The population being assessed is the Latino community. This community is diverse and complicated because it represents an ethnicity and not a racial group. Some members of the community are white, and others are black. However, they share certain cultural elements such as shared Spanish language. Also, most of them tend to be Catholics or follow religious practices that blend Christianity with indigenous African religions. The community is also highly communal and sticks to conservative values. Each member of the population is socialized to play a particular role in the community. Politically, the community also tends to side with traditional values as well.
As already indicated, members of this community come from various racial groups. Some members of the community are white. They are descendants of European immigrants who settled in Latin American countries and then immigrated into the United States. They satisfy American racial category of whites, but they are Latino due to the shared ethnicity with other groups from this category. The second large ethnic groups are the so-called mestizos (Hispanic Health | VitalSigns | CDC, n.d.). This group consists of mixed people who share European and Native American heritage. This is the largest group. The third racial group is the blacks Latinos. They are mostly immigrants from places such as Cuba and the Caribbean. Mexico also has a small community of black people.
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The boundaries for this group are cultural. Latinos are unique due to their cultural heritage. They speak Spanish and their values are conservative. Moreover, their communal living and tendency make them stand out from the mainstream. Ordinarily, Americans are highly individualistic. The nuclear family is the most critical family for most people. With Latinos, relationships are deeper across and broader. In terms of crisis, members of this community rely on these strong networks for support.
The Latino community is scattered all over the United States, but the numbers are higher in states neighboring Mexico. Immigrant ion from Mexico, both legal and illegal, is responsible for the higher numbers in those states. These states also tend to have a highly developed agricultural economy, which is often in demand for labor. Getting farm workers is challenging for American companies and farmers because the local people are not willing to work on farms. The need for labor acts as a pull factor. Large Latino communities are also found in large towns and cities. In New York, for example, there is a large Latino community made of immigrants from the Caribbean.
The main distinguishing characteristic is language and diversity. Most first and second-generation immigrants speak Spanish. There is also an increasing minority speaking a language such as Portuguese and French Creole. The group is culturally different for its conservativeness, and most of the members of this group are Catholics. The group is also diverse genetically and linguistically. Some are white, and others are racially mixed. They are also relatively weak compared to the majority of the population, and that an impact on their health (Velasco-Mondragon et al., 2016). A substantial number of people from this group are undocumented immigrants.
The education levels of this group are low. High school completion rates for young people are low mostly due to poverty and involvement in drug abuse. Also, most of the people likely to immigrate from Mexico and other Latin American countries are low achievers with little or no prospect of improving their lives in their home countries. The dire prospects make them likely to immigrate. It also means that they are education underachievers. They have high birth rates compared to native-born Americans. The percentage of un-insurance is high due to poverty and undocumented status of a substantial number of members of this group. Life expectancy is low.
The group is predominantly urban and not rural. For second-generation immigrants, most live in towns where they operate businesses or are in paid employment in factories, farms, and other companies. A few are located in rural locations, but their numbers are not significant. It is therefore correct to state that the location of this group is predominantly urban. For recent immigrants, their origins are often in rural settings in Mexico, but they are forced to migrate to escape from gun violence or due to agricultural failure. Rural poverty also plays a role as a push factor toward migration.
The purpose of the assessment is to understand the health needs of this community. Under healthy People 2020, the objective of the government is to boost the health of communities. Latino community is large and constitute close to 20 percent of the total population of the United States. If the government wants to achieve its objective of improved care for all people, ignoring the health needs of this vital community would lead to program failure. Moreover, certain environmental conditions expose members of this group to specific ailments and addressing that requires intervention.
Information for community assessment will be collected via several methods. The primary method is using secondary sources of data from government agencies. The second most important method for data collection is talking directly with members of this group via survey and direct observation. Active participation where the researchers interact directly with the members of the group will be used as well to get primary data. The objective is to gain a deeper understanding of this group, including possible health challenges besides demographic characteristics. With that information, it is possible to conduct a proper assessment that is valuable for decision-making.
Assessment
The health issue identified is metabolic or lifestyle diseases. These diseases are caused bad diet, lack of exercise, poverty, among other causes related general living. Poverty, for instance, do increase chances of diseases due to the inability to purchase healthy food such as fruits, vegetables, etc.
As mentioned earlier, this group is diverse, and that is evident in the general living conditions of various subgroups within the community. For immigrants who have lived in America for several generations, they are no different from the average American in terms of housing. For newer immigrants, though, they struggle to get basics in housing. The age of homes is, therefore, more modern although a significant part of the population does not own homes. Access to parks and other recreational areas is restricted. Children spend most of their recreational activities at home. For adults, those parks are not accessible especially for those living in cheap public housing. In that case, the amount of space between homes and businesses is small. In New York, members of this community use part of their homes for businesses. There is little distinction between the home and the business.
