Cultural Health Care Needs: Bronx County - Essay Example

Cultural Health Care Needs Introduction The paper makes an approach to understand the major ethnic and religious groups that are represent in New York, taking Bronx County into consideration for the identification of social and healthcare barriers. The Bronx Community has several ethnic and religious groups, which include Irish, Hispanic and Hondurans community among others. To be precise, the paper intends to address the problems related to social and healthcare needs that are faced by the Hispanic community living in Bronx County, identifying the segment that has been mostly affected by this issue (U.S. Department of Commerce, n.d.). Further to meet their social and health care needs with the resources that are available. Accordingly, identification will be made regarding mechanisms that are in place to facilitate access to these services by these groups along with the aspect of determining the social and healthcare barriers existing in this group. Discussion The Bronx County, officially known as ‘Borough of Bronx’, is amid the five boroughs within the New York City (NYC). During 1914, The Bronx was separated from NYC and was created as a separate county. Prior to separation ‘Bronx County’, has developed its own culture and boundaries for better integration (Intellectual Reserve Inc., 2014). According to data obtained about Bronx Country, due to the separation from the NYC, Bronx County has its own set of barriers and available resources to meet such issues regarding social and healthcare. There were many ethnic groups in the Bronx County, 53.5% of the overall population belongs to Hispanic community (U.S. Department of Commerce, n.d.). During the year 2009, the percentage of poverty rate was 28.5%, which was double of that of NYC. In order to reduce various issues related to social and healthcare such as poverty, unemployment and increase livelihood of the societal people, various industrial units and healthcare centers have come up, amongst the overall industrial units in the county 8% are of healthcare. Whereas, supporting units to remove other social problems includes ‘10% of food services and accommodation’,‘9% of construction’,‘8% of other transportation and support activities’,‘6% of real estate and rental and leasing’,‘6% of administrative and support and waste management services’,‘6% of food and beverage stores’ this industrial units helping the county to raise societal standard and other barriers in the year 2009 (City-Data.com, 2013). Bronx Health REACH has been established for various community-based interventions to measure the high rates of health issues in the Hispanic Community. Apart from this, various factors in community, leads to inequalities in case of health result measures. Community and agencies including ‘health care providers’, ‘an after-school program’, ‘social service agencies’, ‘faith-based institutions’ and ‘housing development corporations’ among others work together in order to address various health disparities to satisfy the cultural health care needs of the community. This efforts towards the community assessment, begins from 2001, through the support of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s), Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) Program, with further support from New York State Department of Health’s Office of Minority Health and several other private funders. The principle motive behind the organization was to educate the community about health disparities and root causes of any incongruity. Bronx Health REACH’s initiated its task on the basis of reviewing literature on health disparities, which revealed causes behind such imbalances. Mechanisms which were in place to facilitate access to these services to the groups include Universal Health Insurance, as the people of the community have less access towards the timely healthcare facilities. Therefore, Bronx Health REACH is promoting various wide-ranging, universal health insurance services. Funds from various government and private organization were helping the healthcare to render services to the people of the community. Culturally competent care and increased public health education have an important contribution towards preventing, treating and accessing the healthcare disparities (Calman, 2005). The population of Bronx County is approximately 1.4 million as per the population statistics of 2013 of, which majority were belong to Hispanic Community. County is located in the north of New York County. The people household income is $32,893 (2009), with 28.5% of the people living below the poverty line (City-Data.com, 2013; U.S. Department of Commerce, n.d.). 