Essay Sample on Englewood: A Chicago Community of Low-Income Families With Resources

Introduction

Englewood is located on the southern side of Chicago, Illinois. Englewood is a home to about 44,000 people majority from low-income families who depend upon government services (Areavibes, 2019). Although Englewood neighborhood is comprised of low-income people, the community has many options and resources for its residents. There are three departments of human resource offices that assist the community. The offices provide supplementary assistance, housing assistance, and financial assistance to the residents of Englewood. These departments offer training on trade and financial management to the residents. Human services department provides health care services to the residents of the Englewood community. This paper will discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the mile square health center in Englewood.

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Strengths

The department of human services offers free health insurance to those that qualify. They offer a wide range of insurance services to the community to ensure that everybody has an option to have their health needs serviced. The insurance companies provide incentives to ensure that the people in the community are proactive in their healthcare. Insurance companies offer incentives to patients so that they stay up to date with immunizations, follow-up appointments, and annual check-ups (Sommers, Gunja, Finegold, & Musco, 2015). These incentives include gift cards, free diapers, free care packages, household needs, transportation, and restaurant tickets.

Healthcare services can be provided within the Englewood community. St.Bernards hospital is located at the center of the Englewood community. The hospital continues to offer services and adds to the health and well-being of the residents (St Bernard Hospital and health care center, 2019). St.Bernards hospital provides treatment on various conditions and illnesses. The hospital offers treatments to patients suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, CHF, and ESRD. Also, they treat acute diseases such as the flu, appendicitis, fever, and strep throat. This hospital provides outpatient care as well as critical care needs for the patients. St Bernards hospital has acted as a trauma and crisis center for victims within the community and surrounding areas for many years.

St. Bernard hospital has recently opened up a new healthcare clinic that services the people in an endeavor to improve the community. This clinic makes it easier for people within the community to stay up to date with their healthcare needs such as immunizations and appointments to ensure medical compliance. Both the clinic and the hospital offers discounted or free services to those who meet the requirements. The clinic offers prenatal care, check-ups, treatments of daily illnesses, as well as physical and healthcare needs for school and aged children. The hospital has done more than providing care to the residents through the creation of job opportunities for the people of Englewood. The hospital alone has created more than 1000 jobs in the community food services, environmental service, certified nursing assistants, and nurses, physicians, and medical doctors.

Englewood community has been presented with a lot of opportunities to increase wealth, morality, and improve the environment. Looking at Englewood one thing that cannot go unnoticed is the churches within its neighborhood. These churches input to the community in many ways. Most churches hold school parties where they spend time giving back to the community. The people of the community are fed and often given school supplies and backpacks to ensure a positive start of the year. Also, churches offer food pantries and accept cloth donations so that they can serve and assist the needs of the community. During holidays churches and other non-profit organizations put together meals to feed the community, homeless, and destitute children.

Development projects have been started within the Englewood community. More stores are being constructed and trees planted along the parks. Whole food groceries are being built within the town, and more jobs are being created. These groceries have provided a wide range of fruits and plant-based diet which has helped to develop better lifestyles and nutrition.

Educational opportunities within Englewood are limited. Englewood is the home for Kennedy king college. Kennedy king offers programs such as GED and ESL to get people started in the right direction towards a better future (Kings College, 2017). Also, they offer a two-year associates degree program to the community. Some of the top programs at Kennedy king college are nursing, culinary arts, construction, and education. For those local and within the state, there is a discounted tuition rate offered. Also, they assist with tuition to ensure that every student has a means required to finish their desired course. Kennedy king college also offers scholarships to top students. Moreover, grammar schools offer grants and scholarships to grammar school students whose performance is exceptional.

Weaknesses

There is a significant need to have more mental health services within the Englewood community. The mental health services receive low funding both from government and donations. Englewood community harbors a significant number of psychological problems. The increased low-income earners, violence. And crime perpetrated in the area leaves many people traumatized. A substantial number of people have post-traumatic stress disorder while others have depression. Due to increased insecurity and lack of peace of mind, many people tend to develop mental problems. Although the health square mile health center has been set up, it does not respond adequately to the needs of society due to inadequate funding.

