The health, education, and overall wellbeing of this community culminate into the bottom line (saving money)
The current needs of any population include access to healthcare, educational programs, wellness centers, multilingual help facilities, a beautified environment, elimination and reduction of crime, clean streets with improved street lighting, road expansion, and upgraded sewer systems. It is also important that we have daycare access for low-income working mothers as well as public schooling above elementary level. New affordable housing, public transportation preferably a bus system, and accessible shopping centers are also part of the needs of the population. Other needs include mobile/trailer homes and the creation of a mixed building as resources for greater employment opportunities for residents (Delgado,1998, p.1). The community today needs many basic improvements, including drainage improvements, sanitary sewer in parts of the district, adequate housing, community amenities, street improvements, economic development, crime prevention, and code enforcement.
The two strengths and needs
Strengths
Community Involvement-Residents have a sense of identity with their community and the Community Reinvestment Act deals with housing and community development.
Needs
Neighborhood Healthcare facility and drainage sanitary sewer improvements in parts of the district.
Provision of solutions to the needs
Healthcare and sanitary sewer improvements are crucial for this community. They all fall under the same category so I will touch on both.
Re-opening the community Wellness Center
Affordable healthcare is a major concern for this multicultural community that lacks health insurance. This small yet vibrant community lacks basic immunizations for children and the ability to handle too severe medical complications that are attended to by FNP’s. Social workers are also on board to assist the clients in obtaining referrals to special programs such as Project for community service, Food Stamps, HCD (Housing and Community Development), and many more. Project for community service was a major compliment that afforded the ailing with the opportunity of scheduling surgeries with specialists. Clients were also able to obtain free eye examinations and glasses as well.
Language barriers were not an issue, employees spoke Creole, Spanish, French, and English. I believe that through advocacy and the support of the community, alliances could be established with profit-making hospitals that are being affected by the uninsured. This facility would be the gatekeeper that is through advocacy, hospitals would join to cover expenses such as the nurse practitioner salary at the small facility so that uninsured patients can be treated at this facility thereby preventing the hospital from getting the direct hit. The emphasis on preventive medicine would certainly help the declining situation in our healthcare system. For example, we could compute ER visits by comparing the uninsured versus the raising debt in hospitals (Meenaghan, 2010, p.34). Private companies (i.e., New America Foundation) fund many projects throughout the community, one of them was the Community Wellness Center. This wellness center was managed by nurse practitioners who provided primary care to the community.
Obstacles to positive change
People not directly benefiting from the positive change within the community raised complaints about the project. They opposed the development of the community since they were not benefiting from the project. This group of people was made up of the wealthy and the able part of the population. The financial aspect was also another obstacle. Acquiring enough monetary backing from donors to support a community wellness center became a problem since most funding organizations and persons assumed that this was a minor project that could develop through communal work. This was not fair since some not-so-important projects and benefiting only a fraction of the population were funded instead of the Community Wellness Center.
Reference List
Delgado, M. (1998). Summary of Key Practices, Research and Policy Implications. Web.
Meenaghan, T. (2010). Macro practice in the human services. Web.