Community Needs Assessment - Term Paper Example

Running head: COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT Abstract The rising demand for healthcare, increasing health inequalities and limited resources are among the challenges that governments face. Community needs assessment is an important tool that enables policy makers, health practitioners and managers to ensure that maximum health improvement is achieved by allocating health care resources to identified people who are in the greatest need (Pickin & Leger 1997). Community needs assessment is a vital tool in health care planning that is used at three different levels: the families, communities and finally, the populations. This paper describes what community needs assessment is, describes different types of needs, what data is sought and why, how data is obtained and the principles that underpin the Steps Involved In The Process Undertaking A Community Needs Assessment. Community needs assessment A community needs assessment is a way through which the opinions, challenges, assets and needs of a community can be gathered (Appleton & Cowley S 2000). A project that meets the needs of the community is determined. The resources and strengths that are available in the community are identified so that the needs of families, children and the youth are met. The capabilities of the citizens, organisations and agencies in the community are the focus of a community needs assessment. A framework for identifying and developing solutions, services, nurture and support for families and children and building communities is provided. The state of health of the people in the community is described, the causes of ill health and major risk factors are identified and a cause of action to address these issues is developed. A community needs assessment is a continuous developmental process as opposed to a one-off activity because it is added to and amended over time. The community needs assessment is a way through which information obtained can be used to plan public health programs and health care in the future. The purpose of a community needs assessment is that it enables the nurse to allocate scarce resources to places where maximum health benefits will be achieved (Naidoo & Wills 2000). The community needs assessment also helps the nurse plan and deliver effective care to those people who need it the most. A community needs assessment also ensures that the nurse practically applies the principles of social justice and equity. By assessing the needs that a community has, the nurse is able to identify problems and available resources. This way, the nurse can then prioritise the problems and resources and find an effective way to solve the problem. A community needs assessment identifies the community’s assets and determines that potential concerns that the community faces. Types of need There are three types of needs: felt needs, express needs and agency or organizational determine needs (Blackburn 1992). Felt needs refer to what people feel or what people want. Felt needs include the feelings or wants of an individual or the feelings and want shared by the majority of people from the community. Therefore, felt needs give an individual’s or the community’s assessment of the situation. Felt needs discover what the individual or community is lacking and a potential for chance is realised. Informal expressions for felt needs are common within the community. Felt needs express the individual’s or community’s beliefs on the nature and extent of their health problems, the causes and the possibilities for cure and prevention. The experience that people had previously such as culture, how they understand biology and epidemiology and education are a major influence on felt needs. Express needs are simply felt needs that have evolved into expressions made to get the attention of authorities at different levels. Express needs are shown through petitions, complaints or requests. Express needs are not only spoken out, but they are expresses formally in the form of writing. Agency or organisational determined needs are products of the decisions that external organizations emanate and extend to the community. An organisation decides what the community needs but this may be an incorrect reflection on the felt needs of the community. Organisations and agency that play a part in inaccurately determining needs on behalf of the people include the Ministry of Health or the Department of Community Development. Organisational determined needs are determined from outside the community. What data is sought and why The data sought during a community needs assessment depends on the needs of a specific community (Perkins 1999). However, during all community needs assessments, there are eight different data that should be gathered. First, the community and all its applicable statistics should be described. Secondly, the needs that the community leaders and members have identified should be listed. Thirdly, the current action, if any, that is being undertaken to meet the needs of the community should be identified. Fourth, opportunities for projects should be identified. Then the challenges to projects should then be identified. The involvement of the community in the project should be identified. Finally, the community’s the long-term sustainability of the project should be analysed. After this gathered information is analysed, it is compiled into a report which is then shared with the particular community members who provided assessment information, the board coordinating the assessment and the project partners (Bowling 1991). The reasons for seeking data are based on the importance of a community needs assessment. One reason for the data is that it sorts the community by relative priority. New services that are needed but not in the data collected can easily be identified. For the data that shows that needed services already exist, focus is shifted to ensuring that those services are more efficient and better coordinated. Community interventions that are now made available have increased diversity. Community services provided range in accordance with the needs of the community, and this way, people seeking treatment are assessed and matched with appropriate treatment (Whitehead, 1992, pp. 429–445). The information gathered from the community needs assessment helps decide the type and amount of treatment needed by the community. A more preventative approach to health can be taken as the balance of treatment improves, early interventions are made and prevention oriented programs are established in the community as a result of the data collected. How data is obtained Tools used when obtaining data from the community include interviews, public forums, focus groups, surveys, secondary data analysis and asset mapping (Beaglehole, 1993, pp. 63-76). During interviews, community members who know the needs of the community give their information. These community