Young men use street corners and basketball pitches as hangouts and that often creates friction between them and law enforcement. However, for communities with access to a home or living in the suburbs, they have greater choices of entertainment including theaters. Thus, this depends on access to resources or even the legal status of the residents. Undocumented immigrants do not have the freedom to move freely or associate with others.
Transportation is mainly through public means such as buses. For longer distances, trains are enough. However, for professionals within this community, they have more options in terms of travel. In the streets and sidewalks, quality of life and safety is not good. For those living in overcrowded public housing and inner cities, gangs of young men make the neighborhoods unsafe. These young men are often school dropouts who are unable to get jobs. They use crime and selling drugs to make a living.
The Latino community is to some degree self-sufficient. Neighborhood stores provide the community with most of their needs. Anything that cannot be accessed within the community can be bought in larger stores. Members of this community have invested heavily in supporting their communities by providing much-needed services. In terms of cleanliness, the community does not score high marks in that regard. Poverty tends to make a community untidy because it takes resources and discipline to improve the image of the community, but often, those two virtues are undermined by poverty. There are often graffiti in almost every wall or space, which tends to make the community untidy and disorganized.
The majority of Latinos are Catholics. In places where the Latino community is represented in significant numbers, there are numerous places of worship. There are also shrines for cults such as Santeria and Palo Mayombe. Access to health facilities is limited due to poverty and undocumented nature of a significant section of the community.
Social economically, the community is strong. Strong social connections mean that members of the community have access to peer support. In case of any problem, the member offer financial and moral support and that help militate against the risk arising from a lack of health insurance. The community itself offers some of the insurance or shares risks. In general, the Latino community lags the general population in several economic measures (US Census Bureau, 2018, August 03). They earn less and education achievement levels are low. There are high levels of criminality in the community. Drug use and abuse is also a big problem among members of this community. As for peer-to-peer interaction, the connection is effective. Members of the community maintain strong contact with close and distant relatives.
The safety of the environment is not proper. Safety is contingent on general investment in the community. As a poor community, the Latinos have not invested in the community, and that means the environment is not safe. Moreover, the perception that the community breeds criminality affects real estate housing, leading to a decaying community with little or no outside investment needed to revitalize it. Economically, the status of the community is poor. A combination of factors such as low educational levels, illegal immigration, discrimination, among others, means that the community remains poor.
The biggest strength or assets of the community are strong social bonds. Those bonds provide informal insurance for members of the community. In case of death or diseases, the members handle such things cooperatively, and that distributes risk on the community. However, the community has concerns about safety, jobs, access to education, and health. They are also worried about their legal status especially since the current government came to power.
In term of health, the biggest concern is metabolic diseases. Poverty in the community means that the most affordable type of food is junk foods, which are high in fats, salt, and meat. Consumption of junk food in the community is evident in the form of high levels of obesity among the younger people and chronic diseases among the elderly (FastStats - Health of Hispanic or Latino Population, n.d.). Chronic diseases include cancer, diabetes, and heart diseases. Those conditions are the leading killers. However, although the community understands the dangers of the current lifestyle on their health, structural factors such as high levels of unemployment, lack of access to proper healthcare, etc., makes is challenging the community to transition to a healthy lifestyle.
Another risky behavior among the community is high levels of drug use and abuse among the community. Young men are unable to get jobs to find crime and selling drugs attractive. Cases of drug addiction are therefore high. Again, lack of access to healthcare due to the legal status of some members of the community limits access to professional care for those addicted.
Nutrition pattern is poor due to overreliance on affordable junk food. There are also stressors such as unemployment that trigger risky behaviors such as drug abuse. Young people are even marrying later or preferring to cohabit instead of marriage. Such actions undermine the community because children are born out of wedlock. Health promotion activities are low within the community.
References
FastStats - Health of Hispanic or Latino Population. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/hispanic-health.htm
Hispanic Health | VitalSigns | CDC. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/hispanic-health/index.html
US Census Bureau. (2018, August 03). Hispanic Heritage Month 2017. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2017/hispanic-heritage.html
Velasco-Mondragon, E., Jimenez, A., Palladino-Davis, A. G., Davis, D., & Escamilla-Cejudo, J. A. (2016). Hispanic health in the USA: A scoping review of the literature. Public Health Reviews, 37 (1). doi:10.1186/s40985-016-0043-2
