Introduction
The community that I have decided to study within the frame of this project is the population of North Miami that is a suburban city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. As it is clear from the research that I have previously conducted, the population of the city is presented mainly by white and Hispanic people. The number of overweight people was relatively high and it could be definitely regarded as a dangerous tendency related to the lives of the residents. Vulnerable population that I identified is represented by people living in low-income areas. The reason why I suppose them to present a vulnerable population is related to the fact that their access to health care is limited due to their income levels. The purpose of the given paper is to study the particular challenges of the population mentioned related to health care.
Vulnerable Population Overview
Having conducted the research based on observations made in North Miami, I identified people living in low-income areas as the most vulnerable group and there were a few reasons for it. To begin with, people living in these areas tend to face more risks related to health due to their housing facilities. Their houses are located in the areas with a lot of litter and some of them are tumbled-down.
As for the additional information that I retrieved with the help of observations, I noticed quite an obvious difference between people living in poorer and wealthier districts. As for the former, there were a lot of homeless people in the streets. Besides, there is quite an active traffic in these areas, and this is why its residents have to face the negative impact of noise and air pollution on their health.
Also, it is necessary to mention the trends affecting this very group of the population of the city. To begin with, there is certain economic inequality between the groups; due to the lack of education or various health problems, many of these people have to fulfil low-wage work and their opportunities to change their lives are limited. Therefore, there are many factors influencing these people’s health situation such as economical and social ones.
Strengths, Risk Factors, and Barriers
As for the particular factors related to health that present the strengths and weaknesses of this group of the population, I suppose that it is quite difficult to generalize this information due to the fact that this population is presented by people of different ethnicities. It is known that people belonging to racial minorities tend to earn less, and this is why I would like to pay more attention to poor Hispanic people. As for the strong points concerning the health of this ethnicity group, it can be stated that these people are less likely to have smoking-related cancer due to relatively small percent of smokers if compared to white population (“Health of Hispanic or Latino population,” 2017). As for risk factors peculiar to this group, it is known that cardiovascular disease remains one of the leading causes of death among this group of population (Daviglus, Pirzada, & Talavera, 2014).
Apart from that, it can be stated that there are certain barriers impacting the health of this population. To begin with, a lot of these people cannot afford proper treatment if they have diseases involving constant use of medicaments. Besides, I noticed that there were a few newer health care organizations working in the city but the access to them was complicated and it presents an additional problem for representatives of the discussed group.
Community Resources
As for the local health resources that are available for poorer people in North Miami, it can be said that there are a few healthcare organizations, hospitals and medical centers. For instance, there are emergency care centers, centers helping to children and elderly people, and nursing homes. At the same time, it is necessary to say that organizations working with better equipment are located in wealthier areas. Furthermore, considering the size of population, healthcare workers cannot provide all the people with proper care. Due to the lack of financial resources and the necessity to go out of the district to get help a lot of people with lower income from North Miami face challenges and this is why it is necessary to build more hospital facilities in poorer areas.
Community Health Problem Diagnosis
There is a lot of community health problems related to the population that I have chosen but I would like to focus on access to health services that remains an important issue for those people from North Miami with low incomes. Therefore, it may be necessary to attract more healthcare nurses in these areas in order to provide financially disadvantaged people with proper care. As for the problem that has been identified during the first part of my project, it aligns with the objective AHS-5.1 from Healthy People 2020, the objective aimed at providing about ninety percent of people with a source of ongoing care (“Access to health services,” 2014).
Summary
In the end, a lot of factors such as economic inequality and environmental situation influence health of the people presenting the vulnerable group identified in North Miami. The primary problem related to this group is a lack of access to healthcare services. As it is clear from one of the objectives stated in Healthy People 2020, this problem exists in many parts of the country and urgent measures are necessary to change the situation.
References
Access to health services. (2014). Web.
Daviglus, M. L., Pirzada, A., & Talavera, G. A. (2014). Cardiovascular disease risk factors in the Hispanic/Latino population: Lessons from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, 57(3), 230-236.
Health of Hispanic or Latino population. (2017). Web.