Community Assessment
Part 1: Selected Community
Boundaries
The selected community lives along North Winnetka Avenue. West Canty Street surrounds the community to the south, Turner Avenue to the east, North Clinton Avenue to the west and Stewart Drive to the north in Dallas County. The community comprises approximately 25 by 25 blocks. The area does not have an official name but the two-directional local road in the area and the historic single family homes identifies it.
Housing
Most of the housing structures in the area are single-family homes. The structures look old but a few of them look new. Generally, the architectural blueprint for most of the structures is the same. The homes are detached and they are stone built. Although the houses are well-maintained, a few of them show signs of disrepair.
Open Space and Common Areas
The larger part of the community has trees and buildings. Consequently, there are limited open areas and common areas. The compounds around housing structures are relatively small. They look equal in sizes suggesting that they were pre-designed.
Transportation and Infrastructure
Transportation is not a big issue in the community because there are good access roads in it. Nonetheless, public transportation is rare meaning that the majority of people use their cars. The access roads are in good condition and are well-maintained. The major highway in the area is quite far from the community. In terms of strengths, the area is clean with no signs of uncollected garbage or dump sites.
Services
There are no social service agencies and recreation centers in the community. No signs of parks and playgrounds exist. However, there are beauty and barber shops in it. Two children’s care facilities are also in it.
Economy and Business
The businesses in the community are located in a central area. The majority of the businesses are fast food outlets and restaurants. The community appears to be in a thriving mood with new structures being developed.
Education
There is one public library in the community located at the business center. The only public school is half a kilometer away from the community. However, as stated above, there are two children’s care facilities in it. The literacy level appears is relatively higher based on the way people communicate and present themselves.
Safety
There is no fire department in the community. But there are posters providing emergency numbers for calling in case of fire.
Senior Care
The community contains no in-home care facilities. No nursing home is available for seniors as well.
People on the Street
In terms of age distribution, the majority of the people living in the community are children and teenagers. The rests are middle-aged adults and a few old people. Fewer people seen walking on the streets are middle-aged adults. Fewer people look friendly but suspicious.
Race/ethnicity
The majority of the people living in the community are Caucasians. Only a few of them are blacks.
Religion
There is one church structure in the community. The church structure looks a bit old. But it is in a good condition.
Media
Most of the newspapers on the streets are the local dailies and a few parenting magazines. There is only one bookstore at the business center. However, there are satellite dishes in the majority of homes.
Health and Morbidity
There are no major signs of chronic diseases in the area but the old people look worn out. There are a dentist office and a clinic facility in the community. The public hospital in the community is about seven hundred meters away from the community.
Health Risk
A look at the area shows that the community is vulnerable to poor eating habits. This is evident from the high number of fast food outlets in the community’s shopping area and the high number of obese children and teenagers. Besides being obese, the majority of the children and teenagers do not engage in physical activities. To make the matter worse, there are no playing grounds except the small compounds outside the family houses.
Goal
The main goal for this community would be to reduce the number of obese children and teenagers living in the selected area. This goal would be achieved through physical activities and good eating habits (Mendoza et al., 2014).
Action Strategies
In order for the community to reach the desired goal, it would be necessary to teach the members the new eating habits. This would involve education on healthy foods as opposed to eating junk foods. Regarding physical activities, it would be necessary to teach the members, especially children and teenagers, the importance of exercise and physical activities. The assumption is that good eating habits and physical exercises would contribute significantly to reducing the weight of the overweight and obese children and teenagers. In so doing, the number of obese youth would reduce significantly.
Expected Outcomes
It is expected that at the end of the partnership program, children and teenagers living in the community would engage in the recommended number of hours for physical exercises. It is also expected that they would change their eating habits and reduce weight significantly. Once these outcomes are achieved, it is expected that the number of obese children and teenagers would reduce significantly (Kimmel, & Rosenberg, 2015).
References
Kimmel, P., & Rosenberg, M. (2015). Chronic renal disease. San Diego: Elsevier.
Mendoza, T. et al. (2014). Environmental disparities present a challenge for diabetes prevention and management efforts in Dallas County. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 7(5), 151-170. Retrieved from http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1261&context=jhdrp
PART 2
Identifying Myself
I am the community health nurse for the selected area. I am contacting partners in this community and the neighboring communities to collaborate with me in addressing the main health risk in the area. The community partners I am reaching are the health facilities, experts in physical activities, and the county’s program that deals with obesity and diabetes.
