Community Health Assessment Paper

Community Health Assessment

Alex Goenaga

Lehman College

Assessment of a community for health care purposes revolves around the goal of treating the community as a client and improving its overall heath. This involves knowing the customs of the community, identifying their needs, and the usage of their current resources and optimally applying them. Beyond these measures nursing intervention can also include advocating for the community through legislative procedures and supporting health campaigns throughout local and state locations. By using these methods, goals and objectives of health promotion along with treatment can be established and used by the community.

A community of interest to me
It’s one of the largest Latino communities in New York City with about 55,836 of its inhabitants or roughly 46.2% composed of Hispanic/Latino heritage. Puerto Rican immigration after the First World War established the first foothold of Latinos in what was a mostly Italian inhabited Harlem back then. The area grew slowly and increasingly the Italians moved out to the surrounding areas like Brooklyn, Bronx, New Jersey, and upstate New York. This allowed Hispanics more room to move in on top of another wave of immigration during and after World War II in 1940s and 1950s. By this time a strong presence of Latinos dominated the area primarily populated by Puerto Ricans, their numbers reached 63,000 in 1950, and defined the neighborhood according to their needs. Today Puerto Ricans make up about 28,779 inhabitants or 23.8% of the total population In Spanish Harlem. As Puerto Rican population declines the Mexican population has been on a steady rise over the past decades, composing 9.1% and the second most Hispanic/Latino population in Spanish Harlem. Black African Americans also heavily populate the area making up 30.2% of the total, estimated at 36,467 inhabitants. The rest of the population is composed of Whites at 14.0%, which estimate to 16,880 inhabitants and Asians at 9,104 or 7.5% of the population, (Community Board Eleven,
The percent of residents living below the poverty is nearly twice as high as in Manhattan and New York City overall (Community Health Profiles, 2006, p. 2). Crime rate is also significantly high for the area encompassing East Harlem. “While crime rates in East Harlem have decreased over the past two decades from historic highs, there has been a recent increase in gang related activity, particularly among youth, which has led to increased violence and isolation for residents of public housing” (Community Board Eleven, 2014). In terms of health care residents suffer from higher than average rates of disease and experience more barriers to health care access than those in NYC overall, with 3 in 10 without a regular doctor and more than 20% of residents visiting the emergency department for routine health (Community Health Profiles, 2006, p. 3). According to community board Eleven (2014), they are more likely to die prematurely and have a higher than normal rates of heart disease. HIV/AIDS, asthma, teenage pregnancies and infant