Community Health Assessment

Defining the Community 

Teaneck is a township in Bergen County in the state of New Jersey, the United States of America. Teaneck is classified under the New York City's metropolitan area as a suburb. According to the statistics collected in the 2010 United States Census, the population of Teaneck was 39776 (United States Census Bureau, 2019). According to the data of the 2010 census, Teaneck was classified as the second most populous township of the 70 municipalities In Bergen County after Hackensack (United States Census Bureau, 2019). Teaneck, as a township, was created in 1895 as a result of the New Jersey Legislature from the portions of townships, including Ridgefield and Englewood, and Leonia and Bogota. 

Like most of the townships spread across the United States of America, Teaneck is made up of people who are from different races and speak different languages. Nonetheless, English is the most spoken language in the township (United States Census Bureau, 2019). Spanish is the second most spoken language. Teaneck township is mostly made up of the white race at 53.33%, 27.69% African American, about 0.28% Native American, 9.11% Asian, 0.06% pacific islander, and 6.04% from the other races (United States Census Bureau, 2019). Therefore, the racial group with the highest number of people in Teaneck is the whites, followed by blacks. The following is a graphical representation of the racial makeup of the residents of Teaneck Township. 

Teaneck Township is bordered by eight municipalities in Bergen County of the state of New Jersey (The Township of Teaneck New Jersey, 2019). Some of the municipalities bordering Teaneck include the bordering to the west by Hackensack and River Edge, which lie across the Hackensack River. Teaneck is bordered to the north by Bergenfield and New Milford (The Township of Teaneck New Jersey, 2019). Leonia and Englewood border Teaneck Township to the east while Ridgefield Park and Bogota are to the south of the township. 

Teaneck Township is located within the New York metropolitan area, which spans most of the townships in Bergen County. According to Demographia (2019), the New York metropolitan area covers 4495 square miles and is home to 21045000 people in the metro. Additionally, Teaneck Township is located within Bergen County. Bergen County has the highest number of people in the state of New Jersey, with a noted increase in population between the 2010 census and 2018 (United States Census Bureau, 2019). The entire Bergen County is also part of the larger New York metropolitan area, which is the most expansive in the world by urban landmass. According to the United States Census Bureau (2019), Bergen County had 905116 people across its municipalities. 

According to Hubbard (2018), Teaneck Township was voted among the best places to live in the state of New Jersey. Niche's ranking assigns grades to the townships based on their livability. The ranking recognized Teaneck as a friendly place to live in for two consecutive years. The livability of the township and the strategic positioning of its amenities concerning the people differentiate Teaneck from the other townships in Bergen County and the rest of New Jersey. Diversity within the city received the highest grade at an A+. The township enjoys various levels of diversity, such as racial diversity, which sets it aside from most of the other towns both at the county and the state levels. 

Just like in the other towns in the United States of America, the public schools in Teaneck serve the students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. The teacher-student ratio is 11.52:1, which is one of the best in Bergen County (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). The rate of population change in Teaneck has been recorded at 3%, which is the fourth-smallest change in Bergen County (TownCharts, 2019). Therefore, the statistics imply that Teaneck Township records a slower increase in the births per year compared to the other towns in Bergen County and the state of New Jersey (TownCharts, 2019). According to the United States Census Bureau (2019), 10.6% of the residents under the age of 65 in the Teaneck Township lack health insurance. 

Teaneck is located in the state of New Jersey, which is towards the northeastern side of the United States of America. Geographically, the township is located across the Hudson River from Manhattan, which houses a large area of the New York City downtown. Teaneck Township is recognized as an urban area in the United States of America. Teaneck, as well as the rest of the municipalities in Bergen County, is categorized as part of the New York metropolitan area. Therefore, the area is a suburban part of the metropolitan area and is home to the urban settings that dominate most of Bergen County. 

Performing a community health assessment has various benefits to the community as well as developmental organizations targeting the given community. The community assessment talks of the current health status of an organization, which enhances the decision making of the departments of health at the township, county, and state-level (Pennel et al., 2016). The community health assessment is also focused on raising the issues that a particular population faces in the health aspects. A community health assessment is also being performed to provide lasting solutions to the healthcare issues that face the population in Teaneck Township (Pennel et al., 2016). The solutions target to increase the overall access to the amenities within the township as well as in the neighborhood, while at the same time focusing on the actions that need to be taken to alleviate the effects of diseases within the community. 

