Crown Heights is located in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The area is split into two, with the northern part of it known as Crown Height North falling under Brooklyn Community district 8 while the southern part referred to as the Crown Heights South is part of Brooklyn community district 9. The boundaries of Crown Heights North are not clearly defined. It covers an area of approximately 2.2 square miles (US Census Bureau, 2018). It is a residential area with a mixture of apartments and flats. Most people in the region rely on public transport such as buses and metros.
Around 136,367 people live here, according to the US Census Bureau (2018). The population density falls around 61,000 people per square mile. People from all races reside here. The median age of the people is around 34 years (US Census Bureau, 2018). The most populous race is the African American race at 58 %, followed by whites at 22% (US Census Bureau, 2018). The others are Native Americans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics/Latino. The community thrives on informal groups such as support groups for new parents, spouses of people with Alzheimer’s, writer’s group, and therapy groups (Psychology Today, 2020). People meet up in these groups and also in bars and restaurants and in the process network and form links, which may be temporary or permanent. There are also formal groups set up such as the Brooklyn community 8 Board, which in decision making such as building preservation or demolition and resolving disputes about boundaries between communities.
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Organizations such as Crow Hill Community Organization and Save Our Streets (SOS) Crown Heights (McGee, 2018) are held in high regard as because of them, the community was able to turn around from a very unsafe area to a livable place. However, the black and the Hispanic community do not trust the police due to incidences, where they reported being victims of police brutality based on their race. The fire department, the social services agencies, and the local government are respected by the people. Unfortunately, due to gentrification, people are less welcoming to the new members (McGee, 2018) as there is a general feeling that the culture native to the place is being eradicated. To cope with stress, many people attend therapy sessions or support groups.
Community Health
According to New York NYC.gov (2018), 84% of the people report being of good health in Crown Heights. It lags behind its other counterparts, such as the Financial District, New York City, and Brooklyn, in matters to do with health. The area has the highest number of preterm deliveries (9.2%) and infant mortality (5.5%) in the region (NYC.gov, 2018).18% of the population smokes, 21% takes sugary drinks daily while 20% engage in binge drinking which predisposes them to risky behavior (NYC.gov, 2018). 26% of the people are obese,13% are diabetic, and 33% have hypertension (NYC.gov, 2018). The average life expectancy is around 78 years. NYC.gov (2018) also reported that the leading cause of premature death is cancer at 60% and heart disease at 51.8%.
Health Structures in Community
The area has a variety of health facilities such as hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, and community health centers. The facilities have employed specialist physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and registered nurses. However, the number of facilities/personnel is disproportionate to the number of people living in the community. Most people report that there is no home care-based service. The New York City department of health and mental hygiene is in charge of healthcare planning.
Process of Coping with Community Health Issues
As the area suffers from a high unemployment rate, many people rely on Medicaid. About 12% of the population has no health insurance (NYC.gov, 2018). Many people visit the ER as a routine mostly because they have no insurance, while others explain that it is hard to be able to have access to a primary care physician who has a long waiting period. Based on preventive practices such as physical activity, which was at 74%, it can be seen that majority of the people take care of their health (NYC.gov, 2018).
The health needs are communicated to health care personnel, but generally, people report minimal satisfaction due to many barriers. The perceived notion that healthcare providers do not intend to provide them with high-quality care is a huge problem that hinders people from participating in healthcare services even if an opportunity arises.
Community Diagnosis
Strengths
Willingness to accept help and change- they accepted help from SOS and Crown Hill Organization, and due to this, the community changed for the better.
Members are concerned about their health and engage in physical fitness, which reduces the risk of getting lifestyle diseases.
Studies show that there was a strong spirit of the neighborhood (NYC.gov, 2018) and willingness to help their neighbors. This is important as it has a positive effect on health, especially in terms of mental health.
