Community Assessment

Introduction

Community assessment is a process that is designed to identify the fortitude, the needs as well as the challenges that face a certain community. It involves the evaluation of the existing situation, a judgment as to what would be the desired situation for the community to exist in and lastly the comparison of the actual as well as the desired situation which is aimed at creating a priority list for concerns. This paper shall seek to conduct a full community assessment (Clark, 2015). It will study a population by defining the particular community in respect to the education, the race, the location of the community, the defining characteristics as well as providing the information subject to the community assessment.

Population Being Studied

The population being studied for purposes of the community statement is the Algonquin village. These are the aboriginal occupants of the Algonquin’s village in Illinois. The population which is in the environs of Chicago and especially between the Loop  is a population that is habitable given  that they have a crime rate of thirteen per a thousand persons living in  the area. Notably, while traditionally they lived in wooden shelters referred to as the Mikiwams, today they live in housings that are similar to those in the general public (2019 Senior Report, 2019). It is subject to this therefore that the Algonquin that occupy the Algonquin village in Chicago shall be studied.

Races of the Population within the Community

The 2010 census report revealed that a total of 30,046 persons reside in Algonquin. The report further provided that there were ten thousands, two hundred and forty seven households and consequently there were eight thousand, one hundred and seventy families who resided in the village (2019 Senior Report, 2019). The racial composition of the town was made up of 87 percent Caucasian, 1.7 percent African American, 7 percent Asian American, 0.2 percent was made up of Native Americans, and there was also a 6.8 percent of the Hispanic race in the Population.

Geographical Location and Boundaries of the Group

Algonquin is a village that is located in McHenry and Kane Counties found in the Illinois state of the United States. It is found in the outskirts of Chicago and is located at an estimate of forty miles to the northwest of the loop. The village is also known as “The Gem of the Fox Valley”, This is because of the location of its downtown. It was established in the late 1800s and was for a long time referred to as the river community, but the village has made modern advancements in the recent years as well as experiencing considerable suburban growth that has seen it transition slowly into a major regional hub fully assorted with shopping centers, restaurants as well as a communal campus (2019 Senior Report, 2019). To the north boundary, it is bordered by the Lake in the Hills, the northeast border meets with Cary as the eastern border meets with the Barrington Hills and also the south is bordered by Carpentersville.

General Defining Characteristics of the Group, Birth and Death Rates and Community Resources

Algonquin is part of the McHenry and Kane counties and therefore the birth and death rates will be similar as to those in those counties because they form a substantive population of the counties. The birth rate in McHenry as at 2017, was at 4.1 percent which when considered in comparison to other counties in Illinois,  it was the sixth highest among the counties. As at the period between 2016 and 2017, the percentage of uninsured citizens had declined from 3.37 percent to 3.01 percent with was record ten percent decrease. The health coverage of the individuals living in Algonquin is 3.01 percent of the population is uninsured. Seventy percent are covered by employers coverage, 6.32 percent are under Medicaid while 8.3 percent are under Medicare (2019 Senior Report, 2019). There is also a small percentage of about 0.5 percent who are covered by the Military insurance coverage.

The community resources that are relevant to the health of the Algonquin include the recreational centers like swimming pools that can be used for aquatic exercises. There are also health facilities, social centers, churches and fitness centers, pharmacies, groceries and recreational parks. The population also houses educational facilities and a community college that has been incorporated as part of the community by itself.

Education

The total population as at 2017 was 31, 097 persons which was a thirty-three percent increase from the year 2000. In trying to address the education levels in the village, the study looked into those that never went to high school, those who did go to high school and were done with education, those that had more than one year in college, those who had associates degree , those with Bachelor’s degree, Masters and Doctorate’s degree. Of the entire population, around 4 percent of the population has less than high school education, 20 percent have high school education or that which can be compared as an equity, 17 percent had spent more than one year of college and consequently 11 percent had attained associates degree (2019 Senior Report, 2019). The bulk of the population that amounted to around 32 percent had attained Bachelor’s degrees and another 11 percent attained Masters thereof. A population of 0.8 percent had attained professorships and Doctorate’s degree.

Reason for Community Assessment

The community assessment is based on the 2018-2019 community assessment performed by the University of Chicago in partial fulfillment of the conditions set forth by the Affordable Care Act (CDC works 24/7, 2019). The priorities of my research shall be similar in kind to the priorities in that community assessment. The priorities include the prevention and management of chronic diseases such as asthma and diabetes, the building of trauma resiliency in regards to the mental health and the reduction of the inequities that are direct consequences of the Social Determinants of Health, for example, the access to care and food insecurities.

The community assessment that will be done will seek to address mainly the prevalence of chronic diseases more especially asthma, and thereafter, the reasons for the prevalence will be identified. It is important to note that this community assessment will achieve the purpose of formulating the strategic plans whose implementation will be very instrumental in countering the prevalence of asthma (CDC works 24/7, 2019). The community assessment shall also document the community that is being studied and whose healthcare needs is the responsibility of University of Chicago Medical Center and it shall be so as to ensure that there is no exclusion of those, for example, that are uninsured and who cannot afford basic medical care given that their numbers are very low.