Information for the community health assessment will be collected with the use of various methods of data collection. One of the methods of collecting data for the health assessment will be the data gathering. Data gathering will involve the collection of the already existing data regarding the community concerning the health of the individuals. The other method of data collection that will be used is the utilization of the demographics of the community as a source of the community assessment data collection. The other methods of collecting data related to the community health assessment include the windshield surveys and participant observations. 

Assessment 

Data Gathering 

Stakeholders of Health Provision 

Across the healthcare organizations in the Teaneck Township, the stakeholders of the health provision process include the patients, employers, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, the local, state, and federal governments, and the insurance providers within the region (Kneafsey et al., 2016). The insurance organizations provide health coverage to the patients who receive treatment at the various institutions within the township. The pharmaceutical companies manufacture and sell drugs used for treatment purposes by the patients (Kneafsey et al., 2016). While the patients are the recipients of the health provision, the physicians are the providers of the process. The government plays the role of regulating the healthcare sector, such as in New Jersey and the entire United States of America, which serves to enable the patients to access quality healthcare. 

Priority in Health Provision 

The priority of the provision of health within the Teaneck Township lies in the development of programs that majorly aim at promoting and protecting the health and the welfare of the individual residents within the township (Township of Teaneck, 2018). The Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for the realization of the vision and mission regarding healthcare at the township for the residents, workers, and the business people within Teaneck (Township of Teaneck, 2018). The department mainly prioritizes the morbidity and mortality as aspects of the community health that continuously affect the people at Teaneck Township. Under both mortality and morbidity, the cardiovascular (CVD) and pulmonary (CPD) maladies are given extra attention as they affect many residents within the township. 

Health Improvement Strategies 

The residents of Teaneck Township are faced with various health issues such as insufficient healthcare professionals across the hospitals and institutions within the municipality and the lack of proper access to the healthcare services on the side of the residents. One of the solutions to address the lack of proper access to healthcare for the patients is the reduction in the costs associated with healthcare by increasing the insurance coverage of the patients who are below the age of 65. The underinsured and uninsured residents may access healthcare through the lowering of insurance costs. The issue of insufficient staffing at the hospitals can be dealt with by reorganizing the staff at the healthcare institutions while at the same time hiring more medical practitioners to take care of the patients in a bid to reduce cases of morbidity and mortality among the patients. 

Demographics of the Community 

According to the estimates provided by the United States Census Bureau (2018), people under the age of 65 living with a disability within the Teaneck township accounted for 3.9% of the 40619 residents living within the municipality by 2017 (United States Census Bureau, 2018). The population living with disabilities in Teaneck was matched against 8.7% at the national level (United States Census Bureau, 2018). The township, therefore, has fewer persons living with disabilities. The persons living with disabilities within Teaneck require various facilities that enable them to lead normal lives (United States Census Bureau, 2018). For instance, apartments, parking spaces, and playgrounds within the city are integrating wheelchair accessibility as a feature for the persons living with a disability. Furthermore, the hospitals across the township and the others in the state have opened doors for the persons living with disabilities to explore their career advancement in the healthcare-related fields (Nolan, 2019). The internship positions have enabled skilled people living with disabilities to join the job market. 

According to the estimates of the data provided by the United States Census Bureau (2018), about 10% of the residents of Teaneck under the age of 65 are uninsured. The issue of insurance has been a menace to the entire United States of America, with the federal government seeking solutions to the issue (United States Census Bureau, 2018). The problems of underinsurance and lack of insurance altogether have created a gap between the current needs in healthcare for the township and the expected level of healthcare provision within the city. Health analysts within the US have identified that the number of uninsured Americans has been on the rise in the last decade. The number of Americans lacking health insurance was reported to hit 27.5 million in 2018 (Armour, 2019). The analysts of the healthcare sector, however, insisted that the Affordable Care Act was intended to reduce the number of American citizens that were uninsured and had difficulties in footing their medical bills. 

Windshield Surveys 

Windshield surveys are types of data collection methods, which are performed through the use of observations of the surroundings of a place to identify the various issues related to the environment. A windshield survey depicts the relation between the surroundings of Teaneck Township and the health issues that may be found within the place. Hubbard (2018) reports that Teaneck has been voted as one of the best towns to live in across Bergen county and new jersey due to the shortness of distances between the homes of people and their businesses as well as social amenities. On average, most of the residents of Teaneck access to healthcare facilities easily. According to the results of the windshield survey, most of the housing in the town depicts a suburban appearance, which suggests that most of the residents either belong to the middle class or are considered wealthy. Thus, the affordability of healthcare services among the residents of Teaneck is higher compared to the other municipalities in Bergen County. 

