Free Essay Sample on Healthy Lifestyle Resources in NYC

Introduction

A healthy lifestyle has been a topic of focus in recent times for populations. A healthy lifestyle has several benefits, such as ensuring reduced costs of medical care and promoting healthy populations. This paper will examine the availability and access to community resources that support a healthy lifestyle and assess barriers to vulnerable populations in accessing and utilizing resources contributing to a healthy lifestyle in New York City.

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Selection of a Geographical Area

A healthy lifestyle generally refers to a way of an individual’s living that reduces the great risk of becoming or getting seriously sick or even dying at an early age (Saint Onge & Krueger, 2017). In other words, being healthy refers to being emotionally as well as mentally fit. However, being healthy must form the biggest part of a person’s overall lifestyle. Moreover, living a healthy lifestyle can highly assist in preventing chronic diseases along with long-term illnesses. Consequently, anyone having a good feeling about themselves and taking care of their health serves as an essential way for building one's self-image and self-esteem, thus maintaining a healthy lifestyle simply by doing the right things for the body is very important.

New York City (NYC) is the identified geographical area. It is a city with five boroughs within the United States of America(Mosconi et al., 2018). I chose NYC because it is a city that is the most populous and also the second-most densely populated area within the U.S. It is the city which is the most populous one, with approximated 8,336,817 residents(Mosconi et al., 2018). Additionally, I chose it since it is a city where its residents are generally considered the most physically active individuals than the average adult population within the United States (Mosconi et al., 2018). Mosconi et al. (2018) indicated that 67% of the New York people report that they engage in numerous physical activities, mainly the recommended amounts, than just 50% of Americans. Various studies suggest that the higher physical activity rates are as a result of surrounding urban characteristics common within the city, for instance, easy access to sidewalks, mixed commercial or residential zoning, and public transportation, which are considered to be greatly encouraging walking as well as other active transportation forms.

Area for Opportunities to Participate in Activities That Promote a Healthy Lifestyle

Through the Healthy Communities initiative, the Brooklyn Community Foundation has been connecting innovative attempts around general fitness, food, and open space within three neighborhoods in NYC, which have high concentrations of the public housing evolvements, as asserted by Cohen et al. (2017). The three neighborhoods include Brownsville, Red Hook, and Fort Greene in which the foundation shares resources and also empowers the residents with the aim of enriching their environments together with strengthening their communities, at the same time evolving current ways for city and nonprofit agencies to collaboratively work together towards improving public health. The Healthy Communities initiative is a three year one that brings together the three nonprofits, which include Brownsville Partnership, Added Value, and Revitalization Project, with the Brooklyn District Public Health Office and the New York City Housing Authority (Cohen et al., 2017). They have come together to promote the evolvements of new inexpensive produce markets, fitness groups, urban gardens and farms, healthier food menus for schools, and more(Cohen et al., 2017). The project also focuses on disclosing or revealing voices of the new residents devoted to their community's health via outreach, policy, and advocacy. Besides, Cohen et al. (2017) added that the Healthy Communities Initiative Community Grant Program assists in healthy eating along with activities of active living in Fort Greene, Red Hook, and Brownsville by offering grants to fiscally funded or nonprofit organizations that participate in community-led active, healthy living as well as healthy eating activities.

Assess and Discuss These Opportunities for Availability to All Populations

New York State Health Foundation (NYSHealth) seeks to enhance or improve the overall neighborhood health by expanding the accessibility to safe areas where residents can be more physically fit or active and expand access to and demanding foods that are nutritious (Prina, 2019). Improving the conditions is capable of lowering the health disparities of the neighborhood-level(Prina, 2019). NYSHealth partners with community leaders within six neighborhoods in all parts of New York City to create healthier communities(Prina, 2019). These bodies come together to engage in working with foundations, community-based organizations, and government agencies across numerous sectors on a variety of activities towards improving healthy lifestyles, especially in: Brownsville, Brooklyn; Lower East Side, Manhattan; Clinton County; North End, Niagara Falls; East Harlem, Manhattan; and Near Westside, Syracuse(Prina, 2019).

According to a report by Prina (2019), since 2015, New York State Health Foundation has made an investment of $8.5 million within this initiative. It has leveraged more $181 million in financing for the given six neighborhoods, which is to help almost half a million residents of New York hold higher accessibility to healthy, reasonably priced food and safe or secure areas to become physically active. Additionally, the New York Community Trust linked up with NYSHealth within a complementary initiative towards investing within three neighborhoods in South Bronx.

Accessibility for Vulnerable Populations and Barriers to Utilize the Resources for a Healthy Lifestyle

According to Aceves et al. (2016), the City residents are frequent participants in a physical activity facilitated in big part by the urban environment within which they reside. However, formal exercises occur less regularly because of some personal and community factors such as insufficient quality, culturally-appropriate, safe, and affordable recreation programs or spaces and energy or time shortage after addressing the rest of the priorities, like work, school, and childcare. As a result, suggestions for reducing barriers and supporting the community members in participating in more regular exercises have been offered by focus team participants and key informants.

Other people cannot access good health, nutrition, and physical activities that are made available by the nonprofit organization because of where they live, which affects their health in many and complicated ways. Indicators of poor health are concentrated within neighborhoods that seem to be more disadvantaged by the economic, housing, and social inequities of the society (Saint Onge & Krueger, 2017). Moreover, rural and neglected communities and color communities experience a disproportionately great chronic disease burden, such as diabetes and obesity(Saint Onge & Krueger, 2017). According to Saint Onge and Krueger (2017), the elderly and people with disabilities are left behind since they lack support towards accessing the recreation areas for physical activities and the affordable health and nutrition provided by the organizations.

Conclusion

It is clear that, despite the fact that New York City is largely populated, most of the nonprofit and government agencies have been trying their best to offer a healthy lifestyle to the New Yorkers. However, there is still a gap since not everybody can access the offered opportunities due to personal or community factors. Numerous Brooklynites, particularly public housing residents, have limited accessibility to inexpensive, healthy food and secure open spaces for playing and being active. Therefore, this has become a growing concern because communities facing high rates of poverty also experience soaring health problems like diabetes, obesity, and asthma. Consequently, more awareness of healthy lifestyles should be increased, and the physical activities should be brought more close to homesteads for many people to access.

References

Aceves, A. D. L. R., Greenberg, D. M., & Schell, S. (2016). Delivering Coordinated, Community-Based Services by Putting Networks into Action: New York City's Change Capital Fund. No. 3. MDRC.

Cohen, N., Freudenberg, N., & Willingham, C. (2017). Nourishing NYCHA: Food Policy as a Tool for Improving the Well-Being of New York City’s Public Housing Residents.

Mosconi, L., Walters, M., Sterling, J., Quinn, C., McHugh, P., Andrews, R. E., Matthews, D. C., Ganzer, C., Osorio, R. S., Isaacson, R. S., De Leon, M. J., & Convit, A. (2018). Lifestyle and vascular risk effects on MRI-based biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease: A cross-sectional study of middle-aged adults from the broader New York City area. BMJ Open, 8(3), e019362.
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019362

Prina, L. L. (2019). GRANTWATCH. Health Affairs, 38(8), 1405-1406.
https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2010.1163

Saint Onge, J. M., & Krueger, P. M. (2017). Health lifestyle behaviors among U.S. adults. SSM - Population Health, 3, 89-98.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2016.12.009.