Photo Voice Paper: Covid-19 1

Covid-19 in Simi Valley

Rachel Ann Cajucom

California State University, Channel Islands

2020 Spring Semester

Dr. Edward Irobi

HLTH 102

05 May 2020
Photo Voice Paper: Covid-19 2

I assessed the community of Simi Valley in Ventura County, and how people in the

community are being affected by Covid-19. Right now the entire world is being affected by the

pandemic. A lot of people lost their job, scared of their health, social distancing is strictly

enforced with the closure of all public places, including schools. Everyone’s well-being is at risk.

The pandemic affected the complete state of physical, mental, social well-being and socio

economic status of everyone in the community. In the news and studies, children are not really at

risk, instead the population that has high mortality are people on their old age, but everyone is

vulnerable, and our well-being is being highly affected.

The community of Simi Valley has a population of around 127,000 people. The “highest

composition of the population is White alone (60.3%) followed by Hispanic residents (25.7%),

Asian alone (9.58%), and two or more races residents with (2.72%)” (Simi Valley ca, n.d.). When

it comes to health the majority of the population has access to health care and health insurance.

The median annual income in Simi Valley is $93,516, which is more than the median income of

$61,937 across the entire United states.

As of May 04, 2020, Simi Valley Community has 158 people that was tested positive in

covid. It has the highest number of cases in the entire Ventura county. I was able to reach out to a

number of people that tested positive by posting in a Facebook page of Simi Valley Community

forum. I asked three people living in the community to participate in my photo voice paper to

make awareness and open up, how they get affected and how they fought the disease. I was able

to conduct my interview through chat, following safety protocols about social distancing. Most

of the people in Simi Valley is not living in poverty but their socio-economic status did not make

them less vulnerable on the virus.

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Community member number one, who will be called Melchor, he is 46 years old Filipino.

He works in a senior living facility in Thousand Oaks, where a resident tested positive, so they

conducted a testing to the residents and people working in the facility. He said that he

experienced all flu like symptoms but didn’t think that he has the virus, until he tested positive

for it. He said that since his immune system looks strong, he was just asked to do home

quarantine, keep his distance to family members, take pain reliever medicine, and antibiotics. In

less than 2 weeks his condition got better, and tested negative after 3 weeks. Even though he is

already negative he is still not allowed to go back to work until further notice. He said that

catching the disease has affected his job and his social life. He has to file for temporary

unemployment to be able to pay his bills and support his family. He also feels that most people

that knows that he tested positive is trying to avoid him, including relatives. He stated that the

stress that being diagnose with the virus is making him depress specially that he has to stop

going to his two jobs, and being not able to provide well in the Philippines makes him feel bad.

Community member number two is Melissa, 28 years old Hispanic. She stated that she

acquired the disease by travelling to another state. She traveled to San Francisco to be reunited

with her family and friends early March. She attended a party with her friends, and started

feeling sick when she came back at Simi Valley. She said the she is having fever during nights

and would feel better after taking Tylenol, on the 8th day of feeling sick she started to have sore

throat, a little trouble in breathing, that is when her primary physician made an order for her to

get tested for Covid-19. She did home quarantine for a month until she was retested, and results

came negative. She states that she lives with her boyfriend, but her boyfriend was never tested

because he doesn’t show any symptoms of the virus. Melissa stated that the lack of testing for

everyone makes everyone in community vulnerable, because you would never know who carries
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it, as many people would be asymptomatic. She feels that her boyfriend should have been tested

right away when she tested positive for the virus. As a safety precaution she wears mask and

gloves whenever they goes out her house, and even afraid to go to the grocery to grab essential

needs.

Community member number three is Jennjenn, she is 34 years old Hispanic. She works

as a nurse practitioner. She said she seek for testing because she has Covid symptoms and has

high risk in acquiring the disease. She experienced vomiting, fatigue, body aches, and cough

with shortness of breath for about five days. Her test turned out negative. She stated that in her

opinion more personal protective equipment for health care workers would improve and help our

healthcare workers. She mentioned that there is so much shortages and nurses is forced to reuse

single use PPE like mask, gowns, etc. She said that she loves her job, but every day she fears for

her health and her family’s health is also being put at risk. She has to do all safety measure and

stay away from her children every time she goes home.

In my research there are a lot of resources that is available for everyone in every

community. You can go to Ventura.org for information’s that our county is offering. There is

employment disruption/financial support, food and basic needs, health and safety, you can also

find resources for people with DACA during covid-19 health emergency, and a lot more. There

is a lot of resources available, but most people think it is not enough. I remember being sick mid-

March, I have body aches, shortness of breath, severe sore throat that cause me to lost my voice

for a couple of days, and a fever 100.7, I have fear that I have gotten the virus but can’t do much

to quarantine, I have two young children that relies on me, and my husband needs to go to work.

I seek for medical treatment, but got denied for testing because I am not high risk.
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I feel like even though there is a lot of resources, our government should also focus on

supporting everyone’s physical, mental and social well-being. Provide social groups that focuses

in everyone’s mental health. I think the pandemic is affecting everyone’s psychological and

social well-being. Children are not at high risk but their mental well-being is being compromised

because of lack of socialization, people that loss their job is trying to cope in the loss of income

and people that remain working is covered with fears that they might contact the disease. The

fear of knowing that there is no cure for the disease brings everyone in terror, and everyone

needs a strong support for their personal social and psychological well-being.
Photo Voice Paper: Covid-19 6
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References

About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved May 04, 2020, from https://www.adventisthealth.org/simi-

valley/about-us/community-benefit/

CITY FACILITIES ARE NOW CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC. . (n.d.). Retrieved May 04, 2020,

from https://www.simivalley.org/i-want-to/test

City, County, & State Updates: Ventura, CA. (n.d.). Retrieved May 04, 2020, from

https://www.cityofventura.ca.gov/1819/City-County-State-Updates

RESOURCES FOR COPING WITH COVID-19: April 28, 2020. (2020, April 28). Retrieved

May 04, 2020, from https://vcreporter.com/2020/04/covid-19-helpful-resources-march-

26-2020/

Simi Valley, CA. (n.d.). Retrieved May 04, 2020, from https://datausa.io/profile/geo/simi-valley-

ca/
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Compton, Ca. (n.d.) Retrieved October 13, 2019, from https://datausa.io/profile/geo/compton-

ca/.

https://www.scag.ca.gov/Documents/SimiValley.pdf