Running Head: HEALTH CARE POLICIES 1 HEALTH CARE POLICIES 4 Policy Process Proposal The healthcare policies and issues might have an effect on the patients and also on the providers. These effects will vary in the level and also the effects whereby some are critical while others are not. For the nation to have the professionals who understand the issues affecting the patients and are willing to advocate for them, then there is the need to always be on top of current health care concerns, and with the help of the legislative issues, it will be possible to have the nation being what is desired to be. The policy which can be introduced is to provide the medical care to the medically underserved. This can be done by first beginning with the health care educators to teach the medical students about the factors which determine the health and the health care disparities in a nation. These factors will include the social factors and any other factor which might be contributing in one way or the other to the health differences. Also, the medical students will b encouraged to pursue the residencies in the primary care and medical practice in the underserved communities. The free clinics provide care to the underserved, but medical schools have not collaborated with these clinics hence the need to encourage them to work together in providing services to the underserved medical patients in the society. For this collaboration to be achieved, the health care professionals will have to combine the common curricular objectives in providing the service learning to the students and also the inter-professional education experiences. This will be done with the aim of expanding clinical rotations to the more diverse populations, and also, they will have exposed the students to the variety of health disparities in the community. It is possible to achieve this situation within the period of four years when the students are at the medical school and can be integrated throughout the medical curriculum while at the same time they will be meeting the underserved medical patients. This exposure of the students to the patients who are underserved will influence their selection of the residency programs hence increasing the number of medical students who will choose to take the internal medicine or the family medicine. References Health Policy Tracking Service, & National Conference of State Legislatures. (1998). Major health care policies: Fifty state profiles. Washington, DC: Health Policy Tracking Service. Holtz, C. (2008). Global health care: Issues and policies. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Running Head: THE IDEAL APPROACH TO URBAN GREENSPACES 1 Assignment #3: “Stance Essay” Joe Green ...

1. Running Head: HEALTH CARE POLICIES
1
HEALTH CARE POLICIES
4
Policy Process Proposal
The healthcare policies and issues might have an effect on the
patients and also on the providers. These effects will vary in the
level and also the effects whereby some are critical while others
are not. For the nation to have the professionals who understand
the issues affecting the patients and are willing to advocate for
them, then there is the need to always be on top of current
health care concerns, and with the help of the legislative issues,
it will be possible to have the nation being what is desired to
be.
The policy which can be introduced is to provide the medical
care to the medically underserved. This can be done by first
beginning with the health care educators to teach the medical
students about the factors which determine the health and the
health care disparities in a nation. These factors will include the
social factors and any other factor which might be contributing

2. in one way or the other to the health differences. Also, the
medical students will b encouraged to pursue the residencies in
the primary care and medical practice in the underserved
communities. The free clinics provide care to the underserved,
but medical schools have not collaborated with these clinics
hence the need to encourage them to work together in providing
services to the underserved medical patients in the society.
For this collaboration to be achieved, the health care
professionals will have to combine the common curricular
objectives in providing the service learning to the students and
also the inter-professional education experiences. This will be
done with the aim of expanding clinical rotations to the more
diverse populations, and also, they will have exposed the
students to the variety of health disparities in the community.
It is possible to achieve this situation within the period of four
years when the students are at the medical school and can be
integrated throughout the medical curriculum while at the same
time they will be meeting the underserved medical patients.
This exposure of the students to the patients who are
underserved will influence their selection of the residency
programs hence increasing the number of medical students who
will choose to take the internal medicine or the family
medicine.

3. References
Health Policy Tracking Service, & National Conference of State
Legislatures. (1998). Major health care policies: Fifty state
profiles. Washington, DC: Health Policy Tracking Service.
Holtz, C. (2008). Global health care: Issues and policies.
Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Running Head: THE IDEAL APPROACH TO URBAN
GREENSPACES 1
Assignment #3: “Stance Essay”
Joe Green
ENG 115- English Composition
Professor Frank Jones
December 11, 2015

4. THE IDEAL APPROACH TO URBAN GREENSPACES
2
The Ideal Approach to Urban Greenspaces
The benefits of greenspace in urban areas are numerous.
Greenspaces have been
shown to provide direct and indirect psychological benefits to
the people that experience
them regularly. The current global trend is a migration to urban
environments and so in
many communities, urban greenspaces provide the citizens’ only
opportunity to interface
with nature. While greenspaces provide a venue for recreation
and socializing, they also
decrease emotional distress for the people who visit them
(White, Alcock, Wheeler, &
Depledge, 2013). They are beneficial to the environment in
many ways, including
filtering air and water and increasing the biodiversity of an area
(De Sousa, 2013).

5. Greenspaces also provide services that improve the quality of
life in a city. They provide
a cooling effect by shading heat-absorbing surfaces like asphalt
with vegetation (Jesdale,
Morello-Frosch, & Cushing, 2013). The city of Birmingham has
some parks and wooded
areas, but the downtown area is lacking. The question,
therefore, is whether the best way
for Birmingham to address this lack is to construct one large
central park or by building
multiple smaller parks. Constructing small parks in various
neighborhoods will be the
most effective way to bring more urban greenspace to downtown
Birmingham, because
these parks will be in close proximity to many people, their
construction can be very
flexible, and they can capitalize on the use of “brownfields.”
One reason constructing multiple small parks would be an
effective approach to
Birmingham’s lack of greenspace is that these parks will be
close in proximity to many
people. Even though there are already some greenspaces in
Birmingham, none are located
close to downtown, and so the people there, especially those

