Evaluate community health data.

Answer

Data Review

The survey depicted that, among children aged below five years, 10.2% needed special health care. While 15.4% of those between 6-11 years old and 19.4% of children between 12-17 years of age were among the children with special health care needs (Southam-Gerow, Daleiden, Chorpita, Bae, Mitchell, Faye, Alba, 2014). The boys showed a higher percentage of children with special needs of 17.5% than the girls where only 12.5% required special health care.

The survey also considered the vulnerability of children on racial grounds where the most affected race was African-Americans in which 25.4% of children needed special health care (Okumura, Hersh, Hilton, Lotstein, 2013). 21.6% of the White children, 11.9% of the Latinos and 9.6% of the Asian children were children with special health care needs (Southam-Gerow, Daleiden, Chorpita, Bae, Mitchell, Faye, Alba, 2014). A closer look on the Latinos revealed that 14.8% of the affected children among Latinos were from English-speaking families, while only 10.4% were from Spanish-speaking families.

Cases of children with special needs were more prevalent in low-income families than the high-income counterparts, though, the relationship contrasted by race (Southam-Gerow, Daleiden, Chorpita, Bae, Mitchell, Faye, Alba, 2014). Narrowing down on each race, among the Latinos and Asian affected children, a high percentage of children with special health care needs came from higher income families. In contrast, a high percentage of children with special health care needs among the African-Americans came from lower income families (Southam-Gerow, Daleiden, Chorpita, Bae, Mitchell, Faye, Alba, 2014). However, the percentage was not affected by income among the whites.

Extending the survey to specific Service Planning Areas, San Fernando Service Planning Area recorded the highest number of children (81,000) with special health care needs but, the highest percentage of 23.4% was recorded in the West Service Planning Area (Southam-Gerow, Daleiden, Chorpita, Bae, Mitchell, Faye, Alba, 2014). Metro Service Planning Area recorded the lowest percentage of 10.2% of children with special health care needs.   

Two conditions were focused on by the survey; asthma and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. 37% of the children with special health care needs were diagnosed with asthma while 19% had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Okumura, Hersh, Hilton, Lotstein, 2013). Thirty-five percent of these cases are receiving treatment or counseling with emotional, behavioral or development problems. However, twenty-two percent of children with special health care needs were reported to require physical, speech or occupational special therapies.

All the children with special health care needs had some level of access to health care. 93.1% had health insurance while 95.0% had reliable source of health care.59% of the children with special health care needs had private insurance policies, 7.8% were under the Healthy Families Programs and 26.3% were covered by Medi-Cal (Okumura, Hersh, Hilton, Lotstein, 2013). However, 21.1% of parents of such children reported having difficulty accessing heath care services for their children when in need. Thirty-four percent of poor families found it more difficult to access medical care for the affected children while, only 8% of well- to-do families faced the difficulty (Okumura, Hersh, Hilton, Lotstein, 2013). Latino families had the highest percentage of 27.2% of those finding it difficult to access healthcare for their children with special health care needs compared to other races.

Among the uninsured children with special health care needs, 70.9% found it difficult to access medical care (Okumura, Hersh, Hilton, Lotstein, 2013). In contrast, 29.8% and10.6% of those covered by Medi-Cal and private insurance found difficult getting health care respectively. Parents of such children cited language barrier and transport barrier as hindrances in getting the needed care for their children.

Report

Some children require a complexity of services in greater amounts than others, due to their exposure to higher risks of chronic medical, behavioral, development and emotional conditions. These children need special health care hence, referred to as children with special health care needs (Okumura, Hersh, Hilton, Lotstein, 2013). In Los Angeles, 15% of the children population represented the vulnerable group with special conditions such as birth defects, autism, development disabilities, asthma, cerebral palsy, diabetes and mental illness.

However, there are conceivable disparities across geographical areas and different racial groups in the percentage of children with special health care needs (Southam-Gerow, Daleiden, Chorpita, Bae, Mitchell, Faye, Alba, 2014). Children from the African-American racial group and those from the West Service Planning Area had the highest percentage of those with special needs (Okumura, Hersh, Hilton, Lotstein, 2013). There were high rates of such children among children from affluent families of Latino and Asian descent. The Metro Service Planning Area reported the lowest rate, and the most concentrated with low-income Latino children, among the regions.

It was prominent that despite children with special health care needs having health insurance and reliable source of care, about 20% had difficulty accessing needed medical care (Okumura, Hersh, Hilton, Lotstein, 2013). This difficulty was pronounced among uninsured children and those from poor households.

Recommendations and Conclusion

There should be a medical home for every affected child with a designated pediatrician to meet the child’s special needs (Hamilton, Lerner, Presson, Klitzner, 2013). This approach will resolve the difficulty faced in getting the needed care. More focus should be on early detection to enhance early prevention to reduce morbidity. An initiative to assist the low-income families and regions that have reported low rate of children with special needs will be of paramount significance in early detection in these areas.

Priority should be set towards developing reliable quality indicators to address the wide range of services needed by children with special needs (Okumura, Hersh, Hilton, Lotstein, 2013). The indicators should define the degree of integration of these services into systems of care and define referral frameworks.