Criteria

Your response

1. Introduction of Community (20 points)

Identify the city and state of your community and briefly describe the community you will be using for this assignment. It should be the area where you live or the area surrounding your work setting but must include a residential area. Demographic data are not needed.

The area of focus in this task is Bakersfield city located in Kern County, California. This is my home area and a drive around Downtown Bakersfield helped me gather adequate and relevant information for the task. The city was ranked as the 9^th largest in California during the 2010 US census. Its population as noted during the drive consists of the Hispanic, Blacks, American Indians and Native Hawaiians. The community is generally friendly and has a rich culture that values life and thus appreciates this through emphasis on cleanliness and general acceptances of the social differences.

2. Windshield Survey (100 points)

a. Vitality: Use a majority of the questions from Box 6-2 in your text to describe your observations about the community vitality.

In order to get a better view, I did my observations both in the morning and in evening. During both periods, I could see people walking as others drove to various destination. Majority of the people across the streets were whites with few blacks in some places. There were more women than men in both occasions when I made my observations. The predominant age groups in this population are the teenagers. Other groups represented are the preschoolers and the elderly whose population was almost the same. Pregnant women could also be seen with majority being young women who could possibly be considered first time mothers.

The population is also composed of people with physical disabilities. Majority of them were using motor driven wheel chairs. In one occasion, I noticed three people under the influence of drugs as characterized by their disorderly conduct. Nonetheless, the general health of majority of the population can be considered good as the people appeared well nourished with an acceptable body size compared to their heights. In contrast, there was a very high population of obese people thus the need to monitor the population’s lifestyle habits.

b. Indicators of social and economic conditions: Use a majority of the questions from Box 6-2 in your text to describe your observations about the social and economic conditions.

The social and economic conditions of Bakersfield residents seem to be relatively high perhaps due to the high economic activities like industries in the city. Notably, majority of the population lives in single-family structures with an average of three people per household as noted through morning observations where most families would leave the house as a family consisting of two parents and a child under the age of about 16 years.  The downtown areas have multifamily structures and public housing in average conditions as some are well maintained while others appear to have been neglected.

The main means of transport in the city is road transport as characterized by the good road network coverage. I was able to note three stages for public transportation which I feel may be inadequate for the population. The bus stops are provided with shades and benches for public use. Bakersfield has high lucrative job opportunities in the oil industry. Majority of these companies are accessible through their many offices located within the city. Despite these employment opportunities, a relatively high population seems unemployed as it is possible to spot street families or people sitting in groups especially in back street areas and locations with public housing infrastructure.

On the other hand, the city also offers job opportunities in agriculture especially in the Shafter region. Accordingly, the city is both an urban area with limited rural areas thus depending on both industrialization and agriculture. Occasionally, I would encounter billboard advertisements on healthcare services and product. I believe these advertisements would be appropriate for this population as the population may be too engage in their daily work demands that they may not have time to listen to radio or watch television and therefore it would be more convenient to reach them through sizeable billboards as they head to work. Lastly, I was able to spot eight education facilities including the Baker Street Branch Library managed by Kern County and three day care facilities within residential areas.

c. Health Resources: Use a majority of the questions from Box 6-2 in your text to describe your observations about the health resources.

The city has three main hospitals: San Joaquin Community Hospital, Bakersfield Memorial Hospital and Mercy Hospital Southwest. San Joaquin Community hospital is ideally located in Downtown close to the city’s most populous area. The other two hospitals are quite distant from Downtown with Mercy Hospital Southwest being furthest but strategic for the Southwest population. Nonetheless, each of these hospitals has affiliates or branches across the city thus ensuring the city has adequate health resources. Each of these hospitals offer level 1 to 5 services.

The three listed hospitals are able to effectively handle emergency cases at all times of the day. Bakers Heart Hospital, Delano Regional Medical Hospital and Tehachapi Valley Healthcare Hospital also receive and attend to emergency cases. To facilitate emergency response, there are both ground and air emergency services companies like Delano Ambulance Service and Hall Critical Care Services respectively.

The three main hospitals offer most specialist services like desist services, heart related specializations and family planning. Other affiliates in Downtown only offer general services including family planning with a few others offering specialized services like trauma centers.  I only noticed one trauma center: Kern Medical Center. The drive also enabled me to notice the limited number of pharmacies in the Downtown. Consequently, the two main challenges in the downtown are: inadequate special needs centers especially for rehabilitation services and pharmacies to facilitate treatment as provided by the high number of hospitals.

d. Environmental conditions related to health: Use a majority of the questions from Box 6-2 in your text to describe your observations about the environmental conditions.

The high number of activist advertisements through billboards encouraging better means of construction and mining clearly illustrates that the pollution levels in the city are very alarming. Specifically, these advertisements are complaining of air pollution as caused through increase in economic activities. Nonetheless, the sanitation levels in most parts of the covered areas are relatively high with few exceptions especially in public housing developments where the levels of sanitation are generally low due to poor handling of garbage.

The housing infrastructure is average and inasmuch as there are no visible broken or damaged structures, these houses are poorly maintained in terms of appearance. This is however common in public housing facilities. The roads and other transport infrastructure are in good condition and properly marked to guide traffic. Drainage systems are also provided and the low water areas clearly marked. Other facilities like traffic lights are also functioning effectively whereas pavements and parking lots are clearly labeled and lit.

The Downtown roads are urban and have limited traffic that allows effective flow. The highest traffic is witnessed in the morning and in the evening. The number of cars is generally higher in the morning compared to the evening. The roads are also carefully curved and are wide enough to give a clear view of traffic from all directions. Handicapped facilities are also provided by poorly labeled. In some places, the labels are clearly visible but in some sections of parking lots and public facilities like bus stops and in train stations, these signs are not easily identifiable.

