Community Boundaries Paper - Essay Example

A healthy community encompassed balance and dynamic relationship between people, location, and the social system. To analyze the community of Jefferson County, Birmingham, Alabama, a description will be made in terms of people, location, and social system. Community Boundaries Environmental Boundaries (Location). A community is usually defined by geographic and political boundaries (Hunt, 2009, 10). Environmental boundaries may determine the availability of health services to the consumers of health care.

Jefferson County has 1113 square miles of land area and 11.2 square miles of water area. The number of people living per square mile is high, which is 598 people per square mile thus, in case of an epidemic or occurrence of a communicable disease, the crowded location of people in the community may predispose the spread of a certain disease. Jefferson County’s boundaries include Walker County and Blount County in the North, Shelby County in the south, St. Clair County in east, and Tuscaloosa County in west.

Majority of the people in Jefferson County are pro-Republicans (City-Data.com, 2003-2010, n.p.). A total of 34 hospitals are located in the Jefferson County, Alabama and majority of them focus on children and women’s health – a significant indicator why infant death rate decreases, while female population is greater than the male, and why the community transitioned to a child-developing community. Environmental Relationship (People). The diversity of the individuals living in a community contributes to the overall character of the community (Hunt, 2009, 9).

To understand people and environmental relationship, it is essential to know the vital statistics and demographics of the community. For instance, Jefferson County is a diverse community, composed mainly of neighbors who are are either single/married, retirees of all ages, children, and interracial couples from Hispanics, Whites, Blacks, and others. Described in detail below are the empirical statistics of Jefferson County community. According to the July 2009 Census of the City-Data.com, Jefferson County has a total population of 665,027 with 89% urban and 11% rural: male has 312,089 (47.1%) rate while female has 349,958 (52.9%). The median age of male residents is 34 years old while female median age is 38 years old.

Approximately, there are 598 people living per square mile. Majority of the people in in Jefferson County works in the industry of educational, health, and social services (21.8%) but there are also 8.7% of unemployed individuals. Several races live in Jefferson County particularly; White Non-Hispanic (53.9%), Black Non-Hispanic (40.6%), Hispanic or Latino (3.1%), Asian (1.4%), and two or more races (0.7%). The births per 1000 population from 2000-2006 is 14 while the death rate is 11. Infant death per 1000 live births is 11.

5 and there are 13% members of the population who are not enrolled in health insurance program. Majority of the population is in a familial household with 2 members (City-Data.com, 2003-2010, n.p.). The characteristics of the people in the community define community health care needs thus, the suburban, female-domineering, married population of Jefferson County may promote families that are caring, nurturing, and strong. In addition, the nuclear-type family of Jefferson County may lead to self-reliance and isolation while median age of 30 and above is essential to the governing structure.