Demographics/Health Issues
To begin with, Baldwin Park is a city that lies in Los Angeles County, California. According to the latest estimates, it has a population of 75 251, where 13.88% live in poverty (Neighborhood Scout, n.d.). The majority of residents are of Hispanic (74.3%) and Asian (19.1%) origin. In terms of health cover coverage, 7.26% of patients rely on Medicare, whereas 12.5% are uninsured. What is more, 11.6% of residents are 65 years old and over and 10.7% are aged 55 to 64. These generations are more vulnerable to COVID-19, risking developing fatal complications. Thus, they require more attention from the public and private health care providers.
In general, higher obesity may be associated with more crowded housing, higher racial segregation, lower-income, and less employment. Approximately 26% of locals deal with obesity that is a better rate than the state’s average. More than 12% of people encounter difficulties with their mental health. Another challenging health outcome is diabetes diagnosed in 12.2% of local inhabitants (Kaiser Permanente, 2019). Residents with health issues related to obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and other chronic conditions usually at higher risk for developing severe illness from coronavirus (Targher et al., 2020). The total number of coronavirus cases in Baldwin Park has reached 11,438 as of January 21, 2021. Another important social factor is higher unemployment caused by pandemic, expensive housing, and the absence of a high school diploma (26% of adults).
Community Stakeholders/Resources
The major local hospitals are Baldwin Park Medical Center, Emanate Health Queen of the Valley Hospital, and Kindred Hospital Baldwin Park. A federally qualified Central City Community Health Center provides all residents with affordable access to health care. Forever Young Adult Day Health Care Center that provides critical daycare services to Medi-Cal eligible adults, was identified as another important stakeholder. Currently, the site remains physically closed due to Covid-19 measures and offers alternative services: remote nursing, social service, food and hot meal delivery service, and medication delivery in a request.
Julia McNeill Senior Center and YWCA San Gabriel Valley should also be considered for partnership in addressing services for affected seniors. The City Council and other local authorities should be informed and encouraged to provide needed legal changes and support in relation to housing and public hygiene. Organizations such as Baldwin Park Counseling and the Teri G. Muse Family Service Center are essential in offering mental health care to patients affected by a pandemic or the illness itself. The latter is also known for organizing a set of local food bank locations that provide food to those in need because of coronavirus upheaval.
The closest Covid-19 testing sites are San Gabriel Valley Airport, DPH-Monrovia Health Center, and Chap Care Vacco Health Center. Moreover, three already mentioned health centers offer testing and telehealth services. Partnership with local pharmacies such as Saint John’s Family Pharmacy can result in more convenient and faster testing options for some patients. In general, under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Covid-19 tests are free of charge for everybody in the US, including uninsured individuals (HHS, n.d.). Further collaboration on homeless hygiene services with the County of Los Angeles Health Department is also welcomed.
The Communication Plan
Objective 1: Provide accurate information on the current Covid-19 picture to critical stakeholders and residents.
It is essential to improve communication between inhabitants, the public and private health care providers. The hospital should regularly inform local government, regional media on updates and disseminate booklets telling how to contain the outbreak and find assistance. People who are the most vulnerable due to clinical or socio-economic reasons should be foremost reached. This approach ensures patients’ awareness of self-isolation measures and coronavirus symptoms.
Objective 2: Ensure timely access to viral testing for all having COVID-19 symptoms.
Assuming that a hospital is one of the available testing sites, other local health care providers should be encouraged to share patients to ease the burden on more popular agencies. A patient who calls for an appointment for which there is no available time should be immediately redirected to the partner. The latter should make an appointment or do the same.
Objective 3: Provide effective care and support to the vulnerable self-isolated individuals.
Patients who need further hospitalization usually receive enough care and assistance. Nevertheless, those prescribed to self-isolation at home often lack the necessary resources and care. Collaboration with Julia McNeill Senior Center and YWCA San Gabriel Valley is needed to direct their food/drugs delivery efforts to those most in need. It is crucial to stay in touch with a patient; hence, Forever Young Health Center’s assistance in remote nursing would be a great addition to our telehealth measures.
Objective 4: Provide mental support to elderly, lonely people, and those with mental health disorders.
The stress related to self-isolation and round of treatment may lead to depression and other mental problems. Older and vulnerable patients should receive free of charge help from a family therapist or psychiatrist during or after the treatment. For that reason, the hospital expects to collaborate with Teri G. Muse Family Service Center to ease the stress and pain of affected individuals.
Evaluation
The partnership’s main goal with mentioned community agencies is to create a comprehensive response system to the outbreak. Many social factors influence the spread of the virus and its severity within the local community. Presented measures address some of them, trying to solve problems of unemployed, poor, and older populations. The success of collaboration would be assessed based on the quantitative analysis of data collected. For instance, collaboration with health care centers/testing sites would be deemed fruitful if more interested patients received a test. In general, the initiative would be successful if the daily coronavirus case rate goes down and there are no new outbreaks.
References
HHS. (n.d.). Community-based testing sites for COVID-19. Web.
Kaiser Permanente. (2019). 2019 community health needs assessment. Web.
Neighborhood Scout. (n.d.). Baldwin Park, CA: Demographic data. Web.
Targher, G., Mantovani, A., Wang, X. B., Yan, H. D., Sun, Q. F., Pan, K. H., … Zhengg, M. H. (2020). Patients with diabetes are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19. Diabetes & Metabolism, 46(4), 335-342.