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Los Angeles Community Issues
Los Angeles is one of the biggest cities in California, with a population of over 4 million people, whereas Los Angeles County is inhabited by more than 13 million residents. Los Angeles demonstrates a striking misbalance in living conditions for rich and poor, including the recent homelessness crisis. Besides that, the city has pollution problems and a lack of green areas, leading to health problems in the wider population. The barriers to overcoming the homelessness crisis, which is currently the city’s main problem, include the inaction of local authorities. This paper argues that Los Angeles city has three main health risk factors for the community – the homelessness crisis, environmental issues, and the singleness crisis.
There are many resources where one can find information regarding the demography and health indicators in Los Angeles. The website is a hub of information providing the collection of data from cross-national surveys and reports. These documents include reposts on household statistics, changes in the resident population, and other topics. County of Los Angeles Public Health website, is another resourceful hub, containing a list of web links, initiatives, and organizations that monitor the health risks in Los Angeles. These are websites like Fish Contamination Education Collaborative initiative, with maps for fishers, and California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, providing data on pollution.
Assessment of the Community According to Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns
According to Gordon’s functional health patterns, the communities can be assessed on 11 types of characteristics. There is a stable health perception and health-management patterns in Los Angeles, with most people perceiving their health and well-being as high. Los Angeles County has high rates in public safety (77), population health (76), food and nutrition (74), economy (67), and infrastructure (64), compared to other counties (“Overview of Los Angeles County,” 2020). However, there are very low indicators for equity (24), housing (29), environment (28), and community vitality (17) (“Overview of Los Angeles County,” 2020). Therefore, there is a considerable gap between the well-being of rich and poor groups of population in the city.
There are no problems in nutritional-metabolic patterns; still, serious problems in elimination patterns and activity-exercise patterns are present. Environmental issues include pollution and lack of green areas resulting in fewer opportunities for outdoor activity. According to statistics, approximately 60,000 homeless people live in Los Angeles County, including 36,000 in the city that are surely having severe problems with sleep-rest patterns (Jablon, 2020). Homelessness is an ongoing problem; in 2017, Health Indicators for Women in Los Angeles County report showed that 9.6% of city inhabitants with low incomes reported housing instability. In 2015, there were about 45,000 homeless in Los Angeles County (“Health Indicators for Women,” 2017). The homelessness crisis contributes greatly to the health risks of the community and should be addressed directly.
The cognitive-perceptual pattern reveals information about problem-solving and decision-making. There are particular problems in this field, especially in fighting the homelessness crisis. Self-perception and self-concept pattern is also flawed due to extremely low equity, socioeconomic, cultural, and race disparities and discrimination. Speaking of equity, remarkable differences in vaccination patterns prove the discrimination and disparities tendencies (“Household Pulse Survey COVID-19 Vaccination Tracker,” 2021). There is ongoing communication about the health risks of the community, including the dialogue regarding the homelessness crisis (Woodyard, 2019). The problems related to the sexuality-reproductive pattern include the growing tendency of being single rather than in a relationship, with the highest percentage of singles among the Black population – 72%, compared to 43% among Asian, 42% among Latino, and 42 % among the White population (“Health Indicators for Women,” 2017). There are also higher tendencies of being exposed to violence and crime in neighborhoods among the Black population. These tendencies lead to worsening the sexuality-reproductive pattern in this population group.
Barriers to Implementing Community Health Plans
There are three important health risk indicators in Los Angeles: bad environment, homelessness crisis, and singleness crisis among the Black population. The most urgent problem is the health risks that homeless people face, since they live on the sidewalks, near highways, being exposed to constant inhalation of lead, which settles in the air (Woodyard, 2019). This population group also does not have adequate access to water, sanitation, and food. Despite the demands placed on the government, the problem was not resolved due to the lack of adequate municipal problem-solving and decision-making. This group is also a potential threat for other groups of a population due to the spread of typhoid fever, Hepatitis A, and COVID-19 (Woodyard, 2019). Therefore, this group should be addressed through the healthcare initiatives like vaccination and providing these people with toilets, water, food, and hand sanitizers.
The more longstanding problems are related to environmental and socioeconomic disparities, as well as race discrimination, which all present a great risk for the health of the community. The environmental problem-related barriers can be overcome through information and health education campaigns when the population will be informed of threats from particular sites, dangerous air particles, and polluted water or foods. The ‘singleness crisis’ among the Black population can only be addressed by eliminating daily discrimination and changing the perceptions when many people consider themselves unworthy of serious relationships until they reach a middle-class lifestyle.
Thus, the health risk factors for the communities in Los Angeles city were evaluated. There are barriers related to implementing the community health plans, which can, however, be overcome through detailed planning. Los Angeles community strengths include adequate communication and good population health in general. The main weaknesses include problems in equity, environment, and housing. The vulnerable groups of the population cannot see their needs met, and the city still faces the homelessness crisis.
References
Health Indicators for women in Los Angeles County. (2017). Publichealth.laconty. Web.
Household pulse survey COVID-19 vaccination tracker. (2021). Census. Web.
Jablon, R. (2020). Judge orders Los Angeles to move thousands of homeless. AP. Web.
Overview of Los Angeles County, CA. (2020). Census. Web.
Woodyard, C. (2019). As homeless are suffering, risk of hepatitis, typhus and other diseases is growing. USA Today. Web.
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