Foundations for Population Health in Community – Lauderhill, Florida
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Author Note
Foundations for Population Health in Community
Date of Survey:
Community Name and Location Assigned in Clinical Survey: Zip Code 33311, North West 33rd Terrace, Lauderhill, Florida
History of the Community
Lauderhill was established in 1959 in Broward County edge of the Everglades in its dairy farm country. In 1959, Florida was poised for change, with Fidel Castro entering Havana. At this point, thousands of Cubans needed a place to immigrate. Furthermore, NASA’s space program, based in Florida’s Cape Canaveral, was racing to compete with the Soviet space program. They had just launched their very first satellite called Sputnik in 1957 and it was a matter of concern for the USA. A New York-based developer by the name of Herbert Sadkin recognized the huge potential for growth in Lauderhill, Florida. He was already well known for not only designing but also building the typical American House, which drew international attention, as the focal point of the American National Exhibition in the Soviet Union in 1959.
At the exhibition, Vice President Richard Nixon and the Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev held the kitchen debate. They sparred over the facts that whether this model home, with all its modern conveniences, was truly affordable for the average American. Herbert Sadkin brought that prefabricated modern ranch-style house design to Lauderhill. The very first homes were located near what is now called the Herbert Sadkin Community Center and Walt Park. These homes were sold for 12,000 US Dollars. Financing of these homes was advertised at $30 down and $30 a month.
By 1966, hundreds of homes had been built. Herbert Sadkin had plans to name this new Florida Community “Sunnydale”. However, his friend, a New York Times journalist by the name of William Safire, thought that it sounded too much like a neighborhood in Brooklyn. Instead, Safire focused on the wordplay between Hill and Dale and the name Lauderhill was born, despite there being no hills in the area. They called it a product of the cold war and the city of Lauderhill, Broward County, Florida, was born.
Initial Windshield Survey of the Community
Place
Lauderhill, Florida is a community with manmade borders. It is a part of Broward County. It encompasses an area of 8.5 square miles and contains a number of multi-family, single-family, and townhouse households CITATION Flo16 \l 1033 (Florida, 2016). It has a number of healthcare facilities, schools, community centers, emergency services, shopping centers, recreational activity centers and various other business complexes vital to a thriving community. Everything that you are going to need is available in the area and easily accessible by car, public transport, and other services.
Open Spaces and Environment
The locality is lush and green, with well-kept grass lining the streets especially in the residential areas. While this increases the possibility of poisonous plants and soil-borne diseases, the area does not have a lot of stray cats and dogs roaming around, which is a relief. This decreases the potential of stray-related and soil-borne diseases considerably.
Additionally, the area does not have any big industrial unit in place that could adversely affect the environment. At the very best it has smaller industries with includes photo developing companies, paint stores, artisan stores, and dry cleaners.
Parks and Recreational Areas
The city of Lauderhill is lush and green. Being a planned city, the minds behind it ensured that ample space was reserved for landscaping to make sure that the town looked picture perfect. The city has a grand total of 26 parks, all of which are frequented by the people CITATION Flo163 \l 1033 (Lauderhill, Parks and Facilities, 2016).
Housing
The city of Lauderhill, Florida was created as a housing society or community from the very beginning, the sort that could house the brilliantly created model houses by Herbert Sadkin. Most of the neighbors still contain the original houses designed the Sadkin wanted. However, even after the completion of the project, the fact that houses of similar design and structure are used by single and multi-family homes is fairly commonplace. Apartment complexes are also popping up in different locations around the city. However, according to my assessment, none of the houses in the area were vacant or up for sale, with homes dating back to the foundation of the city.
Educational Institutes
There are more than 21 schools in the within the zip code 33311. Among them, six are public schools while the remaining are private ones. The students have their fair share of choices with regard to the schools they would like to go to. However, with regard to the designated location i.e. North West 33rd Terrace, Lauderhill, Florida, there are three schools in the area i.e. the Wingate Oaks Center School, Child Find and Larkdale Elementary School.
People
The area has a population of 72,750 people as of July 2018 CITATION Flo16 \l 1033 (Florida, 2016), with most of the population being foreign-born, primarily from Jamaica and West Indies CITATION Cen10 \l 1033 (Census, 2010). Thus, the zip code 33311 is filled with people of African origin. Secondly, Lauderhill is a retirement community. Thus, the number of baby boomers in the street or strolling in the park in the evening is a whole lot higher than the generations that follow them. However, there is an equally high number of teenagers in the area, who are often found milling around the Auburn Boulevard, Florida Avenue and Berkeley Boulevard in the evenings and over the weekend, chilling out with their friends. It often looks like they are having a great time.
Transportation
The city has a public transit as well as a public taxi system in place. Furthermore, Lauderhill has a great road network that can easily bear the morning rush hour traffic. The markings on the road prevent you from often getting lost. With most members of the community owning their own cars, people of Lauderhill believe in the carpooling system and they often give one another rides from places to places, especially if they are headed in the same direction. Asking neighbors and the people one may recognize if they need a ride to someplace is very much commonplace in Lauderhill, Florida.
Social Service and Community Centers
The Henderson Behavioral center is frequently visited by community members, especially when they seek advice on a mental health issue. On the other hand, there are about 22 community centers in the area, with the Herbert Sadkin community center being the oldest and the one most frequency visited by the senior members of the community. They get to exercise, learn new things and meet friends here. However, there is only one social service center located on the North West 33rd Terrace i.e. LifeNet4Families, which caters to family and works on developing and improving the family institute in the area.
