Community Assessment: Passaic County
Introduction
Community assessment is an essential research method used by researchers to identify the gaps within a specific target group in a community. The assessment entails seeking information concerning different types of community needs including gathering information form the community based on the target population, individual opinions, felt, expressed, and normative needs to determine the ability to meet such needs of the health promotion strategy. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a community assessment for the Passaic County located in New Jersey by defining the community identifying the gaps in healthcare needs. The information is crucial to aid in decision making regarding distribution of healthcare services and other resources.
Defining the Community
The Passaic County has an estimated population of 502,000 people with about 85.1% citizens of U.S. as of 2019. However, this depicted a significant decrease from the data collected in 2018 whereby the population was estimated at 503,310 people. Nonetheless, the population increased significantly to stand at 524,118 as of 2020. The most populace area in this County is Paterson, the largest city with a population of 159,732 residents according to the 2020 census (Scott et al., 2018). The population’s average age is 37.7 years, with a median household income of $77,040, a significant growth from that of 2018, which was $75,259. The County has five large ethnic groups and several other minor groups. The White (Non-Hispanic) represent 40.3%, while White (Hispanic) represent 26.3% of the population. Other (Hispanic) represent 17 %, African Americans represent 14%, while the Asians stand at 6% of the households in Passaic County (Karol et al., 2017). Besides, the residents speak non-English language as the primary language at their homes. However, other residents speak Syleti, Arabic, Spanish, and Bengali languages. Unfortunately, about 10% of the residents are ‘linguistically isolated,’ which indicates that their lack of fluency in the English language significantly affects their quality of life. In 2019, the property ownership in Passaic County was $360,100, while the homeownership rate was 52.5%. According to statistics, most of the residents drove alone to work, and the average care ownership per household was two cars. The number of insured individuals has increased since 2014 following the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in the U.S.
Further, the county government pushes for FamilyCare insurance to increase individuals’ eligibility to free or low-cost health insurance for individuals who do not have employer insurance. Such covers vision, prescriptions, doctor visits, mental health, dental care, and hospitalization, among other services. In this regard, the life expectancy has significantly increased over the last few years. Besides, the number of live births stood at 70.1% in 2019 (O’Reilly‐de Brún et al., 2018). The County has the second-highest teen birth rate in New Jersey with too many babies born after little or no prenatal care. Most of the residents thrive, although some struggle to manage their lives. At least 9.85% of the population experience food insecurity. Various programs are continually being implemented to improve birth outcomes. The education levels in Passaic country are sparingly distributed. At least 35% have attained high school education, and 15% have some college education, although not graduated (O’Reilly‐de Brún et al., 2018). About 5% have associate degree, while 19% have bachelor’s degrees. Master’s degree holders stand at 8% while 2% have professional school degree, and only 1% have Doctorate degree. However, about 3% of the population have no schooling history. Such explains why the County depicts high crime, violence, and juvenile crime levels. Health-wise, the County was severely hit by the current COVID-19 pandemic with its positive cases and high death rates.
Boundaries
Passaic County was created from Essex and Bergen counties, which formed some of its immediate neighbors in 1837. The country consists of Acquackanonk, Pompton, Paterson, Manchester, and West Milford towns. It occupies about 197 square miles and is bordered by New York state to the north and Pompton and Pequannock to the south; the Passaic river, crossing the country’s southeastern part (Eley et al., 2021). The terrain of the rural northwestern part is more rugged than in the crowded southeastern part. The northwest region is also rich in lakes. Besides, the County is predominated by hickory and Oak trees with recreational facilities such as Ringwood, Greenwood Lake, Wawayanda state parks, Wanaque Reservoir, and Abram S. Hewitt forests. The County has 16 municipalities acknowledged as ‘up-county.’
The Purpose of Community Assessment
Conducting a community assessment depicts essential benefits in healthcare sector. Every community reveals unique needs and experiences that shape their realities and needs for the healthcare set up. Firstly, it increases the local health department’s visibility, and the survey’s findings enhance a crucial understanding of the community and support of new relevant programs. In other words, conducting an assessment enables the healthcare providers to determine the most relevant programs and strategies that would result in optimum outcomes (O’Reilly‐de Brún et al., 2018). Besides, it sets the foundation to determine potential disparities in providing essential healthcare services. Further, the assessment helps to effectively implement the healthcare initiatives that are relevant to the specific community, in this case, the Passaic community. The assessment also helps to allocate resources for maximum healthcare benefits of the population appropriately.
Collection of Information
Data collection methods is a key focus in community assessment. While the assessment focuses to identify the gaps in healthcare services, effectiveness of the data collection is paramount to enhance results accuracy. In this regard, the information will be collected through various methods including focus groups. This will aid in collecting qualitative information to enhance the understanding of the nature, scope, and local context that regard addressing community needs influencing families. Focus groups sessions will be scheduled for about one hour, with the first 15 minutes meant for introductions and the remaining 45 minutes used to complete the survey through dialogue. Other sources of information will include secondary data outsourced from previous studies. Also, data will be collected from local facilities such as healthcare centers. However, the key focus will be on the quality of data instead of quantity.
2) Assessment:
The assessment is a crucial exercise that entails determining the methods used to gather and generate data. This has huge influence on the quality of life of the residents since it determines the effectiveness of the healthcare initiatives employed by the county government. In this regard, the most legit methods will be used to collect data and explore the community’s needs.
