ASSESSMENT AND DIAGNOSIS

Caring For Populations: Assessment and Diagnosis

Caring For Populations: Assessment and Diagnosis

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to provide an opportunity to utilize community assessment strategies, uncover a community health problem and identify the components of the problem related to the community dynamics.

The paper will aim to assess the health problems of East Village community, and identify the reasons for the problem.

Community

The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York. The district is surrounded by 14th Street North, the East River to the east, south of Houston Street and Bowery Street and Third Avenue to the west. It is to the west of Greenwich Village and NoHo, north to Stuyvesant Town and south to the Lower East Side. The district includes the neighborhood known as Alphabet City (Goodness, 1999).

The "East Village" was, and for some still is, part of "Lower East Side." In the early 1980s, manufacturers promoted the name to differentiate the East Village neighborhood and formed a reputation to have the Lower East Side, while trying to capture the charm of the Greenwich Village.

Demographic and Epidemiological Data

Respiratory problem is a condition that involves a sense of trouble or discomfort while breathing or a feeling of not getting enough air. There is no standard for respiratory problems, because for some individuals, shortness of breath may occur with only mild exercise (e.g. climbing stairs) without an indication of the presence of affliction. In many situations, breathing problem represents the presence of significant disease and should be evaluated immediately by a doctor. The respiratory problem has many different causes, one of which is air pollution (Lynch, 2007).

It is unfortunate that poor air quality is a serious threat for the people of the East Village community remains. It is an urban area, but still, it faces the issue of air pollution due to the heavy traffic and nearby factory. Residents of the East Village community suffer from respiratory problems due to the polluted air. The problem increases throughout the smog season in the summer. The community area fails to meet health standards for air quality and ranked among the areas, which have more smog.

Together, respiratory diseases kill more than 400,000 Americans each year, making them the third leading cause of death in the United States. The total population of the US is nearly 300,000,000. Therefore, the percentage of deaths due to respiratory disease is nearly 0.14%. The total population of the East Village community is approximately 74,000. The percentage of people suffering from respiratory problems is nearly 0.09%, which is close to the percentage of deaths by respiratory problems in the US (Goroll, 2009). Therefore, it highlights the concern for the community to tackle with the growing respiratory problems in the residents.

Windshield Survey

The windshield survey revealed that the community has a serious problem of air pollution. Air pollution in the community is the primarily the result of heavy traffic, and nearby factory, which causes significant air pollution. There are local parks in the community, as ...