for Parkinson's disease, high blood pressure and heart disease. The general elderly person is taking more than four prescription medicines and along with this are two OTC medicines. Apart from the problems with medicines, the elderly also have serious memory impairments and they require help from their family members and others. The method of solving the problems with these people is to provide them with day care centers, with supervised living facilities and nurses to remind them about their drugs, and also check on the suitability of the drugs. (Medications and Older People)

Among a set of persons who suffer a lot are the nursing home residents. Till the late 1980s, at many nursing homes throughout the United States, residents were out of sight and frequently out of their minds, their personalities dulled by prescription drugs. The care of these people does not receive much attention from medical colleges and funding organizations. National Institute of Ageing, the branch of the national Institute of Health was set up only in 1974. Yet their conditions are not good. A study done in 1998 found that 4003 residents surveyed were affected by daily pain and of them 26% received weak painkillers like aspirin or Tylenol, and another 16% received much stronger drugs like morphine. (The Prescription paradox)

All these individuals are with pain due to cancer, but 26% of them received no painkiller of any type! In another study whose report was published in 1998, out of 80,206 patients in nursing homes with high blood pressure, 30% did not receive any treatment. (The Prescription paradox) While these individuals are old and may be on their way to death, do they not deserve a little better treatment? Rehabilitation centers generally specialize in some areas and these may be conditions like stroke, arthritis, burns, cancer, multiple sclerosis, amputations, neuro-muscular diseases, post polio syndrome, or any other disabling condition. There has to be a team leading the group for treatment -- therapists,…