East Harlem Community Assessment

Purpose
The community assessment and health needs project of East Harlem, New York, seeks to explore the community in relation to its landscape and demographic characteristics taking into consideration its population, health, resources, and its shortfalls amongst other benchmarks of the city. With these statistics and characteristics, it paints a clearer picture of the strengths and weakness of the community making informed needs about the community. This assessment will seek to give a vivid characteristic to the situational analysis of East Harlem and offer recommendations on the ideal measures that should be undertaken to overcome the health needs of the people of East Harlem. This study seeks to consider various health needs and achievements
What do we think causes these housing and income problems? The answer is unemployment and unaffordable housing all of which stems from one root; with poverty. This also stems from the fact that over a third of adults in East Harlem have a college degree; however, a high percentage (26%) has not completed high school and this causes poverty and unemployment issues Statistics shows that about one in eight East Harlem adults ages 16 and older are unemployed, and nearly half of residents spend more than 30% of their monthly gross income on rent which puts them below the poverty line. The median household income is around $30,000 compared to the benchmark median around $55,000 for all of New York City, (Goodman, 2013). East Harlem has a greater percentage of residents living below the poverty which is twice as high as in Manhattan and New York City overall (Community Health Profiles, 2006, p.
In my opinion these all intertwine in the sense that diabetes and obesity are risk factors of heart disease. The number one causes of death for residents of East Harlem, are heart disease and cancer. But I will focus on heart (cardiovascular disease). Heart disease is prevalent in the community and can be attributed to the low income and lifestyle choices individuals make in the community. As indicated in the community lifestyle above, the smoking and unhealthy eating lifestyle is a major cause of this disease or problem. Although its treatment and prevention methods are simple, it’s still the leading cause of disease not only in East Harlem but in New York city in general. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a group of diseases involving the circulatory system and includes strokes and heart diseases. According to Community Health Profiles (2006), the heart disease hospitalization cases in East Harlem has increased by 10% in the past decade. Residents had an average annual heart disease hospitalization rate in 2003-2004 that was more than 80% higher than the Manhattan rate and 45% higher than the rate in NYC overall (2,706/100,000 vs. 1,489/100,000 in Manhattan and 1,856/100,000 in NYC)