a healthy community

Throughout this class, I have learned some really great information about the physical and mental health of a community, and ways to better them. With the knowledge I have obtained, I will now design a community that I feel is healthy, and describe what it would look like. For starters, there are some factors that I have learned that make a healthy community. These are the physical factors: geography, environment, community size, and industrial development. The social and cultural factors are: beliefs, traditions, prejudices, economy, politics, religion, social norms, and socioeconomic status. There are also the factors of community organizing and individual behavior. (McKenzie) With the knowledge of these factors, my healthy community would be located in a rural area, with the majority of the population working together as a team to help each other out, and having a successful organization program. Within a community, there will be some barriers that could and/or will interfere with it becoming ideal and healthy. Some of these may include the accessibility, availability, affordability, and acceptability of health care. There could be “geographic barriers and isolation, transportation issues; undersupply of health-care providers and services in rural areas; rising costs of health care coupled with lower incomes in rural areas that make it difficult for families to afford acute chronic, and/or preventative health care; or differing perspectives on the quality of care, definitions of health and how it is delivered.” (amsa.org) On the thought of an “ideal” community, I don’t feel that it is completely necessary to have it be so. I feel the community needs to at least meet basic requirements, and still have room to excel. It does help to keep an “ideal” status in the back of your mind however, since there is always room for improvement. Although if my intentions were to make my community with an ideal status, I would go for these strong points to help my