The reasons that a community needs assessment are important therefore include the fact that the assessment will determine whether there will be a need for a training requirement, if at all there will be a need, the training shall ensure that the training so acquired is directly linked to the needs that organizational needs are relevant. It also tries to address the issues that the determine the root causes of poor performance as well as determine what is the desired performance as such subject to the training results.

Collection of the Community Assessment Information

The community assessment information in relation to the priorities of the assessment could be collected in various ways. For the purpose of this study, there are four ways through which the information will be collected. They include windshield surveys, focus group discussions, informants’ interviews, and participant observation. Firstly, the windshield survey will be used to gather the obvious data. This data could include the cleanliness of the community, number of cars around the town, the health facilities available in the community, the number of spaces between homes as well as the size of the homes. This data will be instrumental during analysis to determine the reasons behind the prevalence of the diseases (Nardi & Petr, 2002). The cleanliness of the community may be influenced by the number of cars around the area whose gaseous waste may affect the breathing for the asthmatic persons and hence increase the pervasiveness of their attacks.

The windshield survey was conducted on a Monday morning and was done through a drive through around the streets. The main concern of the survey was to familiarize myself with the important factors as regards health. It is subject to the study that the a number of key factors were determined including the fact that the area has developed in terms of educational facilities as there is an increased number of schools, public libraries and colleges. Another Social determinant of health important to look for during the survey included the presence of health facilities and their accessibilities in terms of the population. This is fundamentally important in the light of the strategic formulations of intervention measures.

Secondly, focus group discussions will be conducted to collect data that focuses on opinion. This data may include the satisfaction of the populace with the healthcare services, the resources that are being used as well as the general areas of concern as regards the healthcare that the populace is concerned with. The focus group discussions can be chosen at random during school fairs, workshops and health education and sensitization days within the hospitals, schools and at workplaces (Nardi & Petr, 2002). The areas of concern that will be relevant to the community assessment can be highlighted to the population and they can be allowed to react on it and record their thoughts as regards the specific issues. The information provided here will be very fundamental in the goal-setting phase of the community assessment. The focus group discussions will assist in the determination of the various impeding factors as well as the determination of healthcare needs in the community.

Thirdly, there is the informant’s interview that can be done at individual levels. The informants shall be selected at random from all the corners of the area of study. The interviews can be conducted in different ways, for example, through face to face interviews and questionnaires. The questionnaires can be open-ended or structured and they may be used to answer questions like the strengths and assets of the community. They can also be used to answer about the history of the community, the access to healthcare services, the climatic conditions that are detrimental to the asthmatic persons and also whether there should be an improvement of any kind in as far as access to healthcare is concerned (Lundy & Janes, 2009). The information collected here will be useful in goal setting and the determination of the implementation strategies.

The interviews were conducted and they were based on the questionnaires that had earlier on presented to them. The population that was used for purposes of this community assessment was chosen at random from health facilities and recreational parks. The interview was conducted on the same day as the questionnaires. They were conducted for a period of fifteen minutes with open ended questions that were asked in a manner that allowed the interviewees to give an opinion of what they thought about the strength of the Algonquin population. An interview was conducted with a senior citizen of the Algonquin population. The strength of the population as per the interview was that the persons as such are trying to adjust to the modern world as such and find their strength in the communal addressing of issues.

Lastly, participants’ observation can be used to analyze the persons and collect data in reference to the priorities of the community assessment. It should be noted that the factors that increase the pervasiveness of the asthma condition include prolonged cold conditions. Participants’ observation can collect data on the number of homeless persons present within the community. The economic status of the persons living in the community can also be observed and this can be used to determine the impediments that loom, for example, the lack of health insurance coverage in the low-income people (Lundy & Janes, 2009). The safety of the environment can also be observed and information like pollution of air by vehicles and industries around and how they affect the prevalence of the disease.

Conclusion

The community assessment after defining the community through profiling can be done since the priorities will have been set by analyzing the needs of the community as presented by the profiling of the community. The importance of community assessment is tied to the increase of the eminence of the healthcare provision by both the federal and state levels of healthcare providers.

References

Clark, M. J. D. (2015). Population and community health nursing.

Nardi, D., & Petr, J. (2002). Community health and wellness needs assessment: A step-by-step guide. Australia: Delmar Learning.

In Estes, M. E. Z. (2014). Health assessment & physical examination.

Weber, J., & Kelley, J. (2010). Health assessment in nursing. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Lundy, K. S., & Janes, S. (2009). Community health nursing: Caring for the public’s health.

2019 Senior Report. (2019). Retrieved 26 August 2019, from https://www.americashealthrankings.org/learn/reports/2019-senior-report

CDC Works 24/7. (2019). Retrieved 26 August 2019, from https://www.cdc.gov