Public health is something that has been a worry for quite some time now, even more so since this pandemic started. Over the last two decades, there has been a drive towards better community health assessments and actions to promote their communities needs. Health promotion can be implemented through several different avenues, especially with healthier lifestyle changes. That is a broad few words, since there is so much more that goes into that. The proper diet, frequent doctor check-ups, physical activity, mental health, and less stress are some of the most important to address. We must come together as a community for any of these health promotion ideas to work. So, implementing them may be difficult, however, it can be done through several avenues and people having the desire to change. Integral parts of the following are all included in community-based health systems: health promotion, models of community health needs assessments (CHNA), demographic composition, socioeconomic status, health status, quality of life, and community capacity.
First and foremost, health promotion can be done through all different kinds of community-based programs. According to Merzel and D’Afflitti (2003), health promotions main strategy for achieving population level change with risk behaviors and health, is through emphasizing community-based programs to enable multiple interventions. Doing workplace wellness programs or other educational courses can help promote community health needs. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2022), CHNA’s use systematic, comprehensive data collection and analysis to identify key health needs and issues within a community. The relevance between CHNA’s and health promotion is focused on the health of the communities it is working through. The community that will be assess further through my reports will be my local community, Casper, Wyoming. I aspire to assist in the improvements of my community with its physical fitness percentage and proper nutrition counseling. All other positive health promotions will come through these changing of lifestyles.
The Casper, Wyoming CHNA is named the Community Health implementation Strategy, that was created in November of 2019. Through a panel of 60 people, a vote was placed to set certain goals for health promotion within the community. According to the Wyoming Medical Center (2019), four core goals were set forth for the locality of our community: Healthy Eating/Active Lifestyle, Substance Abuse/Misuse, Mental Health/Suicide, and finally Safe/ Affordable Housing through the Casper Housing Authority. All four of these goals are relevant to our local needs from my perspective, and others. Furthermore, I think each one is step into the next, resulting in better results.
Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) would be the best assessment structure for Casper’s CHNA. With Wyoming medical Center and Casper-Natrona County Health Department partnering up to establish a proper analysis of the community, which has brought some amazing results. Going to and from local high schools and middle schools gives the assessment a better classification for our adolescent aged population. While also getting surveys set up within the workplaces across the town gives the adult population their statistics. When it comes to the substance abuse /Misuse section of the CHNA, they were able to get an accurate analysis compared with other cities within Wyoming and even the nation.
The demographic composition of Casper is approximately 79,858 people residing within the entire county. According to the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps (2021), 23.9% of the population is below the age of 18, 15.9% of the population is 65+ years old, and finally the middle-aged population is 52.1%. It is a predominately white community with 86.3% being non-Hispanic White, 8.7% Hispanic, and all other races being below two percent, with 49.6% of the population being female (County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, 2021). Most of the population lives in an urban environment, with only 14.4% of people living outside of city limits where farming is the main source of income (County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, 2021).
The socioeconomic composition is surprisingly average throughout the state, with 94% of people graduating from High School and merely 64% attending some level of college (County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, 2021). This is with graduates and GED participants included into each other. The unemployment rate sits right at 3.9% in 2021, which should be different now in 2022 after the expulsion of COVID-19 restrictions (County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, 2021). Unfortunately, there are 13% of children in poverty and 22% of children live in a single-family household, whether with their mother or father (County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, 2021). 34.3% of the population is currently renting their residence, with a household income rate being at 4,749 per month (Wyoming Medical Center, 2019).
The health status of Natrona County has its pros, and its cons. According to County Health Rankings and Roadmaps (2021), 86% of people have accessibility to exercise, yet only 24% claim to be physically inactive. This number is astounding since the accessibility is so high with natural trails and gym locations being everywhere. Local gyms and large chain gyms are located throughout the city and the mountain only 10 minutes away provides a lot of hiking/biking trails. According to the Wyoming Medical Center (2019), there are only 1.3 grocery stores per 10,000 people, while there is an outrageous number of fast-food restaurants, being 8.4 restaurants per 10,000 people. Fast food contributes to all kinds of unhealthy lifestyles, especially if someone that isn’t physically active is consuming this type of product. Fast food can actually contribute to the depression within the community which sits at 21.9% of people claiming to have been diagnosed with some sort of depressive state (Wyoming Medical Center, 2019).