Community Assessment
A quick look at the community shows that the area does not have playgrounds for children to play actively. Furthermore, it appears that the majority of the children and teenagers in the area eat junk food because it is easy to obtain, and their parents are busy or not at home most of the time. Consequently, the incidence of obesity is high. A further look at the area shows that few of the children engage in physical activities.
At a county level, diabetes affects 11.4% of the people living in Dallas County. This percentage is higher than the state’s percentage, which stands at 9.6%. It is also higher than the national figure that stands at 8% (Mendoza et al., 2014). Some of the factors that contribute to the high prevalence of diabetes include obesity, inactivity, family history and environmental factors.
Priority Health Risk
Although there are a number of health risks in the community, the priority health risk would be obesity among the children and teenagers that could lead to diabetes. Studies show that obesity is a serious health risk. It increases the chances of contracting diabetes among the pre-diabetic individuals (Mendoza et al., 2014). To prevent the community from contracting high numbers of diabetes in the future, it would be necessary to address obesity at this stage. By reducing the number of obese youth it is anticipated that the number of diabetic people would reduce significantly in the future.
Plan for Resolving the Issue
The plan for resolving the health issues will include a community nursing plan, engaging in partnerships with other organizations in the community, offering educational and awareness-raising strategies, and lobbying for further resources that would enhance the health of the community. A community nursing plan would include a range of activities and events that would work towards achieving the aim of reducing obesity in children and teenagers. For instance, an educational and awareness-raising program can be launched to inform the community, especially the children and teenagers, of the dangers of obesity and the methods needed to reduce obesity and the risk of developing diabetes. Furthermore, sessions on lifestyle choices such as eating healthy food with low calories could be offered. Partnerships with the health facilities in the community and in the neighboring community of Dallas County will be instrumental in offering medical services that may be necessary for the members. Furthermore, experts in the physical exercise field would be engaged in partnerships to provide exercise programs and sports suitable for children and teenagers. Finally, the community health nurse and community members could lobby for play parks and sports fields to provide more opportunity for physical exercise.
The community health nurse needs to be innovative in creating opportunities for the youth to exercise more. Seeing that health facilities do not own assets such as spaces for physical activities and exercise, it means that the nurse must devise physical activities that may not require a large space. One method of dealing with this issue would be to encourage parents to buy bicycles for children to ride. Although this method would be a good one, some parents might not buy their children and teenagers bicycles. Therefore, it would be necessary for the nurse to collaborate with experts in the physical exercise field. These people would teach children and teenagers physical activities and enroll them in exercise classes that do not require bicycles. These partners would provide exercise plans to the members of the community.
Partners
As far as the partnership is concerned, healthcare facilities in the community and in the neighboring community would be responsible for checking whether children and teenagers are diabetic or not. They would also be responsible for checking the pre-diabetic conditions of the children and teenagers. These facilities have the medical resources that may be required to test whether obese children and teenagers are diabetic or not. They also have the personnel to conduct the investigations. In this respect, the health facilities would be best suited for offering a nursing plan. The physical activity experts would be responsible for teaching the children and teenagers the right physical activities and appropriate sports for reducing weight. The community health nurse would be responsible for teaching the members the right eating habits and urging the children and teenagers to engage in physical activities (Kimmel, & Rosenberg, 2015). Lastly, partners from diabetes and obesity programs in the county would be responsible for teaching the members about diabetes and the importance of physical activities in reducing weight.
Eliciting Partner’s Thoughts and Suggestions
Hopefully, the health facilities in the community and the county’s programs that deal with obesity and diabetes would be concerned about the issue for children and teenagers. Accordingly, they would probably be willing to participate in discussions and planning meetings with the community health nurse in addressing the issue. Furthermore, they might be willing to provide the resources that would be required to run the program. The community health nurse will gather the perceptions and ideas from the partners to come up with conclusions and methods to take the process further. The partners will be invited to give their suggestions to improve the program.
References
Kimmel, P., & Rosenberg, M. (2015). Chronic renal disease. San Diego: Elsevier.
Mendoza, T. et al. (2014). Environmental disparities present a challenge for diabetes prevention and management efforts in Dallas County. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 7(5), 151-170. Retrieved from http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1261&context=jhdrp