The city also has several recreational facilities. However, institutional based grounds are the most widely used as it will either host seasonal institutional league games or daily practice for the students. The Kern County Fairground is used mostly for club based trainings on weekdays through to the weekend while the Famoso Raceway is widely used on weekends. Runner park is also among the most renowned recreation parks used all the days of the week. Lastly, in residential areas where a family owns a single-family structure, the families use their yards or gardens to play and even host social functions like family gatherings

Majority of the restaurants in Downtown have their customers sit inside the restaurants with few of these restaurants allowing residents to sit outside. Nonetheless, there are several food vendors using trucks to sell fast foods in recreational parks and near business centers. There are adequate trash receptacles for dumping but the public benches are distant apart which make it difficult for majority of office staff to get resting places and therefore they end up carrying their food to their offices. In contrast, parks have adequate sitting areas. There are no stray animals or rodents noticeable in the streets, parks or recreational facilities. However, in public multi-family structures, rodents can be seen crossing roads and disappear in bushes and bins.

e. Social functioning: Use a majority of the questions from Box 6-2 in your text to describe your observations about the social functioning.

Residents of Bakersfield value the most basic social function unit: the family. On each day of the observation period, it was easy to spot families leaving together in a car or for public transport as a family of parents and children. In cases where one parent would be left behind, he or she would see the rest of the family out to the car and even wave goodbye until the transport vehicle leaves the runway. On weekends, these families would organize family events and even play a game in their yard before sitting in for a meal.

Children are closely guarded in both public and residential areas as most will be supervised by their parents and in some cases, a nanny will be paid to watch over the child and always be with them wherever they go. Neighborliness is also evident in the residential areas where some parents leave their children with trusted neighbors to attend to urgent errands and would go for their children immediately after the errand. In one case, a specific resident, perhaps a single mother or one whose husband may be far from home would leave hid preschooler son to stay with a neighbor for the whole day and she would collect the child after work. Perhaps the neighbor accepted because she also had a preschooler and this would allow the children to play together. All the same, it was an illustration of trustworthy neighborhood.

In other neighborhoods, there are posts calling for neighborhood meetings with part of the agenda mentioning issues like noise pollution and waste management. This clearly illustrates the aspects of community responsibility and shared monitoring of responsibilities. On the other hand, Bakersfield is also religious and therefore has a number of religious institutions. The Highland Congregation Church of Christ and two synagogues: Temple Beth El and Chabad of Bakersfield.

The social groupings in different locations of the city, indulgence in smoking and disorderly conduct in back streets of the city are also a clear indication of possible gang activities and drug abuse. The young pregnant mothers in some parts of the city are also an indication of early teenage pregnancies in the city.

f. Attitude toward healthcare: Use a majority of the questions from Box 6-2 in your text to describe your observations about the attitudes toward healthcare.

Bakersfield has a mixed attitude towards health. During the drive, I did not notice any herbal medicine shop or alternative medicine practitioners. Furthermore, the health facilities in the region seem to be underutilized. For instance, despite the high number of obese people in the society, the only initiative to manage the problem is that by the Kern County health department that offers the obese an opportunity to go and learn on how best to manage their weight. On one occasion, I visited the location of the program and about 30 people had come for the program by the time it was supposed to start.

It is common to see a number of advertisements calling on people to attend different wellness programs but these programs receive limited participants especially for programs meant for the adult population. Children wellness programs are mostly attended in high numbers perhaps due to the fun nature of the activities involved. Statistically, the California Department of Public Health (2015) notes that the average death toll due to coronary heart disease in Kern county in the period between 2011 and 2013 was 134.2 deaths per 100,000 of the population. Although this is a reduction the mortality rate is so high and with poor lifestyles that enhance chances of obesity, the mortality rate may increase.

Lastly, infant mortality is still relatively high as noted by the California Department of Public Health (2015) which says that in 2013, there were 7 infant deaths out of every 1000 births. This further emphasizes the need to review the medical sector to carefully understand whether these deaths may be due to poor pregnancy practices among first-time teenage mothers or problems in the healthcare sector.

3. Conclusion: (20 pts)

Provide a summary of your findings and your conclusion. What problems did you identify?

Downtown in Bakersfield, Kern County, California has adequate resources and adopts numerous effective practices that contribute to community development and societal growth. Nonetheless, its community of both the black and white populations is also composed of both upper-middle-class and the lower-middle-class. In general, the community is mostly middle-class with a higher population of upper-middle class compared to the lower-middle-class. During the observation, it was clear that these groups of people co-exist especially in public locations but the upper-middle-class is mostly settled in residential estates where they live in single-family units whereas the lower-middle class is mostly located in the multi-family units, mostly owned by the government.

Nonetheless, Bakersfield has social facilities, infrastructure, job opportunities and development programs that aim at improving the entire population. In contrast, many people fail to recognize these opportunities and thus the reason for the growing challenges as discussed in the earlier sections. These challenges include: First, a high rate of obesity which increases the risk of other related conditions like coronary artery disease and hypertension, second, increased idleness that leads to crime and drug abuse, third, teenage pregnancies due to both drug abuse leading to increased risk of infant mortality and lastly, underutilization of support program initiatives across the city leading to deterioration of health standards and increased mortality.

4. References:

optional: List in APA format any references that you used. If you include any references here, you must also include an in-text citation (author, year).

California Department of Public Health (2015): Adjusted Death rate Due to Coronary Heart Disease and Infant Mortality. Accessed from: http://www.healthykern.org/index.php?module=InitiativeCenters&func=display&icid=4&dest_module=Indicator&dest_type=