COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT
Introduction
A community assessment gives emphasis on evaluating agencies, community members, systems so as to learn more about the circumstances within such community. The goal of community assessment is to gather pertinent information from different people and groups within the community. Herein, the types of date vary on the focus and the available resources. Mostly, assessment starts by assembling and comparing data which have been already collected from different individuals and groups. But the assessor can also choose first hand information through interviews, forums and focus groups.
Primarily, the goal of this paper is to assess the Toronto community. This assessment will focus on two aspects of the community including health and safety and transportation system. The discussion will also include perceptions of the selected residence of the community.
Community Core Data
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario, Canada which is located on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. Toronto is also regarded as the most populous community in Canada having a population of over 5 million people. Toronto is part of the Golden Horseshoe known to be a densely populated region in Ontario. Presently, Toronto was amalgamated in 1998 from its six prior municipalities and regional government.
Historically, Toronto was a meeting area as well as home to different First Nations groups who resided on the shore of Lake Ontario. Herein, the first European presence was the people from France trading fort. Further, the first large invasion of Europeans was by the group names United Empire Loyalists which flee on American Revolution. In the year 1793, the city then was known as York and recognized as the capital of the new colony of Upper Canada. From then on, the city had enormously grew during the 19th century and became one of the main tourist attraction of immigrants to Canada. On March 6, 1834 this city was name the City of Toronto and in the second half of the 20th century, this community had been able to surpass Montreal as the economic capital of Canada and also became the largest city.
This city is also known as one of the most multicultural cities all over the world. In year 2004, Toronto was ranked as the second largest city with foreign born population by United Nations Development Programmed. In 2001, the census of Canada shows that 42.8% of the city’s population is considered as a visible minority. Significant Populations within Toronto came from different parts of Asia, Europe, South Africa and some parts of West Africa and North America. Toronto is also known for having an aging population. This means that most of the residence of this area is adults.
In terms of religion, Roman Catholicism is the largest faith followed by Anglican Church and other Christian religions including Baptist, Church of God, and Pentecostal. Other religions include Islam, Hinduism, Jewish, Buddhism, Sikhism and Eastern religions. Herein, English is the most used language and other languages used are Chinese, Tamil, Spanish, Persian, Italian and Punjabi. Some of the residents speak French which is also known as the Canada’s other official language. In terms of culture, this city offers a unique sense of culture.
Toronto Health Status
In Toronto, health authorities see to it that they provide quality service to ensure quality life among the residents. Toronto benefits from an extensive medical area, world class medical institutions and research facilities. Health care system of Toronto gives priorities to those who urgently need healthcare services. The objective of Toronto Public Health is to enhance the health of its residents. TPH conducts different programs and activities and integrate these with relevant health indicators. The purpose of this is to provide a background of the public health and to serve as a resource for Toronto Public Health program staff and managers in planning and evaluating programs. The Toronto Public Health is categorized into six major clusters. These clusters include Chronic Disease, Substance Abuse Prevention, Injury Prevention; family health; dental health; communicable disease control and sexual health; health and the environment; animal services and rabies control.
In addition, public health programs within Toronto is also delivered via different service areas such as healthy families, healthy living, dental and oral health, communicable disease control, healthy environments, planning and policy and other support services. In each of the clusters and service areas mentioned above, the Toronto government gives enough budgets to sustain the effectiveness and quality of its health services. With this, residence in Toronto are assured that their health are prioritize.
Transportation and Safety
In line with transportations, Toronto is being served by intercity Ontario Northland, VIA rail and Amtrak trains via Union Stations and a grand neoclassical structure in the core of the city’s downtown which is shared with the commuter trains of GO Transit. In addition, Toronto has also a large GO bus terminal which is positioned next to Union Station. The main inter-city bus terminal is at Bay and Dundas. In the city, there are number of freeways which served Toronto.
