Hamilton County, Ohio, confronts very difficult situations and is helping its at-risk population based on recent statistics. The 2021 County Health Rankings unearthed a considerably larger share of the residents grappling with economic insecurity, insufficient health care coverage, and other social determinants found to be associated with inferior health outcomes contrary to the national averages. Concurrently, it’s estimated that 25.6% of children (one out of four) live in poverty, which is three times more than the 16.8% rate nationwide. The impoverished rate of the county is also higher when compared to the 12.8% national rate, which stood at 17.8%. Attendance medical insurance coverage also proved an obstacle, with the audit revealing that 14.2% of residents under 65 were uninsured, which is 10.2% points higher than the national rate of 10.2%. In addition, the level of education showed difficulties due to the fact that 19.4% of the adults 25-44 years old had no high school diploma (that is, more than double 11.7% recorded for the national figure of the adults in the 25-44 years group). However, we can not deny the devastating reality that these issues highlight and bring the attention of socioeconomic determinants which play a role in the health and quality of life of those who are the most vulnerable residents of Hamilton County (County Health Rankings, 2021; U.S. Census Bureau, 2021).
Health-related institutions that are available for the transient and the homeless are the Cincinnati Health Department and the Freestore Foodbank. The Cincinnati Health Department goes into the cutting path with prenatal care and gives shots as well as nutrition programs for low-income pregnant mothers without insurance. They are primarily reimbursed through federal grants, Medicaid, and Medicare (Source: The Freestore, a non-profit entity, is responsible for the collection and distribution of about 10 million meals that year via over 50 County-based pantries, mobile markets, as well as childhood nutrition programs spanning three states, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, according to one report done by the Cincinnati Health Department. They rely on corporate donations, individual giving and over 58,000 volunteers annually (Source: Freestore Foodbank 2021 Annual Report).
One potential gap in services is a lack of affordable housing assistance and homelessness support based on the high poverty rates. An area of overlap may be the number of different organizations providing emergency food/nutrition assistance without streamlining efforts. Disparities in services and inadequate coverage might be mitigated through housing vouchers/public housing extension, the creation of low-barrier shelters, and the development of networked food banks with standardized intake/distribution.
J.D., who happens to be a registered nurse at the Cincinnati Health Department, is an indispensable staff member whose work, despite the wide range of tasks, is all geared towards providing and improving the standards of quality of life for marginalized people in the community. She makes house calls, evaluates and purveys support for the new parents and infants, looks out for any potential difficulties, shows parents the way and directs them to the assistance centres. J.D. additionally engages in outreach services by providing health education services regarding chronic disease prevention, reproductive health, and preventive screenings on-site, as well as conducting physical health screenings and examinations. Besides, it is important to make sure that patients with prolonged illnesses like diabetes have proper care via case management. Taking up this position, she helps the patients define the management plan, tracks the conditions and prescribes treatment, provides patients with the required medication as well and redirects them to specialists and community services when needed. The various tasks that J.D. carries out are diverse, which makes him a public health link among vulnerable people to important health-promoting resources.
Adjustments have been encompassed in U.S. welfare strategies. The main objective of food aid, health coverage, and social services, including cash aid, is to help legally underprivileged individuals above the poverty level. Our goal is to be able to functionalize the TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Medicaid and housing support, so our main goal is to deliver on those. Eligibility is primarily determined by household income and assets compared to federal poverty levels (Sources: The figure spanning the average American in favour of the federal government raises the current state level by around $1 (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2022; Center on Budget Police Priorities, 2023).
Benefit fund critics bluntly maintain that set floors for the benefits are not adequate for incorporating low-income families. Many have proposed reforms to increase benefit amounts, strengthen work requirements, provide more robust job training/childcare assistance to incentivize employment and reduce administrative complexities (Sources: According to the Brookings Institute as well as CBPP in 2021, it was the government payments that built the economy and helped the country get out of the recession (Brookings Institute, 2021; CBPP, 2023). The state of Ohio has implemented policies like work requirements, time limits and drug testing for TANF in recent welfare reform efforts (Source: The [Ohio Department of Job & Family Services] is the main department tackling the issue of poverty in our state and one of its main programs in this fight is [Need].
References
Brookings Institute (2021). Reforming Welfare with Work Requirements. https://www.brookings.edu/research/reforming-welfare-with-work-requirements/
Centre on Budget & Policy Priorities (2023). Policy Basics: An Introduction to TANF. https://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-an-introduction-to-tanf
Cincinnati Health Department (2022). Annual Report 2022.https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/health/assets/File/2022%20CHD%20Annual%20Report.pdf
County Health Rankings 2021. Hamilton County, Ohio. https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/ohio/2021/rankings/hamilton/county/outcomes/overall/snapshot
U.S. Census Bureau (2021). Poverty Rates by County.https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=poverty%20rates&tid=ACSST1Y2021.S1701
Freestore Foodbank (2021). 2021 Annual Report. https://freestorefoodbank.org/annual-report-2021/
Ohio Department of Job & Family Services. Cash Assistance Programs. http://jfs.ohio.gov/Program/CashAssistance/Index
Personal communication, J.D., Public Health Nurse, Cincinnati Health Department, March 2024.
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (2022). Overview of U.S. Welfare System. https://www.hhs.gov/programs/social-services/programs/temporary-assistance-for-needy-families/index.html
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