members include professionals, community leaders and individuals who are affiliated with particular agencies and organisations. During public forums, a wide range of community members are brought together at public meetings. Through group discussions, information from the wide range of community members is gathered. A focus group contains a targeted group of few community members who can give their opinions on the needs of the community. A formal survey or a questionnaire is used to obtain information from a wide range of the members of the community. Secondary data analysis involves reviewing and analysing data that has already been collected while researching community needs and issues (Bywaters & Mcleod, 1996, pp. 34-61). During asset mapping, information about existing community resources and assets id gathered. The choice of the tool used during community needs assessment depends on several factors which include the available time, target audience, the cost and the available manpower to collect the data. An ideal community needs assessment combines a number of tools. Data is obtained from a community needs assessment by following several steps. The first step is profiling, where all relevant information about the community to be assessed that already exists is assembled. This information tells the nurse about the health needs and the state of health of the population. It is important that a committee is formed that comprises of knowledgeable people who are able to dedicate time and resources to assess the needs of the community. This committee should also be familiar with the community’s needs. This way the nurse learns about the major health issues in the community. An appropriate community needs assessment tools or tools that will be used in gathering information is then chosen. The next step in obtaining data is deciding on the priorities for action. The plan for assessment consists of the who, what, when, where and how the community needs assessment will be carried out. Afterwards, the priority issues are addressed by planning health care and public health programmes. The assessment is implemented using the selected tool or tools. The next step is to evaluate the health outcomes. The results from the community needs assessment are analysed and a report with all the details is prepared. In is important to include a wide range of people during a community needs assessment. The opinions of minority groups are particularly important. Each group should have a schedule of topic areas that they should consider in their assessment. Community leaders are the key to accessing community groups, and as such, the leaders should be involved in the process of assessing community needs as much as possible (Gastrell & Edwards, 1996, pp. 76-97). Social clubs and self help groups are local groups that can provide a good source of information. Questionnaires and surveys provide reliable and comprehensive source of compiled information. Pictures, taped interviews, diagrams and flow charts are used if literacy is a problem. Asking local people to draw or take photographs is another approach that can be used to ask community members to express their views. Newspaper reports are easily accessible and they show the community needs that are of concern. Information about health should come from several different sources so that the community needs assessment report will give a full picture of health. A national or local public health department has detailed information on diseases, inequality in service provision and health service use. The principles that underpin the steps involved in the process undertaking a CNA Holistic health emphasizes on the economic, social and cultural factors that affect individual health and behaviour (Barker, 1999, pp. 21-43). Needs are felt and expressed by community members and professionals. People have the capacity to benefit from public health and health care programmes. Health is affected by the physical, the social environment, poverty, behaviour and lifestyle. The physical environment determines the quality of the water the people drink or the quality of the air they breathe. The social environment determines the friends and family of community members and the emotional and social support that they get. Poverty reduces and ultimately shortens enjoyment of life. Behaviour and lifestyle shows those people that have a chance of staying and living well are those people who come from healthy families. For instance, reducing smoking behaviour that causes lung cancer will consequently reduce the chance of the disease. Community needs assessment uses the energy and leadership of the community members to tackle community problems (Carey, 2000, pp. 65-86). The nurse has the responsibility of improving the health of the community and providing nursing services to individual patients. The nurse works in partnership with the community members and involves other people in his or her work. If professionals and agencies are involved in developing the health plan for the community, they will put the plan to action with more commitment. Therefore, the nurse collaborates with the community members and professionals as those who are involved in assessing community needs need to be involved in using the plan. The nurse needs to have autonomy and flexibility that will allow him or her to adjust his or her work pattern to be in accordance with the community’s needs. When thinking about the needs of the community and what can be done to improve the health of the community, nurses need to see health not only holistically, but from a biomedical point of view. Conclusion A community needs assessment is a useful tool in determining whether a program is needed by the community and whether this program might need to be expanded or changed. A community needs assessment determines whether or not agencies, organisations or the community would support the program. A community needs assessment is useful if it is done systematically, if it has a clear definition of the issues and needs of the community and if it is clear on who the sources of information will be. This paper has defined what a community needs assessment is, described the different types of need, what data is sought and why, how data is obtained and the principles that underpin the steps involved in the process undertaking a community needs assessment. References Appleton, J. & Cowley, S. (2000). The search for health needs. Macmillan Press. Barker, J. (1999). Reference manual for public involvement. Bromley Health. Beaglehole, R. (1993). Basic epidemiology. World health Organization. Blackburn, C. (1992). Poverty profiling: A guide for community nurses. Health Visitors Association. Bowling, A. (1991). Measuring health: A review of quality of life measurement scales. Open University Press. Bywaters, P. & Mcleod, E. (1996). Working for equality in health. Routledge. Carey, L. 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