Community Health Needs Assessment Essay

Community Health Needs Assessment

            In this paper I will be covering my Community Health Needs Assessment and Healthcare Advocacy Plan for the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) which is located on the border of Georgia and South Carolina. I will lay out major issues facing my community’s health care and possible ways to alleviate the problems. The major issues I found to be affecting healthcare in my community are poverty, access to care and obesity. All of which tend to be inter twined and play a big role in people’s health.

            First let’s look at poverty in my community. According to Augusta University’s community health needs assessment which was conducted in June of 2016 approximately 27.1% of the CSRA population is living in poverty. The state of Georgia is at 33% and South Carolina is at 16.7%. The population living in poverty has an average median income of only $36,111. This is an issue because people living in poverty tend to have more health issues. This stems from overcrowded living conditions, a lack of food, clean water and sanitation. In conditions like these you see an up rise in health issues. There is also the problem that the person might not be able to cover the cost of health care so they will avoid going to the doctor.

            Now let’s look at access to health care. Again poverty stricken people tend to avoid going to the doctor as they can’t afford the bills. The other big issue here is that 15.4% of people living in the CSRA don’t have any health insurance coverage. In a study done by The Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia Georgia was ranked last out of all states for access to health care. According to the Atlanta Journal Georgia has some of the worst access to health care in the nations. Out of 159 counties more than 6 lack pediatricians and almost half lack obstetrician/gynecologist. This is a huge issue because people without health care don’t get regular checkups and tend to wait tell illness is much worse than people with coverage.             Lastly we will look at obesity which is very closely tied to the first to issues.  It may seem like an odd thing to say that poor people have a lack of food yet have more obesity. The reason for this is the cheaper foods tend to be high in calories and high in fat. Georgia as a hole is currently at 31.4 percent for adult obesity which is the 20^th highest in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) People that are obese are at an increased risk for many diseases and health cond ……….

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