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Sentinel Simulated Environment Case Study
Community health is an essential field within the medical department because it gives the reality of within-population conservation health risks and other prevalent medical problems. They also towards giving solutions that can improve the health conditions of a particular area. To improve community health, this paper will use the Sentinel Case study to understand the relationship between demographic assessments and neighborhood or community safety assessments. Notably, the paper will also demonstrate the usefulness of the scavenger hunt tool and the windshield survey in identifying a community health risk. Sentinel City is a simulation environment to test the assessment and interpretation of data for creating working policies regarding community health.
Demographic Assessment
Sentinel City is primarily an urban area with little open space because it represents multi-family complexes. With its population of 663,862, it is made up of four neighborhoods; Acer Tech, Nightingale Square, Industrial Casper Park District, and Industrial Heights (Sentinel U, 2021). Although it is an urban area, it represents two distinct areas within the four locations, showing class differences among the people. Health varies from class to class; hence it is essential to understand some demographics to figure out some health risks and other problems associated with an area. Industrial Heights and Casper Park Districts have older and dilapidated structures because they were part of the industrial factories years ago. The buildings’ trash is visible with painted graffiti showing the people’s living conditions and structures. Nightingale Square and Acer tech were used as residents for upper-class citizens because they contained more established lawns, few graffiti, advanced shopping options, and dining locations.
Understanding the characteristics of the Sentinel City population will help us with the demographic assessment of Sentinel City. Casper Park District has a population of 352,643, industrial heights-38855, nightingale square-103974, and 168390 in Acer tech Centre (Sentinel U, 2021). Within the general population, 7.4 percent represents children under the age of 5 years, 21.7 percent represents ages 5-18 years, and 10.5 percent of the entire population represents ages above 65 years (Sentinel U, 2021). Like many urban cities, Sentinel is a cosmopolitan area representing diverse races from different ethnic groups. Of the population, over 80.6% represents white, African American represents 10.4%, Asians at 3.7%, and Hawaiians and other small ethnic Pacific Islanders represent 0.2% (Sentinel U, 2021). Two of the areas within Sentinel City live above the poverty line, while the majority of the other two remaining areas have meager incomes. Median household distribution include; Nightingale Square- $269,550, Acer Tech Centre- $166,300, Casper Park District- $80,134 and the Industrial Heights-$24,672. Within these four income distributions, the median household is estimated to be $49,091 (Sentinel U, 2021).
Nightingale Square and Acer Tech Centre represent two of the highest income areas because the residents live within the city’s middle class. The other two areas represent the workers of the many factories within Industrial Heights. Health insurance differs between these four areas because of the capital or income distribution in the four locations. The highest number of people without the age of 65 that have no insurance include; Industrial heights (37.5%), Casper Park District (22.7%), Acer tech Centre at 15 %, and Nightingale Square at 0.7% (Sentinel U, 2021). from the readings, it is essential to note that the median household income is inversely proportional to the percentages of non-insured individuals within the city.
Neighborhood/ Community Safety Assessment
The safety assessment tool is vital in identifying specific safety hazards within a specific area. The four locations have diverse characteristics when it comes to building safety. Acer tech and Nightingale locations, which represented higher health insurance rates, demonstrated that their buildings are clean and well maintained with spacious lawns with absolutely no pollution. Acer Tech and Nightingale are two locations within the city with fewer safety hazards because of their residential conditions. Casper Park and Industrial heights have more dilapidated infrastructure with old, dirty lawns. Graffiti and trash are everywhere, posing safety concerns and other health hazards.
Therefore, the living conditions between the four areas within the city, Acer Tech and Nightingale Square have fewer risks based on the community safety assessment, which based its data on how people live. The two Casper Park and Industrial Heights have more safety hazards based on the infrastructure conditions. Comparatively, people that have lower incomes may be attracted more to crimes. Sentinel City reported a crime rate of 3,605 per 100,000 people. Generally, Nightingale Square has the lowest crime rate because of the quality of life. In contrast, Industrial Heights and Casper Park District have more excellent crime rates because of the low-income distributions (Sentinel U, 2021). These two cities have also reported more gang violence and street fighting due to a territorial dispute, among other petty crimes. Gender comparison places more males having suffered as victims than females in problems related to violence and other crimes.
Scavenger Hunt Tool
The Scavenger hunt tool is important because it measures how the communities use the community resources. In our case, we have four distinct areas with distinct characteristics and different community resources. Every community has community resources that are used by the community for free. These resources are essential because they assist in bonding between our community members and further bond the many diverse races and ethnic communities. They include swimming, nutrition, and kids section classes and sports. Park and other recreational facilities are also part of the recreational facilities that many cities offer to communities. Healthcare systems provide many services to the elderly, where they are accepted into elderly homes where they get the palliative care they need. The elderly in Sentinel city are given senior apartments connected to nursing homes to help them get the social services they deserve.
Children are also part of the population protected by social services such as adoption, independent living, and nutrition programs; however, low-income people find it challenging to secure such opportunities. Similarly, health clinics, also called community health centers, offer services such as birth control, counseling, infertility, and awareness of sexually transmitted diseases. The data they acquire from the visits tells the risk factor of the community, which then guides the prognosis and diagnosis of many health-related problems. As a result of the Scavenger hunt tool, Casper Park district has gained imperatively because residential houses from the affordable housing project are taking shape.
