Question

n its report "The Future of Public Health," the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (1988) recognizes assessments of community health status and community health needs as a core public health function. The course textbook states that some of the goals of community health assessment are to evaluate health status, identify community health needs, identify strengths and weaknesses of a community's health systems, recommend strategies to address community health needs, and locate existing or needed resources to meet identified needs. Read the report and based on it, respond to the following questions in relation to the role of community members:

What role or roles should community members have in a community needs assessment? Justify your answer.

What are some strategies for engaging community members?

Public health agencies use data to identify health problems, establish and track health objectives, and assess the effectiveness of policies, programs, and services. Respond to the following questions in relation to community needs assessment:

Which key factors are important to consider when gathering and presenting data for a community needs assessment?

When presenting data, which strategies would you recommend for creating a strong and compelling statement of need?

Answer 1

While collecting data for a community based assessment, there are some factors which should be considered.

* select the focus group first

* How the data should be be collected

* From what location , it should be collected.

* Identifying the discrimination .

When presenting data, strategies used for creating a strong statement of need;

* It should be focused and data based.

*The statement of need is a concise and
coherent statement, supported by
evidence, on why the project needs to be
undertaken .
*The statement of need drives everything
else that is in the grant proposal.