Risk
1. Having no faith in their healthcare, providers-hinders people from seeking medical help.
2. Indulgence in activities such as cigarette smoking, binge drinking, and consumption of sugary drinks which put their health at risk.
3. Increased risk of community violence compared to other areas is very unfortunate as it makes the area unsafe, which discourages investors from propagating the vicious cycle of poverty.
Planning and Implementation
Health promotion classes are a potent tool in educating people about their health. Since most people have indulged in heavy use of alcohol, cigarette smoking, and consumption of unhealthy drinks, this would be the best way to tackle this problem in this area. The project will run for a year. The classes will be held in areas where people congregate for leisure, such as gyms and halls of worship. They can also be held in community halls, schools, and libraries. For companies where employees have unsociable hours, the classes can be held as meetings in their meeting rooms.
Health workers who live in those regions would be the ones to present the lessons as they are aware of the cultural practices. The meetings will be tailored to suit the age and needs of the crowd. They will be short power points and precise. They will be held once in three months. To make them livelier, as well as engage the people in the area, popular artists who live there will be invited to perform. This will attract a huge target crowd. The New York Department of Health and Crown Heights Service Centre can also participate. They can help by funding the program. The money will then be used for advertising the program on the television, radio and newspapers and printing of brochures and leaflets. They can also increase the number of rehabilitation centers for alcohol and smoking cessation clinics. One of the obstacles I anticipate to face is a lack of interest among the community members, which I will counter by making it more interesting by inviting popular artists to perform before and after the presentation. Lastly, there might be language barrier issues since the area has a good number of immigrants, and not all of them speak English, so to help with this, it will be prudent to have translators for them.
Evaluation of Project (Include Process)
I will start by being clear on what I objectives I want to achieve after identifying my unmet need. I will create short, medium- and long-term goals of the project. The ultimate goal will be to have a total reduction in the number of people engaging in poor health practices and a reduced number of lifestyle diseases in the community. The progress I make will be evidenced by the above numbers going down, especially in hospital records. To know whether I am creating any impact, I will continually gather feedback and opinions from people using word of mouth or questionnaires and suggestion boxes. I will hold regular meetings with my team, who are the community nurses I work with, to monitor our progress. Half a year after rolling out the program (Government of Canada, 2015), we will sit down and analyze the situation on the ground to see whether the objective was achieved and check what we have done right and where we have gone wrong and make necessary changes. Lastly, after the project is done, I will share my findings of the project with everyone who will be involved in it and, in the process, discuss whether it was successful and the lessons (Government of Canada, 2015) I picked along the way.
Conclusion
Crown height North is an area whose residents face a lot of problems. The people living here need a lot of help in terms of healthcare. Though it might not be easy to work with them as they are wary of changes as seen with the negative perception the residents have of gentrification, with patience, they will be won over. Health promotion has worked in many countries and will surely be a success in Crown Heights North too.
References
Government of Canada. (2015, December 17). Project planning and evaluation . Public Safety Canada / Sécurité publique Canada. https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/cntrng-crm/crm-prvntn/tls-rsrcs/prjct-plnnng-en.aspx
McGee, M. (2018). People of Color Are Not Props”: Black Branding and Community Resistance in Gentrifying Brooklyn. Metropolitics . https://www.metropolitiques.eu/People-of-Color-Are-Not-Props-Black-Branding-and-Community-Resistance-in.html
NYC.gov. (2018). Crown Heights and District Prospect Heights. COMMUNITY HEALTH PROFILES 2018 . https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/data/2018chp-bk8.pdf
Psychology Today. (2020). Support groups in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY . Pyschology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/groups/ny/brooklyn/crown-heights
US Census Bureau. (2018). Census profile: NYC-Brooklyn community district 8--Crown heights north & prospect heights PUMA, NY . Census Reporter. https://censusreporter.org/profiles/79500US3604006-nyc-brooklyn-community-district-8-crown-heights-north-prospect-heights-puma-ny/
