Community Assessment Assignment PURPOSE: To perform a community assessment evaluating mental healthcare access in the city of Syracuse, NY. Health care access has an important impact on health and well-being. And as we have learned in this course, poor access to mental health care is a social determinant of mental health that challenges many people experiencing mental illness. Community assessments are a powerful tool utilized by public health officials to identify the health needs of a community and to inform programs/ interventions to address those needs. This assignment addresses the Council on Education in Public Health's competency requiring that public health students demonstrate the ability to explain challenges selected populations may face pertaining to human rights, access to services, financial strain, and social stigma. Thus, this assignment offers you an opportunity to identify the challenges that people with mental health disorders experience with healthcare service access. This is important because as public health professionals we need to be aware of the factors that shape help-seeking behaviors. KNOWLEDGE: This assignment will help you to become familiar with the following core content knowledge in community mental health: - System-level, provider-level, and patient-level barriers to mental healthcare access Community assessments as a tool for identifying population health needs SKILLS: This assignment will provide you an opportunity to practice the following skills. These skills are important not only for your academic success, but also your professional success outside of the classroom in the real-world as public health professionals. Applying concepts/knowledge to specific instances found in the real-world Analyzing a problem Evaluating possible solutions to that problem Creating and proposing a solution to the problem TASK: For this assignment, you will prepare a 2-3-page community assessment that evaluates mental health care access in Syracuse, NY. Your assessment will consist of the 3 sections described below. Please use the template provided on Blackboard to complete your assignment. 1. Section 1: This is the introductory section of your paper and it should have the following heading: "Demographic Profile of Syracuse, NY: Begin your assessment with a brief overview of the key population-level characteristics of Syracuse, NY. More specifically, please report the following characteristics: (a) population size; (b) median age; (c) estimated median household income; (d) percentage of residents living in poverty (overall and by race/ethnicity - White Alone, Black Alone, or Hispanic); and (e) racial/ethnic composition (i.e., percentage of residents identifying as White Alone, Black Alone, or Hispanic). a. Use the City-Data website to collect these data: https://www.city-data.com/ b. Enter this information into the table at the end of the template. c. Report this information in a narrative format. 2. Section 2: This is the middle section of your paper and it should have the following heading: "Mental Healthcare Providers in Syracuse, NY": Next, report (a) the number of mental healthcare providers within a 5-mile radius around the city; (b) the types of service settings provided (i.e., inpatient?, residential?, outpatient) and (c) the types of payment accepted (i.e., Medicare, Medicaid, Private insurance/Cash). a. Use the SAMHSA Treatment Locator Tool https://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/locator b. Enter this information into the table at the end of the template. c. Report this information in a narrative format. 3. Section 3: This is the analytical and final section of your paper and it should have the following heading: "Evaluation of Mental Healthcare Access in Syracuse, NY": You will evaluate whether mental healthcare access is a problem in Syracuse, providing suggestions on how mental health care access may be improved or reasons that you think it is not a problem. There are no right or wrong answers; however, you should back up your arguments using concepts or ideas covered in this course or using information from other credible sources that you identify. Possible class topics that you might address include barriers to mental healthcare access, poverty (and its relationship to insurance coverage, for example), discrimination, aspects of the built environment (public transportation, for example). Be sure to include proper citation information for any references that you cite. Some things to consider in your evaluation: a. Are there any system-level, provider-level, or patient-level barriers especially relevant to mental healthcare access in Syracuse, NY? How might these barriers be addressed? b. Are there a good variety of service settings available? Are there an adequate number of payment options available? Why or why not? Note: You may want to count the number of providers offering inpatient, residential, and outpatient services or the number of providers offering different types of payment options to support your answer. c. Are the mental healthcare providers located near other healthcare providers? Are they in the same building? Why might this be important? Note: Think back to our discussion of stigma. d. Are the mental healthcare providers located near public transportation routes? Why might this be important? e. Think about the demographic profile of the City that you described in (1) above. Do any of these characteristics tie into other social determinants of mental health that we discussed that may influence mental healthcare access? If so, does the City's mental healthcare profile address this consideration? Please Note: In your evaluation, please make sure you are making clear the comparisons that are informing your judgements. For example, if you argue that more healthcare payment options are necessary because the poverty rate is elevated in Syracuse, what do you mean by "elevated"? Elevated compared to what? Relative to the poverty rate observed across the United States? The poverty rate observed in a city comparable in population size to Syracuse? Thus, to fully support your arguments, you may find it necessary to look up information on other cities from the City-Data and SAMHSA websites. The paper should follow APA style and format. Specifically, it should be: Double-spaced With 1-inch margins In 12-point Calibri font With appropriate heading formatting and page numbers Saved as a .docx Word file (please do not submit a .pdf) The APA Style Blog (APA Style Blog, n.d.) can be a valuable resource for ensuring that your paper is correctly formatted. You should reference and incorporate concepts and ideas pertaining to healthcare access as presented in lecture and in the class readings. Be sure to include in-text citations for any materials that you reference in your paper with a corresponding reference list at the paper's end. Resources: APA Style Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved March 9, 2023, from https://apastyle.apa.org/blog Community Assessment Assignment Addendum SERVICE TYPES Hospital inpatient/24-hour hospital inpatient is the most intensive level of treatment; treatment-seekers receiving inpatient care are admitted to the mental healthcare provider and receive 24-hour care in a secure setting; inpatient care is typically used by individuals who are experiencing significant distress (e.g., Community Mental Health Promotion PHP 305 experiencing suicidal intentions). Residential/24-hour residential care is a step down from intensive care; treatment-seekers receiving residential care receive some monitoring; however, they do not receive around-the-clock care from medical staff as is done in inpatient care; the environment of a residential care facility represents a "home like" environment while inpatient care involves a hospital environment. Outpatient care involves services that are provided during the day at office visits; the format is similar to attending a doctor appointment at a medical office; treatment-seekers can come to the office at a set time for 30-45 minutes then return home; outpatient care is typically used by individuals who are experiencing more mild symptoms.