Chicago County has experienced a significant increase in population over the last few years. Consequently, the Englewood community population has continued to rise. The healthcare infrastructure in hospitals is not adequate. In some instances patients return home after visiting the hospital without obtaining the necessary care due to lack of enough equipments. Most patients are forced to stay for long hours while waiting for treatment.

Moreover, hospital staffing is low. Most of the doctors and nurses are forced to work for long hours to serve all the patients. This makes them decrease their productivity thus reducing the quality of care.

An effective healthcare system should provide patient-centered care. Mile square health center is struggling to implement programs that are aimed at providing quality patient-centered care. Some of the approaches such as bedside nursing and shift changes have been implemented with little success. Bedside nursing can improve the quality of care provided to patients (Feo and Kitson, 2016). This has left most of the treatment processes on the hands of physicians. Sometimes there are inaccuracies in the patient diagnosis, and reports handled over during shifts (Lu, S., Kerr, D., & McKinlay, 2014). This leads to inappropriate treatments leading to reduced quality of health services. Additionally, patients are not included in the care programs. As such, the delivering of patient-centered care has become a problem in mile-square health center.

Mile square health center receives a large number of mental problems each year. On the one hand, these problems can be associated with the increased number of violence and crime carried out in the area. Mile square health center has concentrated on providing therapeutic services to mental problems but has not adequately addressed the root cause of the problem. As such, each year there is an increase in the number of patients reporting mental related illnesses. Most of the people with a mental health condition suffer from acute depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. This has led to an increased number of people with a mental health condition because each year there are recurring cases of mentally related diseases.

Opportunities

The population of Englewood was 26,115 in 2010 but increased to 30,654 in 2015. Among the groups living in the area, the blacks consist of the majority with 94.98%. The Hispanics consist of 2.61%; whites comprise of 0.76%, Asian 0.29% and other groups 1.36%. West (Areavibes, 2019) Englewood has lacked grocery stores until recently when whole food opened a store in the community. This store has provided an opportunity for wholesome, nutritious foods choices which in turn has contributed to an improved immune system. Kennedy king college built a new school in a different part of Englewood to modernize and catch up with the current technological demands in the area.

Another shining star in this economically hit area is the urban prep academics Englewood campus. Thus, the school has awarded 100 percent of its senior students all with full scholarships. Although there is a high crime and murder rates among the youth in the area, urban prep academics students have decided to choose a different direction. Most of the students have proceeded with their studies to the universities. This campus has provided an opportunity for young men to change their low income families to stable homes. Also, the campus has helped to reduce crimes and youth indulgence in other illegal activities. The presence of scholarships has provided an opportunity for young people to study and develop their careers.

University of Illinois has stationed the miles square health center in the west area of Englewood flanked by Walgreens and Aldi. A pharmacy and an affordable food source has been availed to the residents. This offers a PHN the opportunity to not only create a plan for nutritional teaching but also it has acted as a platform for providing this population with nutritional food choices educational material with the knowledge that there are several good resources in the area. The opportunity for health care access for this population can be addressed through the mile square health center. This is quite different from the mile square urgent care center on the U and I campus. This urgent care center provides non-emergency acute care for U and I patients and does not have the full range of treatment options. This is because all specialty clinics are in the hospital or outpatient care clinic building. However the Mile square health center in Englewood serves the full spectrum of the resident population (UIC, 2019). Moreover, the public health nurse working in conjunction with the health center, is in a prime position to use the complete nursing population process.

Mile square health center provides a variety of services to Englewood residents. Among the services provided include: pediatric behavioral healthcare, family medicine, health screenings, immunizations, HIV/AIDS care, preventive care, primary care, sexually transmitted infection care, women's health, and well-Childs visit. Mile square health center accepts both medicate and private insurances. Also, they reduce the fee for the underinsured and offer services for the insured. As such, the facility provides an opportunity for all residents to access medical care at an affordable cost.

Threats

The main threat to this population is crime from gang activities, illicit drugs, and unemployment. The two gangs that have dominated this area are gang disciples and black disciples (Chicago Gang History, 2017). Another threat is violence from turf and control of drug trade. This violence is a continuous cycle that does not seem to end. Violence is brought about by gangs that sell drugs in an endeavor to protect their trade territories. On the other hand, violence can originate from drugs addicts to support their addiction (Jorm, 2013). Moreover, unemployed youths can commit...