3) Data Gathering
The research acknowledged various information sources that provide insights on the general state of affairs of the Passaic community. The government entities were recognized for their ability to offer dependable information regarding the crucial attributes of the geographical communities. These include Healthy People 2020, Federal agencies with statistical programs, and the state and local health departments (Scott et al., 2018). Further, scholarly journals and articles were applauded for their ability to put data together more concisely and elaborately. This eases the ability to comprehend vital aspects that aid in developing effective approaches in enhancing the community’s health. Also, the secondary sources offered vital information to base the current research. Conducting internet search related to community health in Passaic County was also deemed relevant since current information can be easily realized.
4) Data Generation
The processes leading to creation of data are vital to enhance its viability. Data generation describes the methods utilized in order to collect data. Besides, the analytical strategy for data analysis direly depends on the types of processes used to generate data under scrutiny. In this regard, a combination of various data generation methods is vital to ensure the final results are legitimate. Therefore, data generation methods applied in this assessment included windshield surveys, focus groups, informant interviews, and participant observation. However, each method provided crucial insights into the community’s overall state of affairs in Passaic County.
- Windshield Surveys:
This entails an informal survey whereby the healthcare professionals drive around the community while making observations. It provides a visual overview of the community while noting the trends and conditions that may impact the overall health status of the community. The data collected provides a necessary background to conduct the assessment. Using private cars deems the most appropriate means of transport while conducting windshield surveys since the professionals can spend appropriate amounts of time collecting data from areas that portray significant interest. These could be the proximity to healthcare services to different populations, and the impacts of water serenity on the health of the people. Other kinds of data collected through this method include the amount of space between businesses and homes, quality and safety of streets, and availability of social amenities.
- Participant Observation:
Participant observation is a qualitative research method that involves observing the participants and actively engaging in their activities. This method provides insightful information about the culture and aids in interpreting the observation. Such include observing the effectiveness of people’s interactions, and the developmental levels of the population. Observing the economic activities carried out by the residents is also possible though observation. This will require the observers to spend quality time to make appropriate observations.
- Informant Interviews:
The informants involved interviews with people who are well-conversant with the community. This provided the basis to collect information from a wide range of key people such as professionals, community leaders, and residents who have first-hand knowledge of the community. Information gathered through this method includes the concerns of community members, gaps in resource allocation, and access to healthcare. In this regard, informant interviews helped to reduce the gap in the effectiveness of data collected from diverse sources. For instance, the interviews provided insights on the specific areas of Passaic County where drug abuse is high and the average income per household in specific areas. This is crucial to assess the appropriate measures to curb such challenges in the efforts to improve healthcare outcomes.
- Focus Groups:
This entails group interaction with a carefully selected small number of people. They are essential in providing critical insights into the target group’s factors. In this case, groups of 6 to 10 individuals were used to collect information about the health perspectives of Passaic County. The results were compared for various groups to obtain an overall view of the population. The information included community resources used, satisfaction with the healthcare resources, and general concerns of the community.
- Surveys:
The survey method was also used to collect data for community assessment. This involved open-ended and multiple-choice questions provided to the participants. However, caution was taken to ensure that the participants were qualified enough to answer the questions while avoiding potential biased opinions which would affect the results legitimacy. Some of the questions concerned nutrition patterns, demographic information, and community safety.
Findings
The findings indicated that various factors influenced the health of the community. These included unhealthy lifestyles, pollution, housing, and income levels. For instance, the housing facilities were deemed too expensive to be afforded by most residents, who resolved to live in poor facilities. Houses with poor ventilation and those near sewerage facilities significantly contribute to poor health outcomes of the population. Further, following the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity increased in Passaic, and this depicted critical impacts on the health of the residents. While some people lost their employment, as a result, most of the households could not afford a balanced diet, and this threatened their health status. Another finding was the low or no prenatal care for newborns. This is mainly for teen pregnancies and significantly affects the health of the newborns. In this regard, young people should be encouraged to enroll in Medicaid and Medicare programs that would cater for their prenatal care. Besides, youth programs should be developed to educate young people on the dangers of engaging in sexual activities during their early ages.
Conclusion
Generally, Passaic is an average county in various metrics including education and development levels. The County comprises of different races, with the Whites taking the most significant percentage. The growing population comprises of a high number of uneducated individuals, which poises a critical factor that hinders access to quality healthcare. Drug abuse also paralyzes the ability of healthcare facilities to produce quality outcomes on various health conditions. In essence, the county government should implement measures that promote education in the County, which will help to eliminate critical vices such as drug abuse and crime that drag behind development plans.
References
Eley, C., Lundgren, P. T., Kasza, G., Truninger, M., Brown, C., Hugues, V. L., & McNulty, C. A. M. (2021). Teaching young consumers in Europe: a multicentre qualitative needs assessment with educators on food hygiene and food safety. Perspectives in public health, 1757913920972739.
Karol, K., Whelpley, M., Brozyna, M., & Gasparino, J. (2017). Triumphs, Challenges, and Strategies of Opening Up: OER course design and implementation at Passaic County Community College.
O’Reilly‐de Brún, M., de Brún, T., O’Donnell, C. A., Papadakaki, M., Saridaki, A., Lionis, C., & MacFarlane, A. (2018). Material practices for meaningful engagement: An analysis of participatory learning and action research techniques for data generation and analysis in a health research partnership. Health Expectations, 21(1), 159-170.
Scott, K., Beckham, S. W., Gross, M., Pariyo, G., Rao, K. D., Cometto, G., & Perry, H. B. (2018). What do we know about community-based health worker programs? A systematic review of existing reviews on community health workers. Human resources for health, 16(1), 1-17.