Religion
The most commonly observed religion in the area is Christianity, given the fact that there are almost 20 churches in the zip code 33311. However, none of the churches in the area are located on North West 33rd Terrace. Although the Christian Family Center Good Shepherd is located on North West 33rd Avenue, which is only a short walk away. People here are rather religious, with the Christian community being rather close-knit. Their affiliation with religion is easily noticeable with the number of people attending the Sunday mass in unison and choosing to spend the day together with the members of their community.
Business and Industries
There are more than 5000 registered businesses in the area, which employ as much as 10,475 people CITATION Flo16 \l 1033 (Florida, 2016). This includes both local businesses, owned and operated by the residents of the area as well as chain restaurants and other well-known stores with branches all over the country. These stores are usually frequented by the younger crowds since they happen to be the target audience. However, people that have been living in the area all their lives have the tendency to frequent the local stores, with most of them being friends with the owners.
Emergency Services
The city has a number of emergency response services in place to aid its population in case of an emergency. It has a fire rescues station, fire department, a number of ambulance services and even the Lauderhill police department located within the zip code. The city commission, sensing a renewed commitment to community involvement and engagement moved to re-establish the Municipal Lauderhill Police Department. The new Police Chief Mike Scott was tasked with hiring police officers whose diversity reflected the diversity of the community. Scott promised to take a proactive, problem-oriented approach to crime prevention as well as law enforcement. It had been a truly professional organization ever since and has been formally recognized by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) in July of 2005 CITATION Flo161 \l 1033 (Lauderhill, 2016). The prime mission of the Lauderhill Police Department is to protect the community, safeguard the people in the city and even provide professional police partnership in order to make the community a better place.
Healthcare in Lauderhill, Florida
There are ample of hospitals and healthcare facilities in Lauderhill, Florida. With a round figure of more than 15 hospitals and 4 healthcare centers, including mental healthcare centers, the healthcare system in place is beyond excellent. However, the north-eastern and the south-eastern part of the city is plagued with poverty, with a number of low-income households in the area. They have an annual income of less than $30,000 and often have to fall back on the community for aid. They often have to use government benefits (0.5%), Medicaid (28%) and Medicare (40.1%) in order to afford healthcare. The pupils here are also entitled to the free lunch program CITATION Cli13 \l 1033 (Cleveland, 2013).
As mentioned earlier, most of the people living in the area are from Jamaica and hence blacks. While palliative care and hospice should be culturally sensitive. However, according to research that is not the case. If the patient or their family does not belong to the same culture as the caregiver, there is a good chance that a communication barrier may exist between the two of them. They are often uncomfortable in their presence and are unable to administer the sort of healthcare the patient needs ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"O2EmLvn3","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Policzer, Mizell, Deese, Payne, & Sanders, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Policzer, Mizell, Deese, Payne, & Sanders, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":223,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/5VyEEXyp/items/TB89EKI3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/5VyEEXyp/items/TB89EKI3"],"itemData":{"id":223,"type":"article-journal","title":"Culturosity: Competence in Caring for Communities of Color (P10)","container-title":"Journal of Pain and Symptom Management","page":"310-311","volume":"51","issue":"2","author":[{"family":"Policzer","given":"Joel"},{"family":"Mizell","given":"Deborah"},{"family":"Deese","given":"Diane"},{"family":"Payne","given":"Richard"},{"family":"Sanders","given":"Lawrence"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Policzer, Mizell, Deese, Payne, & Sanders, 2016).
Additionally, since there is a large number of the members of baby boomer generation living in the area, with Lauderhill doubling as a retirement community, there is a need for Geriatric healthcare specialists in the area. Add in the fact that the city hosts lush golf courses, this increases the chances of such individuals to suffer from back and hip related issues. Sometimes they may also need round the clock care. Thus, having professionals on board that can specialize in geriatric healthcare is necessary ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"a6oljlJj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Gallo, 2006)","plainCitation":"(Gallo, 2006)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":224,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/5VyEEXyp/items/WW7MHMBI"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/5VyEEXyp/items/WW7MHMBI"],"itemData":{"id":224,"type":"book","title":"Handbook of geriatric assessment","publisher":"Jones & Bartlett Learning","ISBN":"0-7637-3056-4","author":[{"family":"Gallo","given":"Joseph J."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2006"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Gallo, 2006).
Conclusion
Lauderhill is a lush city, boasting every amenity that you may ever need. It hosts a close knit community of people that care about one another. This community is strong, despite some areas belonging to a lower socioeconomic class, it is mutually supportive and meets every need in terms of food, water, shelter and a safe work environment for its residents. The health statistics in the area may need some work, but the way the community leaders in the city are working towards is development, that is one area that will not be an issue for quite some time. The city is improving on a daily basis and is working towards the introduction of health initiatives that it needs, while addressing more issues that need to be taken care of on a regular basis.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Census. (2010). Census of Population and Housing. Retrieved from Census.GOV: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade/decennial-publications.2010.html
Cleveland, C. (2013). Community Health Needs Assessment - Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved from Cleveland Clinic: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/-/scassets/files/org/florida/about/2013-florida-chna-and-isr.ashx?la=en
Florida, L. (2016). City Profile, Lauderhill, Florida.
Gallo, J. J. (2006). Handbook of geriatric assessment. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Lauderhill, F. (2016). Parks and Facilities. Retrieved from City of Lauderhill, Florida: https://www.lauderhill-fl.gov/parks-recreation/parks-list-view2
Lauderhill, F. (2016). POLICE DEPARTMENT, Lauderhill, Florida.
Policzer, J., Mizell, D., Deese, D., Payne, R., & Sanders, L. (2016). Culturosity: Competence in Caring for Communities of Color (P10). Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 51(2), 310–311
