Community Health - Research Paper Example

Assignment 10 Community Health Introduction According to WHO (1946), health is a of complete mental physical and social well-being of an individual, but does not merely mean the absence of a disease or infirmity. Health of individuals is greatly influenced by so many factors ranging from; our physical environment which include things like, where we live, work or even in our schools. Environment is what surrounds us, and it can be physical or even that which is not physical, as in the case of wind. Good leadership in the community, will bring about the emergence of a better strategy in terms of, dealing with and improving people’s health, it is not only the doctor who is involved in taking care of peoples health ,but the community as a whole should also take charge and try looking into their own health matters( Basavanthappa,2008). Guidelines of Windshield Survey Through the guidelines by the windshield survey, it fostered a microscopic approach into understanding the environment in general. We first looked at housing, and in this we noticed that the community was comprised of persons of all ages, that is, the young, the middle-aged and the elderly, then on the housing conditions, most of the houses were not all that good, in terms of sanitation and structure, most of them, were not kept up so they might need serious repair, the yards in the community and the neighborhood were untidy and overgrown. Looking at these conditions, they might expose the inhabitants of this community to various health hazards, that is, overgrown yards might lead to malaria infections as mosquitoes will inhabit the place, poor housing and sanitation, might expose people to tuberculosis infections and typhoid infections. Other buildings are absolutely occupied and there is maximum congestion in the community, the public and commercial buildings are not accessible to the disabled persons, this congestion arises due to the continuous ignorance by community members to adhere to family planning practices, also poverty drives the girls into early pregnancies as they strive looking for cash and the only way to acquire it is by commercializing themselves, the disabled are ignored and looked down upon in the community. The available parks and public places are not well maintained and are not usually used by a variety of people, also there are some minimal sports facilities which are mostly inadequate and non-functional, there is misuse of the parks and public places that is people do whatever they want and when they want such as public smoking and this can expose one to diseases such as lung cancers. Inadequate sports facilities lead to obesity that intern leads to heart diseases. There are a few museums, libraries, theaters, restaurants and historic sites, these facilities are not readily accessible due to their high rates, considering the fact that not all community members come from the well to do families. The museums do not really reflect the culture of the community as there has been a widespread immigration and intermarriages which has led to the erosion of some of the community’s cultures and norms and this has caused a decline in culture and entertainment. There are a few trees and plants along the streets, the sidewalks are present but are narrow and untidy, there are no trash cans that are sitting out in sight, there are so many people on the streets and they minimally interact with each other, the streets are not well lit during the nights though street light poles are present partially, due to the inadequate number of trees and plants, the environment tends to be stuffy as in is filled with foul smells, the congestion on the streets is so much that there has been emergence of theft, pick pocketing as well as development of massive communicable disease and their spread. Also due to the absence of trash cans, the streets are filthy making the environment unconducive, and these raises the chances of disease occurrence. There are small scale businesses in the community which are in fact a majority, vacant storefronts are also available in plenty due to the high crime rates people have proffered not to undertake whose sale businesses, the business signs are written in a variety of languages that is some are written in slang languages which are not understood by the elderly, most of these businesses do not provide the necessities for the community as a majority of the population is comprised of the poor hence cannot afford high quality goods, there is a mining industry present and due to the available working conditions, it has exposed the workers to various occupational health hazards such as silicosis, lung cancers and even importance. There is an evidence of public transportation marked by the presence of trains, and public service vehicles, they are well used by the majority of the population, the trains cost as little as $419 but this depends on the distance of travel hence the prices fluctuates though it’s cheaper compared to road transport which cost $615. There is normally heavy traffic during the rush hours as most middle income earners use these means of transport, there is a major highway nearby and the traffic is mostly commercial with a few private cars, bicycles are in plenty with a few bike lanes and tracks. Continued use of public transport can lead to environmental pollution and fumes emitted from these machines can precipitate somatic diseases that might eventually cause serious injuries or even deaths (Rudkin, 2003). There are countable public service providers such as mental health clinics, dental health clinics, dispensaries, homeless shelters, there are police stations around but no fire stations present and this is very hazardous that is in case of a fire outbreak there will be no any rescue missions available, the scarce health facilities may result to poor service delivery due to overcrowding and minimal staff to patient ratio. Churches and other religious institutions do exist in the community but they do represent a variety of faiths, Christianity is the dominant religion, there exists conflicts between Christianity and Islamic religion, this enmity is cultivated by the doubt that Muslims are terrorists hence a sense of mistrust tend to arise. Conflict between leaders of various denominations as well as exploitation of the poor, it is said “religion is the opium of the poor" and so cheeky religious leaders tend to take advantage for their benefit ( McMurray, 2011) . There are countable hospitals and clinics and are three sub hospitals and one clinic, they are not that easy to get to as there are inadequate facilities and staff and services offered are of poor quality, this poses a challenge to the community as in case of an emergency there will be no available resources to handle it hence leading to deaths, also the infrastructure is underdeveloped making it hard for the accessibility of the health services. The community has poor faith on the available health services provided hence most of them might not attend the hospitals in case they fall sick due to that primitive misconception. Two public and one private school exists nearby, the public schools are poorly maintained as they lack enough facilities while the private schools are well maintained and tend to perform better than the public schools, there are two public universities in the region and five colleges, this means pupils in public schools do not excel much in their studies hence tend to join colleges more than those from private schools who join universities (Rudkin, 2003). The community is comprised of a variety of people who include the old and the young not forgetting the youth and adolescents; there are a few racial or ethnic groups such as the Blacks, Indians a few red Indians, Asians and Americans. Some particular groups tend to live in some areas like the blacks live together in one place or estate, there is no one age or gender that tend to live in a particular area by themselves, the people who live in this community tend to interact with one another in various ways, either through business, conflicts or schools. This community seems to me as comprised of the poor who are the majority, then it is overpopulated, in this community different races and religious groupings have unity, they support their own, the biggest challenge is poverty and inadequate development, the most unexpected thing that I observed is that, the children who come from the middle-aged families tend to perform better in schools and are admitted to the public universities more than those children coming from the well to do families. The community aspect that stood out was the health services as they were minimal but still the population growth rate was high in terms of the number of live births. Conclusion Some of the identified health concerns like; lung diseases, typhoid, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and many others which were found to be existing in the community were not receiving adequate health care and this led to their spread since the medical facilities were scanty. Judging by the hospital records on the number of deaths caused by diseases and some of the devastating conditions in the community I would recommend the establishment of more health facilities, employment of more health workers, and community education on health issues. Also, the government should ensure that there are jobs available so as to reduce the risk of prostitution and these may lead to a decrease in the spread of HIV/AIDS in the community. Also the employment of family planning methods would be a vital step towards curbing overpopulation and poverty levels in the community. Additional services such as immunization programs on some of the communicable diseases should be undertaken, screening of any diseases should be done critically, free maternal child health services should be adopted (Kloos, 2012). References Basavanthappa, S. (2008). Community health nursing. S.l.: Jaypee Bros. Medical P. Kloos, B. et al. (2012). Community psychology: Linking individuals and communities. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. McMurray, J. (2011). Community health and wellness: Primary health care in practice. Chatswood, N.S.W: Elsevier Australia. Rudkin, J. K. (2003). Community psychology: Guiding principles and orienting concepts. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall. Read More