6. without means of
transportation, aren’t be able to take advantage of them. Those
in poorer areas are
THE IDEAL APPROACH TO URBAN GREENSPACES
3
especially limited, as it has been shown that there is much more
greenspace in wealthier
areas than in low-income neighborhoods (Mitchell & Popham,
2008). By building
multiple small parks, it can be ensured that parks will be placed
in locations that are
accessible to all residents, no matter their income level. It is
important to incorporate
greenspaces into urban areas that are accessible to the residents
of those areas. A small
park should be within walking distance of just about anywhere.
This would not be
feasible with one large central park, but it could be
accomplished with multiple smaller
ones. Although it’s possible that a larger central park could
become a downtown

7. destination, that fact would not necessarily mean that the park
would be accessible to
many residents. Instead, it would likely be more convenient to
tourists.
Another reason constructing multiple small parks would be an
effective approach
to Birmingham’s lack of greenspace is that the construction of
these parks can be very
flexible. The locations can be based on what plots are available
and opportune. It has
been shown that many inequalities exist in the distribution of
greenspaces in communities
nationwide. In some cities there is as much as double the
amount of greenspace in
wealthier neighborhoods compared to low-income
neighborhoods. A study performed in
2013 showed that inequality also exists in the amount of
greenspace among different
ethnicities (Jesdale, Morello-Frosch, & Cushing, 2013).
Neighborhoods primarily
populated by minorities displayed a lower percentage of
vegetative cover. This approach
will be effective at addressing this inequality. Because of the
flexibility afforded by their

8. size, small parks can be constructed in locations throughout
Birmingham that reflect this
intention and alleviate this inequality. A large central park, on
the other hand, would not
be able to capitalize on this flexibility. The possible locations
for a central park would be
THE IDEAL APPROACH TO URBAN GREENSPACES
4
much more restricted, and it would not be as easy to offset the
ethnic inequality evident
in the current greenspace locations.
The flexibility afforded by multiple smaller parks leads us to a
third reason that
constructing such parks will address the problem of a lack of
greenspace: these parks can
capitalize on the use of “brownfields.” Greenspaces are a
method of re-purposing land
and are a minimal imposition on land that is already in
commercial or residential use. For
better or worse, as a result of an industrial hub since the late

9. 1800s, Birmingham hosts
plenty of land and industrial areas that have been abandoned for
many years. Many of
these sites are remains from various industrial and metropolitan
booms throughout
Birmingham’s history. These sites are called “brownfields” and
are ideal for sustainable
development (De Sousa, 2003). This approach will capitalize on
the use of brownfields,
making it an ideal way to bring greenspace access to the people
of downtown
Birmingham. The construction of a large centralized park would
likely require the
acquisition of land that is already in use, so it would potentially
hinder the economy or
productivity of the part of town where it is built. Not so with
smaller parks, which would
not only achieve their primary purpose of providing more
greenspace to Birmingham, but
would also beautify abandoned and undeveloped areas of the
city. This also has the added
benefit of increasing biodiversity of such areas. In a time where
wilderness areas are
dwindling worldwide and urban areas seem to be expanding

10. indefinitely, increasing
biodiversity is a vital service for the world. Managing
greenspaces for increased
biodiversity also provide psychological benefits. A study
performed in 2007 showed the
psychological benefits provided by greenspaces increase with
increased biodiversity in
greenspaces (Bowler, Buyung-Ali, Knight, & Pullin, 2010).
THE IDEAL APPROACH TO URBAN GREENSPACES
5
There are many factors to consider when choosing the best
approach to
constructing greenspace in Birmingham. One must consider how
many people will be
able to feasibly access the site, how difficult it will be to offset
the ethnic inequality of
the current park locations, and whether the parks will take
advantage of brownfields or
cut into the current economy of an area. While the construction
of one large, centralized

11. park might benefit the neighborhood of that one park, the
flexibility of constructing
multiple smaller parks makes it much easier to bring
greenspaces into the reach of more
people, including ethnic minorities that are currently being
shortchanged of greenspace.
These parks would not only benefit more people, they would
also improve the city’s
infrastructure itself as they renovate and utilize brownfields.
That is why I believe this
approach will be the best way to bring more greenspace to
Birmingham and thus make
the city a greener city with a higher quality of life.
THE IDEAL APPROACH TO URBAN GREENSPACES
6
References
Bowler, D., Buyung-Ali, L., Knight, T., & Pullin, A. (2010). A
systematic review for the

12. added benefits of health of exposure to natural environments.
BMC Public Health,
10(456). doi:10.1186/1471-2458-10-456
De Sousa, C. A. (2003). Turning brownfields into green space in
the city of Toronto.
Landscape and Urban Planning, 62(4), 181-198.
doi:10.1016/S0169-
2046(02)00149-4
Jesdale, B. M., Morello-Frosch, R., & Cushing, L. (2013). The
racial/ethnic distribution
of heat-risk related land cover in relation to residential
segregation.
Environmental Health Perspectives, 121(7).
doi:10.1289/ehp.1205919
Mitchell, R. & Popham F. (2008). Effect of exposure to natural
environment on health
inequalities: An observational population study. The Lancet
372(9650), 1655-
1660. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61689-X
White, M., Alcock, I., Wheeler, B., & Depledge, M. (2013).
Would you be happier living
in a greener urban area? A fixed-effects analysis of panel data.
Psychological

13. Science, 24(6). doi:10.1177/0956797612464659