Importance of Community Assessment-Free-Samples-Myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Community Assessment. Answer: Introduction Community assessment provides information about the state of health in the community and fosters an environment where change can be brought about by systematically understanding the needs of the community and work towards the promotion of health of the members of the community. Identification of the health issues in a community through collection of data and analysis of the data is key to making provision for healthcare needs of a community. Involvement of all the stakeholders in the process leading up to the final assessment is important. When community members are involved, the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the community becomes easier. And the knowledge helps in utilization of the available resources in a more justifiable manner. Arriving at a consensus about how to plan and execute a program at the end of the community assessment is critical to the actual implementation of the program (Baseej Holakouie-Naieni, 2015). Steps to conducting a community assessment From the perspective of a health professional, it is important to carry out a community assessment because it gives a true idea of the state of the people in a community. It helps to pinpoint the exact health needs of the community. And the precise actions that will address the needs of the local people can be understood after the assessment. Addressing the broader determinants involved in public health is the key to better implementation of programs (Pennel, McLeroy, Burdine, Matarrita-Cascante, Wang, 2015). The economic environment of the current times is such that the key health needs of communities have to be identified before embarking on a plan to address the precise issues that are of concern in a given context. Prevention is a public health priority and key issues that point at the health of a community are - mortality and its leading causes, infant mortality, mortality due to injury or accidents, suicide or homicide. Morbidity and its causes include obesity, birth weight, cancer, AIDS and tuberculosis. The access and quality of health care includes parameters, such as, medical insurance, cost of services, such as, dental services, and hospitalization due to asthma. Personal behaviours include tobacco and alcohol use, levels of physical activity, nutrition, immunizations and screenings, level of poverty, whether employed, immigrant status, linguistic details, domestic abuse, and the level of social or family support. Environmental factors that determine public health include air o r water pollution and quality of housing (Boothe, Sinha, Bohm, Yoon, 2013). The judgement of where and how to use resources so that the local needs of health services are met can be better informed if the assessment of the requirements. The process of assessment needs to be a continuous one, adding to the existing knowledge and is essentially a developmental program. Defining the scope of the assessment Defining the scope involves the health issues that pertain to the community, principle concerns to be addressed are whether there is equitable distribution or provision of services in the population, are there any minorities or ethnic groups or immigrants and whether they are being marginalised (Euro.who.int). The age, gender, employment, environment, quality of life of the residents should be taken into account. For example, if increasing physical activity to combat obesity as a preventive measure is the issue one wants to address, the natural question would be, are there enough open spaces or parks for people to exercise? Identifying the collaborators Collection of data from the members of the community, for example, carrying out a survey. When collecting data, it may not be necessary to start a survey if there is a registry, for example, for data on diabetes there could be e-health records that could be accessed or a not for profit may have data from a survey for the target population. Collaborating with such stakeholders can help to survey aspects that may not have been studied before (Harris, 2016). Collection of data This is an important step when carrying out a community assessment (Conley, Vagi, Horney, 2014). The survey or questionnaire used to collect data measures the level of satisfaction that the community members have with the facilities in their locality. Often the kind of data collected may vary from place to place. For instance, high infant mortality in India could be linked to maternal anemia while in the US, teenage pregnancy could be the reason. So the local health determinants have to be factored in during the assessment. Arriving at the key findings of the survey A profile of the health of the local people can be used to determine how they view their own heath status. Findings of in depth survey should be able to link, for example, increase in incidence of cancer to excessive use of pesticides in one place or excessive tobacco use in another location. Such a linkage can help to devise a plan of action, and efforts to reduce exposure to pesticides can then be planned or a tobacco cessation plan can be given more attention (Avhnh, 2015). Creating an actual plan of action Once an evaluative report points at a particular public health problem, spending of funds and other resources can be directed at the identified problem. For each community, the stakeholders involved can pool their efforts and reach an agreement on how to tackle the problem Sharing the findings with members of the community and other stakeholders, for example, representatives of the local body, health administrators, experts from the field of medicine, public health professionals, not for profit organisations can be involved in designing a plan, make periodic amends if required and devise a strategy. On-going evaluation is central to the success of the implementation of the program. Conclusion In conclusion, it is important to recognize the importance of community assessment in order to take informed decisions about the areas of public health that need to be addressed for a community. The various stakeholders of the community play an important role in the process of identifying areas that require a thrust. From an economic standpoint, it is important to decide which area/s of public health require a greater thrust. The steps to arriving at a finding involve defining a scope of the assessment, identifying stakeholders, collecting data, analysis of the data and finally deciding upon priorities and devising a plan of action. References Avhnh. (2015). communityhealthneedsassessmentreport2015.pdf. Retrieved from https://avhnh.org: https://avhnh.org/images/uploads/communityhealthneedsassessmentreport2015.pdf Baseej, M. H., Holakouie-Naieni, K. A. (2015). Community Assessment for Determining the Health Priority Problems and Community Diagnosis: A Case Study of Qala_Sayed Village, Kazeroun, Fars Province, Iran. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 44(9): 13031305. Boothe, V., Sinha, D., Bohm, M., Yoon, P. (2013). /Final_CHAforPHI_508.pdf. Retrieved from https://wwwn.cdc.gov: https://wwwn.cdc.gov/CommunityHealth/PDF/Final_CHAforPHI_508.pdf Conley, A., Vagi, S., Horney, J. (2014). Use of the community assessment for public health emergency response to conduct community health assessments for public health accreditation. Journal of public health management and practice, 20(5):490-7. Euro.who.int. (n.d.). /E73494.pdf. Retrieved from https://www.euro.who.int/: https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/102249/E73494.pdf Harris, M. (2016). Evaluating Public and Community Health Programs. John Wiley and Sons. Pennel, C., McLeroy, K., Burdine, J., Matarrita-Cascante, D., Wang, J. (2015). Community Health Needs Assessment: Potential for Population Health Improvement. Population Health Management , 19(3):178-86.