Being part of the municipal expressway system of Toronto, the Don Valley Parkway (DVP) connects Toronto’s eastern and northern suburbs to downtown. On the other hand, Gardiner Expressway connects the western part to the downtown core. The northward extension from DVP is the so-called Highway 404 which headed towards Newmarket, Aurora, Richmond Hill and Markham. The westward extension from the Gardiner Expressway is the Queen Elizabeth Way heading towards Fort Erie, Hamilton and Niagara. Other highways include Highway 401, 427, 400, 409 and 407.
In line with public transport, Toronto Transit Commission operates a comprehensive system of buses, subways, streetcars and RT and covers 1,200 km (754 miles) of routes and heavily used by residence who live in or near the city. The system is imposing a single flat fare which is good for any trip within the locality regardless of distances or transfers needed with the exception of contracted routes which travel outside Toronto and downtown express routes. The city has the second highest transit system in Canada and US. Other transportation includes cycling, airports and ferries.
Like any other city, Toronto is also facing problems in terms of safety of its residence. However, with the effective safety system imposed within the city, it is noted that the crime rate in Toronto is extremely low compared to other cities in the US and other Canadian urban cities.
Community Health
The health care system is recognized as the key element in ensuring the health of the people. Thus, more and more experts and policy makers are continuously making an effort to improve the existing health care system. In Toronto, it can be said that the health authorities are able to provide quality healthcare services among its people. In Toronto, the Ontario Ministry of Health is accountable for administering and managing the health care system and providing different health services such as insurance, assistive deices, drug benefits, care for the mentally ill, home care, long-term care, health promotion, community and public health and disease prevention.
The health care system in Toronto sees to it that they provide efficient and quality healthcare service with its people. As much as possible, the government tries to provide adequate funding to adhere to the health needs of residence.
Perception of the Residents
Being able to live in a city which is considered to be a quality and stable city not only in the whole Canada, US but also in the world is a great honor for its residence. According to the people of Toronto, living in this city makes them feel secure and safe. In addition, with the financial stability of the city, the residents are enjoying state of the art facilities with regards to their healthcare facility needs. Each services offered are given efficiently and the responsible healthcare workers sees to it that the patient or healthcare seekers are satisfied with the service offered.
The residents are also satisfied with the programs or clusters of health care programs given to them. Herein, the needs of different segments of people within Toronto are identified effectively because each segment has its own cluster or programs. For example, the needs of children and family are identified and provided with a specific cluster or this segment. Patients with Chronic diseases, substance abusers and injured patients belong to other set of clusters. With this segregation of programs and activities, the residence perceived that they have the best healthcare system than other cities or communities.
According to a senior citizen living in Toronto, the city has given him the security when it comes to assuring healthy and quality living. Through the health services offered to the senior citizens, they are able to live and enjoy their lives without having problems. Some of the program activities which is particularly given to seniors consists of the promotion of active living, falls prevention, informal caregiver support, and dental service for low-income seniors.
Perception
Toronto has made it sure that their community will not be left behind by these changes. In this manner, with the integrated approach of healthcare authorities and the local government of Toronto, the city has been able to impose a health care system which adheres to the needs of the diverse and multicultural residence of the community. Herein, the government provide adequate resources to facilitate all the healthcare needs of the health agencies within the city.
Toronto Public Health seeks the help of other health care providers, community agencies and other group to provide health services and programs to each and every individual living in the city including those who are working in Toronto. Such programs and services are given efficiently and adhere to quality health needs. The programs and services offered to all its residents are family health, injury prevention, dental health, chronic disease prevention, communicable disease control, substance abuse prevention and others.
The healthcare programs of TPH also show that they adhere to the needs of satisfying their patients. Accordingly, patient satisfaction is the cognitive assessment or judgment of an emotional reaction to the provided healthcare service (Fitzpatrick, 1993). Furthermore, satisfied patients represent the notion to which a patient has received quality service.
All in all, it can be concluded that Toronto as being recognized to be one of the most stable city in the world has been able to manage and control the needs of its citizens. Through systematic approach of governance and healthcare system, the community enjoys the popularity of being a strong community.
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