62.7% of the population of the South Bronx County is of Hispanic community, majority of the people of the community are struggling with the problem of poverty and low income level (American Lung Association, n.d.). Apart from poverty, there are various other social and health care barriers that exist in the group community, wherein, health data reveals the mortality rate of Bronx County, which are shown below: Mortality data of NYC and Bronx County Source: (University at Albany – iHi, 2007) According to the report published by “The Health of the Northeast Bronx,” under ‘Community Health Profiles by the NYC Department of Health’ in 2003 reveals that 30% of individuals stated that their locality is not safe. Additionally, 26% of the resident of the County did not have education beyond high school and 16% of population was living in poverty (University at Albany – iHi, 2007). Furthermore, Bronx Hispanic community is ranked as one of the worst counties in the US in terms of adolescent sexual healthcare and one of the highest in terms of teen pregnancy rates (New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 2010). While the rate of Sexually Transmitted Infection (STIs) among the youth are double figured. The youths of community are involved in sexual behavior, which is becoming an emerging context of risk and exposure for the residents. The various issues that presented as a barrier in the social and healthcare community includes: Data reveals that teenage pregnancy around 105 per 1000 in the Bronx, which is 30% more than the national rate. Furthermore the rates of teen pregnancy in Hispanic teens are 4 to 7 times higher as compare to white and Asian teens (Kaplan, 2013; Guilamo-Ramos & et al., 2011) Rate Of Teen Pregnancy Rate As Compare To White And Asian Teen Source: (Kaplan, 2013) The STIs among the youth in Bronx are above the NYC and national Sexually Transmitted Infection Rate (Per 100,000) in US and five borough of NYC Source: (Guilamo-Ramos & et al., 2011) Bronx is recorded having the second highest rate in terms of HIV diagnoses in the neighborhood counties, with around 56.8 per 100,000. HIV causes highest level of disparity in the racial or ethnic group of Bronx County. Whereas 29.2% of the population of the Hispanic community of Bronx aged between 13 to 19 years diagnoses HIV symptom during 2008 (Sweeney, 2010; Guilamo-Ramos & et al., 2011) Poverty likelihood increases the rate of teen pregnancy, STIs, and HIV/AIDS. Moreover, the low level of economic advancement in the Bronx marked the highest poverty rate among the five borough of NYC. More than 25% of community members in the Bronx are below the poverty line with 39.4% of children Poverty, leads to the root cause of homelessness at a higher rates in Hispanic community as compare to other counties of NYC. The New York City Department of Homeless Services (NYCDHS) stated that 30% of the people of Hispanic community are homeless and around 46.9% Bronx residents are at edge of being homeless The rate of various criminal activity in the Hispanic community are four times more than that of other nation’s Healthcare problem specially Asthma was major problem in the community (National Alliance for Hispanic Health, 2014) Young men and women of Hispanic community have the habit of drinking alcohol as compared to that of old people (National Alliance for Hispanic Health, 2014) 62% of the residents in the Bronx County drank alcohol, which is more than the average (City-Data.com, 2013) Limited funding from the government executives were also the major problem in the community development Furthermore, the rate of ‘Foster Care and Incarceration’ is also the major barrier in the Hispanic community with 5.7 per 1,000, which is again higher than the other five borough in NYC (Guilamo-Ramos & et al., 2011) Conclusion From the foregoing discussion, it can be comprehended that there are many causes that led to barrier in the social and healthcare in the Hispanic community, wherein the growing use of alcohols, poverty, HIV, criminal activity, STIs and teen pregnancy among other are the major social and healthcare issues. To conclude, it can be asserted that many measures with necessary funding requirements are significantly required in order to minimize the adverse consequences. Hence, it is suggestible that along with those measures undertaken, regular evaluation of reducing the disparities rates is required in order to monitor effectiveness of the same. References American Lung Association. (n.d.). Expanding smokefree communities’ community profiles: South Bronx, New York. Retrieved from http://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/tobacco-control-advocacy/reports-resources/profiles-south-bronx-ny.pdf Calman, N. (2005). Making health equality a reality: The Bronx takes action. Health Affairs. 24(2), 491-498. City-Data.com. (2013). Bronx County, New York (NY). Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/county/Bronx_County-NY.html Guilamo-Ramos, V., Lee, J., & Husiak, L. (2011). Adolescent reproductive and sexual health disparities: the case of youth residing in the Bronx. Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health. 1-18. Intellectual Reserve Inc. (2014). Bronx County, New York. Retrieved from https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Bronx_County,_New_York Kaplan, D. (2013). Teen sexual and reproductive health in New York City. Retrived from http://www.cccnewyork.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/DOHMHPresentation.pdf New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. (2010). Summary of vital statistics 2009 the City of New York. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf National Alliance for Hispanic Health. (2014). About our health results from the Hispanic community health study/study of Latinos. Retrieved from http://www.hispanichealth.org/uploads/2/5/8/7/25879931/healthstudy_final.pdf Sweeney, M. M. (2010). Overview of HIV epidemiology in the Bronx. Retrieved from http://www.hptn.org/web%20documents/HPTN065/TrgPrsntns12_2010/MSweeney_Bronx6_Dec_2010.pdf U.S. Department of Commerce. (n.d.). Bronx County, New York. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36/36005.html Read More