Merced County Health Status Essay

A confederations headspringness can be established d wholeness a myriad of differing factors. Three particularised factors that entrust help to determine the wellness of the county in which I live argon fellowship safety, catastrophe prep atomic number 18dness, as well as an analysis of the population. The partnership downstairs review, Merced, is located in central calcium and made up of seventeen cities and communities whose separate populations do not exceed more than than 75,000 and c everywheres an sphere of somewhat 1,972 squ atomic number 18 miles (United States count Bureau, 2010) with a total population of approximately 255,793 people in 2010 (Merced County California, 2012).The first bea of importance is community safety. It is pregnant to offshoot discussion with the one of the close prefatory of health indicators the air we breathe. The air bore index in Merced County is 48, a median(a) value that takes into account solo the most hazardous air pollu tants (Air Now, 2012). This value is wholly slightly lower than the air tonicity index of California, only if is approximatly 30% higher(prenominal) than the national aver come along (Air Now, 2012). former(a) important atomic number 18a that must be intercommunicate is the water we drink.In Merced County most of our crapulence water comes from groundwater sources which atomic number 18 collected by ii earth water systems. just about every aras in Merced County are touch by three different pollutants Nitrates, ethylene Dibromide (EDB), and Dibromochloropropane (DBCP) (Air Now, 2012). Although all three of the pollutants fall beneath the water standard or eliminated done the everyday water systems, these pollutants testament brood 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 deep down the sociocultural environment. The ability to work, shop, or simply r ally your bike and feel protected indoors 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 answer clip of 3 minutes (Merced County Office of frugal Development, 2012) most people can be fairly confident that they and their property are protected. However, crime rates pay locomote in the past few years.In 2009, Merced County experienced 1,658 violent crimes the volume of which mixed aggrivated assult nevertheless likewise included 26 murders, 78 forcible rapes, and 276 robberies (United States Department of Justice, 2012). in that respect were also 4,390 property crimes and 90 cases of arson (United States Department of Justice, 2012). Rate of offenses per 100,000 are as follows violent 568. 3, property 567. 3, drug 512. 9, energise 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. law enforcement officers per 100,000 people, it would egress as though crime entrust continue to rise for the foreseeable future. These numbers are especially troublesome considering compute cuts that result surely affect all public safety departments (Layoff Watch, 2011). There are a couple of ethnical groups at bottom Merced County that feel especially vulnerable, the Hispanic community and the Asian community. The Hispanic community just about represents-up 50 percent of the population and is congrigated in the poorest of neighborhoods. Yet another concern involving public safety is the ability to obtain health check services. at bottom Merced County at that place are only two hospitals that offer need medical examination service, Memorial hospital of Los Banos and Dignity wellness of Merced. Memorial hospital of Los Banos is a comparatively small hospital with the ability to take hold a total of 46 patient ofs (Memorial hospital Los B anos, 2008). The requisite style has the ability to do for a total of 6 patients requiring immediate emergency care, but has the capability to fly patients out to other facilities if required. Dignity wellness 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 wellness 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 about 250 patients amid the hours of 7 a. m. and7 p. m. (M. Parker RN, personal communication, June 8, 2012). Also servicing the community are 8 native clinics. The majority of these clinics are located within the city limits of Merced and Los Banos. Those located outside of these locations will have to drive upto 30 minutes to obtain medical services.Merced County also has quintuple psychiatric facilities, only 2 of which are capable of ad mitting patients. Country Villa Merced Behavioral Health Center has 96 beds available for the community and has the ability to care for long-term patients among the ages of 18 to 65 years of age (Country Villa Merced Behavioral Health Center, 2012). Marie Green psychiatric Center is a smaller installing that has the ability to admit upto 20 patients in the midst of the ages of 18 to 65 years of age, but this is a short 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(a) the age of 18 or over the age of 65. Emergency preparedness within Merced County is primarily controlled by the Department of overt Health. Merced Countys emergency preparedness was outlive updated in 2003 and in general addresses preparedness, response, recovery, and relief activities (City of Merced California, 2012). In the preparedness descriptor, activit ies are intemperate in advance of a disaster.Actions are revolve abouted on implementing hazard extenuation projects, developing hazard analyses, developing and maintaining emergency plans and procedures, conducting general and specialized training, conducting exercises, developing vulgar aid agreements, and improving emergency public education and warning systems (Merced County California, 2003). In the response phase an emergency situation is at hand(predicate) or likely to occur. During this stage the county initiates actions to amplification its readiness.In the recovery phase the focus is to descend public services to Merced county residents and return any area affected by the emergency to its previous condition. The mitigation phase occurs before and after emergencies. aft(prenominal) 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.Within these areas there are disproportionate ethnic minorities. The two primary ethnic groups, Hispanic and asian americans, are particularily at gamble 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 living below poverty level. This translates into the majority of the population within the economically low-spirited areas having inadequate housing or go 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 potential for harm receivable to the softness 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 families from a depressed area, all but one family put any thought into a potential emergency, and none of these families had money crash aside for such a disaster (personal communication, June 1, 2012).