Obesity is a national issue in the United States of America. Various health departments across New Jersey have advocated for the presence of recreation parks, which encourage the Americans to reduce their body weight by taking part in the physical activities. Teaneck Township has 24 recreational parks, with 14 of them being developed to provide adequate services to the residents. The presence of developed parks within the city encourages the residents to engage in activities that reduce the contraction and possible effects of lifestyle diseases, including obesity and cardiovascular infections. The results of the windshield survey also hold that the sidewalks of Teaneck are quality and safe for the residents to walk on around town. The increased quality and safety of the sidewalks guarantee a reduction in the cases of accidents caused by poor roads. Reduced cases of accidents within the city decrease the health issues that face the residents of Teaneck. 

Participant Observations 

The observations made on the residents and surroundings of Teaneck Township can be used to determine the level of health issues and their solutions within the city. According to the observations made on the township, Teaneck is safe with low levels of crime. Therefore, the deaths resulting from criminal activities are decreased within the city (Niche, 2018). According to the reviews of the residents and visitors to Teaneck, the township has been identified as a diverse environment with friendly and compassionate people. Such values of the residents reduce the levels of crime compared to the other parts of the New York City metropolitan area, inclusive of those outside the state of New Jersey. Therefore, the low levels of crime counts as one of the strengths of the community in Teaneck have contributed to the betterment of community health. 

The participant observations have also focused on the issues of income and poverty as they relate to and affect the overall affordability of the healthcare services in various healthcare settings. According to the data provided by the United States Census Bureau (2018), the median household income of the residents of Teaneck is $ 106411 compared to a national average of $ 57652. The residents of Teaneck, therefore, earn more than those of the other cities across the US do. That implies that the residents of Teaneck generally afford healthcare services more that boosts the provision of health to the community. A more in-depth look at the income levels in Teaneck holds that 6.4% of the residents in Teaneck are categorized as persons in poverty compared to the 11.8% of the Americans that are recognized as being part of the persons in poverty (United States Census Bureau, 2018). Thus, most of the residents in Teaneck can pay for their healthcare services without strain. 

References 

Armour, S. (2019, September 10). Number of Uninsured Americans Rises for First Time in Decade. The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/number-of-americans-without-insurance-shows-first-increase-since2008-11568128381 

Demographia. (2019, April). Demographia World Urban Areas . Retrieved from http://demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf 

Hubbard, D. (2018, April 11). Teaneck Ranked Among Best Places To Live In NJ. Patch . Retrieved from https://patch.com/new-jersey/teaneck/teaneck-ranked-among-best-places-live-nj 

Kneafsey, R., Brown, S., Sein, K., Chamley, C., & Parsons, J. (2016). A Qualitative Study of 

Key Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Compassion in Healthcare and the Development of a Framework for Compassionate Interpersonal Relations. Journal of Clinical Nursing , 25 (1-2), 70-79. 

National Center for Education Statistics. (2019). Search for Public School Districts - District Detail for Teaneck School District . Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/district_detail.asp?Search=2&details=1&ID2=3416080&DistrictID=3416080 

Niche. (2018, June 2). Teaneck Township, NJ Reviews . Retrieved from https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/teaneck-township-bergen-nj/reviews/ 

Nolan, S. (2019, March 2). Internship puts young, special needs adults on career path . Retrieved from https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/teaneck/2019/03/01/hospital-program-opens-doors-careers-disabled-young-adults/2155085002/ 

Pennel, C. L., McLeroy, K. R., Burdine, J. N., Matarrita-Cascante, D., & Wang, J. (2016). 

Community Health Needs Assessment: Potential for Population Health Improvement. Population Health Management , 19 (3), 178-186. 

The Township of Teaneck New Jersey. (2019). Township of Teaneck New Jersey - Teaneck Maps . Retrieved from https://www.teanecknj.gov/teaneck-maps 

TownCharts. (2019). Teaneck township NJ Demographics data . Retrieved from https://www.towncharts.com/New-Jersey/Demographics/Teaneck-township-NJ-Demographics-data.html 

Township of Teaneck. (2018). The State of Health in Teaneck –2018 Report . Retrieved from https://www.teanecknj.gov/media/Departments/Health%20Department/News%20items/STATE_OF_HEALTH_2018.pdf 

United States Census Bureau. (2018). U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Teaneck township, Bergen County, New Jersey; United States . Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/teanecktownshipbergencountynewjersey,US/PST045218 

United States Census Bureau. (2019). Teaneck Township, Bergen County, New Jersey . Retrieved from https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk 

United States Census Bureau. (2019). U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Bergen County, New Jersey; New Jersey; United States . Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/bergencountynewjersey,NJ,US/PST045218