Windshield Survey
A windshield survey is an observatory survey where one learns through empirical evidence. Residents between Acer Tech and Nightingale Square are well maintained, and security has dramatically improved within the neighborhoods. In contrast, the Casper Park and Industrial Heights buildings are worn out, with poor lawns and shattered windows everywhere. However, the city is urbanized and has few openings. While the community resources of Acer Tech and Nightingale are well kept, open spaces at Casper Park and Industrial Heights have been neglected.
Noting, there are no boundaries between the four areas, but their residents tell the difference. At the same time, Industrial heights ad Casper Park are economically oriented, and the other two get all the benefits, receiving complete renovations and better maintenance. Most people use buses in Ace Tech and Nightingale Square, and the infrastructure is more open and developed. Notably, many people have cars, which shows their economic status has improved. Traveling within Sentinel City reflects who the owners of the means of production are. I saw two distinct classes represented by where they lived. It is like two different civilizations; while others flouted their lavish lifestyle, other places were infected by rats, and the health risks in such places were very high.
Within Nightingale Square and Ace Tech areas, Caucasians comprised the larger population, while the other comprised African American, American Indians, and Asian communities. However, the different ethnicities lived in harmony and perfect peace. Because of the class difference, better health clinics are in the affluent neighborhoods because of the insurance rates they support. Casper Park and Industrial heights residents have an addiction because many billboards show the message; “save your lungs,” which relates to the diverse impacts of industrial machines or drug addiction prevalence, especially tobacco cigarettes.
Analysis of collected Data
Many problems can be identified with how residents are situated. Trash, for example, along with stray gods and cats, has become a problem-based cleanliness problem. Crimes have also been prevalent in Casper Park estate and Industrial Heights because residents fight the rising concerns of homelessness.
Challenges
Sentinel City has diverse differences based on social classism, monetary differences, and natural differences that are characterized by the four areas that make Sentinel City. The challenges affect all social-economic situations, including age, sex, and mental wellness.
- Pollution and environmental Issues
It is crucial to develop social and physical environments to fully develop health and equality, which is an excellent value in community health. It is, therefore, profound that the institutions create an environment that will promote good health, especially in creating more recreational centers, biffing up security, and maintaining the already established infrastructure risk-free. Dealing with trash will need a recycling industry to ensure the city is clean because it will work towards re-establishing clean environments.
- Access to healthcare and Drug prevalence
Most community health facilities have set their goals from improving the quality of health care to a money-making business; hence they tend to move to places where more people have insurance facilitation to make more money. It is clear that where more people have health insurance, they will be free to visit hospital facilities often to ensure their health is normal. The drug is a universal phenomenon in all social classes; hence the government or community health institutions must make an effort to sensitize the public to the adverse effects of drugs. Drugs are substances that affect the developmental progress of any particular individual, and at any cost, it affects the living standards of the people affected.
- Teen Pregnancy
Teen pregnancies can be attributed to more unemployment and sensitization, especially on sexuality awareness and sexual health. Within the city, there is a need to improve healthy development and awareness in adolescents and the young. It is important to note that we need to find employment for these youths to keep them busy throughout their youthful stages (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2021). Institutions and government too must promote safe environments where the youth and general population get to explore the different opportunities such that they move away from poverty.
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Community Resources
Sentinel City has few community resources related to healthcare issues. Programs for the elderly and children are an example of the essence of community resources towards the community. To fully minimize the health risks, it is essential to develop safe environments with programs such as orthodontics. Health institutions within Sentinel City should also make the general population aware of the impacts of some of the health risks associated with the area, for example, drugs.
Primary Prevention
Improvement of the quality of a population is not a personal endeavor but a collective purpose. Sentinel City must first improve the health insurance policies to accommodate even the less fortunate or those below the poverty line so that they are exposed to medical services whenever they wish. After the change in the insurance policy, access to health will be possible, and healthcare will increase three-fold. Population and other environmental issues must be taken seriously, especially when it is a health risk to the general population. Additionally, areas with old infrastructure must work on building new ones to make them habitable because old infrastructures are also a health risk. To fully protect the general population from drug abuse, we will need to improve our awareness strategies, establish more recreational facilities and develop personal mitigation strategies to curb drug prevalence and its use. Like drugs, teen pregnancies result from poor educative awareness, where teens are taught how to use modern contraceptives or abstain from pre-mature sexuality (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2021).
Application of Assessment Strategies
From this simulation environment, it is crucial to understand every variable and its interpretation of community health. Factors such as homelessness, poor residents, and crime, among others, give a sharp reflection on the general status of community health and expose the risk factors associated with a particular area. Therefore, I have learned a lot about how various variables can relate to community health, and it also made me appreciate the importance of data interpretation in any area. Overall, health is a crucial aspect of the growth of any area, and it must be considered using assessment tools in a real-world setting.
References
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2021). Sexually transmitted diseases. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/sexually-transmitted- diseases
Sentinel U. (2021). Sentinel City (Version 3.1.3.1) [Computer software]. https://sentinelworld.healthcarelearninginnovations.com/Simulation/SentinelCity31/St art