Merced County Health Status Essay

A clubs health stool be established through a myriad of differing factors. Three special(prenominal) factors that willing help to determine the health of the county in which I alive ar community synthetic rubber, mishap prepargondness, as easily as an analytic thinking of the people. The community under review, Merced, is located in central California and make up of seventeen cities and communities whose individual communitys do not exceed more than 75,000 and covers an part of round 1,972 squargon miles (United States Census Bureau, 2010) with a total population of approximately 255,793 people in 2010 (Merced County California, 2012).The first field of importance is community safe. It is important to beginning discussion with the one of the most basic of health indicators the air we breathe. The air quality index in Merced County is 48, a median look on value that takes into account still the most opineous air pollutants (Air Now, 2012). This value is only sli ghtly lower than the air quality index of California, provided is approximatly 30% higher than the national average (Air Now, 2012). Another important area that must be addressed is the piddle we drink.In Merced County most of our imbibing water supply comes from groundwater sources which are collected by two public water systems. Most in all areas in Merced County are affected by leash different pollutants Nitrates, Ethylene Dibromide (EDB), and Dibromochloropropane (DBCP) (Air Now, 2012). Although all three of the pollutants fall below the water standard or eliminated through the public water systems, these pollutants will widen to be an issue because EDB and DBCP were used by farmers for many years to fumigate crops.Another area of concern in community safety is the safety hazards within the sociocultural environment. The ability to work, shop, or simply ride your cps and feel protected within the area in which you live are important features in determining the health of a community. With 1. 2 police officers and 4. 4 sheriff officers per 100,000 people and an average response time of 3 transactions (Merced County Office of Economic Development, 2012) most people can be jolly confident that they and their property are protected. However, crime rates bedevil locomote in the past few years.In 2009, Merced County experienced 1,658 violent crimes the mass of which involved aggrivated assult but also included 26 murders, 78 forcible rapes, and 276 robberies (United States division of Justice, 2012). There were also 4,390 property crimes and 90 cases of arson (United States surgical incision of Justice, 2012). Rate of offenses per 100,000 are as follows violent 568. 3, property 567. 3, drug 512. 9, bring up 37. 9, other 489. 1, and totaling 2,175. 5 per 100,000 (United States Department of Justice, 2012).Considering in that respect are only 5. fair play enforcement officers per 100,000 people, it would appear as though crime will continue to put on for the foreseeable future. These numbers are especially troublesome considering budget cuts that will surely affect all public safety departments (Layoff Watch, 2011). There are a couple of ethnic sort outs within Merced County that feel especially vulnerable, the Latino community and the Asian community. The Latino community nearly makes-up 50 per centum of the population and is congrigated in the poorest of neighborhoods. Yet another concern involving public safety is the ability to obtain medical services.Within Merced County there are only two infirmarys that offer requirement medical service, Memorial hospital of Los Banos and self-respect Health of Merced. Memorial hospital of Los Banos is a relatively small hospital with the ability to admit a total of 46 unhurrieds (Memorial Hospital Los Banos, 2008). The emergency room has the ability to care for a total of 6 patients requiring immediate emergency care, but has the capability to fly patients pop out to other facilities if required. Dignity Health of Merced is the larger of the two facilities and cares for the majority of the population of Merced County.Dignity Health has a total of 194 beds available. Dignity Health has approximately 10,900 admissions per year and total emergency room visits equaling around 66,000 per year. On a typical weekend the emergency room will see near 250 patients between the hours of 7 a. m. and7 p. m. (M. Parker RN, personal communication, June 8, 2012). Also serving the community are 8 primary clinics. The majority of these clinics are located within the urban center limits of Merced and Los Banos. Those located outside of these locations will defecate to drive upto 30 minutes to obtain medical services.Merced County also has five psychiatric facilities, only 2 of which are capable of admitting patients. Country Villa Merced Behavioral Health Center has 96 beds available for the community and has the ability to care for long-term patients between the age s of 18 to 65 years of age (Country Villa Merced Behavioral Health Center, 2012). Marie Green psychiatric Center is a smaller facility that has the ability to admit upto 20 patients between the ages of 18 to 65 years of age, but this is a hapless term facility that can only care for patients for up to 90 days.Currently, in the Merced County area there are no psychiatric facilities that have the capability to care for psychiatric patients under the age of 18 or over the age of 65. Emergency preparedness within Merced County is primarily controlled by the Department of Public Health. Merced Countys emergency preparedness was last updated in 2003 and in general addresses preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation activities (City of Merced California, 2012). In the preparedness figure, activities are laborious in advance of a disaster.Actions are focused on implementing hazard mitigation projects, developing hazard analyses, developing and maintaining emergency plans and proce dures, conducting general and specialise training, conducting exercises, developing mutual aid agreements, and improving emergency public education and warning systems (Merced County California, 2003). In the response phase an emergency situation is threatening or likely to occur. During this stage the county initiates actions to increase its readiness.In the recovery phase the focus is to return public services to Merced county residents and return any area affected by the emergency to its previous condition. The mitigation phase occurs in the first place and after emergencies. After a disaster or emergency, mitigation or alleviation, includes reducing the impact of hazards that exist within Merced County (Merced County California, 2003). Although Merced County Public Health Department concerns itself with the county as a whole, it must also make provisions for areas more susceptable to emergencies or areas where there is an increased difficulty to disseminate information.Withi n these areas there are disproportionate ethnic minorities. The two primary ethnic groups, Latino and asian americans, are particularily at risk because of transportational and housing issues as well as dysfunctional attitudes toward disaster planning or preparedness. Within Merced County the Hispanic community makes up nearly 50% of the population and constitutes the majority of those surviving below poverty level. This translates into the majority of the population within the economically dispirited areas having inadequate housing or malfunctioning transportation.When a disaster does occur, this group will be the hardest hit as they will not have the financial means to recover what they have lost. This group also has the highest dominance for harm referable to the inability to relocate to an area that is safe due to transportational issue. What places this group at highest risk are their attitudes toward disaster planning or preparedness. After speaking with six different fam ilies from a depressed area, all but one family put any thought into a possible emergency, and none of these families had money set aside for such a disaster (personal communication, June 1, 2012).