Community Assessment Report: Parramatta, NSW, Health Determinants

This report provides a community health assessment of the City of Parramatta, New South Wales, examining its demographics and social determinants of health. The assessment highlights the city's diverse and growing population, with a median age of 34 and a significant proportion of residents living in high-density apartments. The report analyzes key social determinants, including educational status, employment rates, economic stability, access to healthcare, and social factors, to understand the community's strengths, weaknesses, and needs. The assessment notes that while a significant portion of the population holds university degrees and has access to employment, there are also vulnerable groups, such as those with low incomes, limited English proficiency, and disabilities. The report concludes with a discussion of the need for targeted interventions to address health disparities and promote overall community development, suggesting strategies to support the weaker sections of the society to improve their quality of life.

Running head: COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT
COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT OF CITY OF PARRAMATTA
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Community demographics...................................................................................................2
Social determinants of health of Parramatta LGA...............................................................3
Educational status............................................................................................................3
Employment.....................................................................................................................4
Economic stability...........................................................................................................4
Access to healthcare........................................................................................................5
Social factor.....................................................................................................................5
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................6
References............................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Community assessment is a crucial process which helps to identify the strength,
weaknesses, needs, challenges, and assets of a specific community that helps the community
nursing professionals to prioritize the needs and developing an action plan to achieve them
(Alley et al., 2016). As per Jennings, Larson, and Yun (2016), assessment of community and its
assets help the community professionals to understand the current status of the community with
respect to their healthcare and social abilities. Further, with a detailed assessment, it helps to
identify the sections which require empowerment and providing them guidance and support
would help them to develop a sustainable and developed community in every aspect (Alley et al.,
2016).
The primary aim of this paper would be to analyze one such community of the Parramatta
council, New South Wales and then determining their social determinants of health so that the
strength and weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the community could be assessed. Further,
it would help to understand and recommend an action plan for the development of the
community.
Community demographics
The city of Parramatta is known as the central city of Sydney and the population of this
city is dynamic, diverse and fastest growing within the Australian territory. As per the national
consensus data, the total number of population of this Local Government Area (LGA) is 235,000
which 32,000 more than 2011 consensus and through the course of years the dwellings has also
increased by 11,000 to reach up to 86,000 (Cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au, 2019). The median age
of the community is 34 that makes it a young community that is active in work, and social values

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as the Australian Bureau of Statistics mentioned that more than 34% people are living in high-
density apartments and 40% lives at renting a place (Cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au, 2019). The
social structure of the community is also diverse as 19% of the total community members are
alone, whereas, within 60% of couples, 22% are living without children. The population of this
community is inclusive of Indian (11%), Chinese (10%) and South Korean (4%) community with
0.7% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Education of this community includes 37% of
people with a university degree, and work opportunities have also increased by 2.2% with
170,000 jobs registered by June 2017 (Cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au, 2019). However, 19% of
the community is living in low-income households compared to 28% high-income households.
There is a group of socially weak people i=within the community as more than 10% people are
unable to speak English, 7% is a drop out from schools and 4% people are disabled and requires
assistance in activities of daily life (Cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au, 2019).
Social determinants of health of Parramatta LGA
As per the World Health Organization (2019), the social determinant of health is the
conditions in which individuals are born, live, grow and lives their quality of life (McMurray &
Clendon, 2015). The social determinants of health include the social and economic environment
of the community, the physical environment and the individual characteristic of the community.
Within the ten social determinants of health affecting any society or community, five are crucial
and requires the application of a specific action plan for development (McMurray & Clendon,
2015). These are income and social status, education, employment, access to healthcare and
economic stability of the community (Corrigan, Druss & Perlick, 2014).

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Educational status
As mentioned in community demographics, educational status of the Parramatta
community more than 37% of people hold a university degree that determines that the majority
of the people are aware of their fundamental rights and responsibilities. As per de Andrade et al.
(2015), education is the most important pillar of social determinants of health as it determines
their life expectancy and measures the health status of the community. As the community of
Parramatta included a 19% of the population who is a drop out from education and included a
large section of the aboriginal community, education became an important aspect for the
determination of social and physical health of the community (Braveman & Gottlieb, 2014). This
is because people with various abilities of decision making, educational level, and employment
status achieve help differently thereby increasing the healthcare variation.
Employment
Employment is one of the crucial step of the social determinant of health for any
community as Fitzpatrick et al. (2015) mentioned that people with stable employment are able to
access the healthcare resources as they have a stable source of income and could spend according
to their healthcare needs (Bowen et al., 2018). The LGA of Parramatta comprises 68% of people
working in fulltime and 31% of people working in part-time jobs and hence. Their access to
healthcare is relatively positive for their access to healthcare than the majority of the LGA of
Australia (Nikovska & Tozija, 2015). Further, their level of awareness would be able to
influence a larger section of society so that they could also achieve their healthcare requirements.

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Support network
A major section of the population in this LGA were unable to connect to the
primary population as 9% lacked the internet service, 10% are unable to speak English
and 4% of the total population requires assistance for their living
(Cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au, 2019). As per Fitzpatrick et al. (2015), people with higher
education secure the chance of achieving a stable income job thereby determining
achievement of economic, social and personal resources, however 19% were dropout and
hence were unable to connect to the mainstream population that has access to above-
mentioned sources (Cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au, 2019). Therefore, in the community,
people who are homeless, or are a dropout of the education system would not be able to receive
the similar benefit that a higher education individual would have and hence determining their
different level of education and growth (Bowen et al., 2018).
Health service resources
Further, access to healthcare and awareness regarding the healthcare and preventive
measures also affect the achievement of health and hence, attainment of health is interrelated to
the educational and economic access of the community (Corrigan, Druss & Perlick, 2014). The
demographics of city of Parramatta mentioned that the five crucial concerns of this LGA is
alcohol usage, overweight, smoking, indigenous health and immunization
(Cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au, 2019). In the year 2012, 19% aboriginal community was
found to be affected with alcohol and smoking abuse, due to which they were hospitalized.
Whereas, 18% teenage binge drinking and cannabis use are another concern for the
healthcare facilities of the Parramatta LGA (Cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au, 2019). As per

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Chib, van Velthoven and Car (2015), these communities lack in their education, their increased
poverty level, their reduced awareness level, limited access to health power and resources and so
on. Therefore, while assessing the access to healthcare these factors of the community of
Parramatta should be observed.
Social environment
Depending on the demographics of the community mentioned above it could be said
that 19% of the community do not have access to intervention and mean age of the
community is 31 years (Cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au, 2019). Hence, the majority of them were
socially aware of their healthcare needs as Gough et al. (2017) mentioned that the majority of
healthcare campaigns in Australia utilized social media for healthcare campaigning.
However, a major section, which is not connected to social media (9% as per the local
government of Parramatta) should have been provided awareness regarding healthcare
through other means so that their healthcare could also be achieved. Therefore, the city of
Parramatta consists of diverse depending on its social determinants of health and the government
should provide adequate support to the weaker section so that their growth and development
could bring holistic development of the society (Corrigan, Druss & Perlick, 2014).
Conclusion
Diversity is natural in any society and community, however, to overcome the negative
effects of this diversity, the government should implement strategies so that the weaker section
of the society should become aware of their rights and responsibilities and through the
achievement of health, education, employment, they could develop their quality of life and the
increase the status of the society. Therefore, healthcare, educational and other social skill related

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promotional campaign should be conducted within the community to determine overall growth
of the community.

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