The quality of life at the community level has begun to become more important over the years. This pandemic has shown to fellow Wyomingites, that coming together and working as a team for our public health safety is more important than ever. Local businesses have done everything they can to provide a safer environment for their consumers. While public health departments have offered care more frequently to people in need. Our society has realized that each other’s safety, brings safety to themselves as well. Our school’s have created a cleaner system of teaching within their classes, and better means of transportation to and from school. “Casper Strong” has become one of the main mantras of our society, with it being in almost every yard in every residential area.
The three sources that the following statistics represent are Home Snacks, Wyoming Medical Center, and County Health rankings and Roadmaps. According to Home Snacks (2021), there are 3,196.4 crimes per 100,000 people, with 292.6 being violent crimes, and the most being property crimes, sitting at 2,903.8 crimes per 100,000 people. This gives an idea of the crime rate here in Natrona County, where murder isn’t very prevalent within our society. According to Wyoming Medical Center (2019), 42.6 per 100,000 people have reported to conduct self-harm, with 63.8 % of that being the female population and the suicide rate is 39 per 100,000 people, with the male population being more prominent in that statistic. And finally, 16% of people in Natrona County claim to be in poor health with the average life expectancy sitting around 77.6 years of age (County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, 2021). These three sources all have accurate statistics of the quality of life here in Natrona County, dating back to 2010.
Community capacity is the ability for the community to accommodate the current population’s needs. With proper amount of housing and infrastructure that can keep the population going. If there isn’t enough housing, then there will be more people out of shelter. If the power grid isn’t sufficient, then there will be people out of power. Furthermore, if the roads aren’t large enough to allow a proper flow of traffic, then there may be more accidents than before. This is included into the needs assessment for those reasons and to establish future building permits. If there isn’t enough housing, then there needs to be apartment buildings included in the fiscal years building initiatives.
When it comes to Natrona County, our community capacity is right at the level of overflow. With Natrona County being an oilfield city, there are always “employment refugees” entering our city. However, they come just as fast as they go since the oil market is so volatile. In recent years, the city has been able to accommodate the large uptake of people during the oil booms. Casper Housing Authority has made more residential areas and has put up more apartment buildings just within city limits. More Hyper stores such as Home Depot and Menards have found their stores being built here, for the capacity reasoning. After taking the survey provided in this week’s reading material, the Health and Wellbeing of Natrona County received a great score. The 14 questions addressed different classifications of health within our community. I personally believe that all the sectors within Casper are sufficient and are maintained well.
All in all, Natrona County has its downfalls, however, it does have its very own benefits. With Community Health Needs Assessments being conducted at least every five years, the assessors can establish trends over the years. Health promotion, models of community health needs assessments (CHNA), demographic composition, socioeconomic status, health status, quality of life, and community capacity have all been addressed with sources backing all the statistics and percentages. Coming together as a community has proven to bring people together, instead of further apart. If the small-scale model from our lower population can be mimicked into a larger population, I believe that there could be benefits within health promotion and needs of the population. Instead of everything being so polarizing and pushing against each other, we all should come together to reach a common goal, of a better world. Starting from one County to one State, to one Country at a time.
-Cyral I Callender III
References:
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Community Health Assessments & Health Improvement Plans. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/cha/plan.html
County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. (2021). Wyoming; Natrona County. Retrieved from: https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/wyoming/2021/rankings/natrona/county/outcomes/overall/snapshot
Home Snacks. (Aug. 9, 2021). Casper, WY: Quality of Life, Demographics, And Statistics. Retrieved from: https://www.homesnacks.com/wy/casper/
Merzel, C., & D’Afflitti, J. (2003). Reconsidering community-based health promotion: promise, performance, and potential. American journal of public health, 93(4), 557–574. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.93.4.557
Wyoming Medical Center; Casper-Natrona County Health Department. (Nov. 2019). Community Health Implementation Strategy. Retrieved from: https://wyomingmedicalcenter.org/documents/CHNA-IS-Nov2019.pdf
Health and Wellness Repertoire 
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