16. Community Assessment Flashcards
Why Do a Community Health Assessment?
- Preintervention planning
- Bringing public values, opinions, and traditions to the surface
- Developing community awareness, support, readiness and leadership capacity
- Stimulating community action and empowerment
Five Stages of Team development
Forming
Storming
Norming
Preforming
Adjorning
Forming
Team comes together. Get to know each other.
Usually a polite and agreeable
Determine leadership; define the purpose, goals, skills
Storming
Difference of opinion may arise; subgroups may form
Tension and conflict emerge
Conflict to be navigated openly and healthfully
can enter into unhealthy conflict. Difference of opinions
Norming
Emotions begin to lessen and processes begin to form
Practical rules of engagement
Group cohesion, effective working rel-ationships
emotions lessens, we start to look at people instead of the emotions. Establish grp norms.
Performing
Decisions made by consensus
Clear processes are followed
Roles and responsibilities are clear and valued
Productive work towards shared goals
Adjourning
Project nears end.
Reports and business finalized.
Often celebratory.
Team mourns the loss of work and processes formed
Adjourn/ termination
Strategies and principles with Getting to Know the Community
Select a spokesperson or lead agency that already has a relationship with the community
Make contact with the formal community leaders
Be physically present, available, and visible in the community
Engage with people in nonthreatening ways; be open and honest in your actions
Communicate—keep the people involved in decisions and processes
Primary Data
Original data:
Observation ie windshield survey, participant observation
Surveys and questionnaires,
Key informant interviews, focus groups, community forum
Photovoice results
Secondary Data
Sociodemographic data
Vital statistics data
Health-related data
Archival materials
Census
Morbidity and mortality statistics
Population health surveys
Records of community
Services and schools
Clinic records
Screening records
Environmental information
Photovoice results
taking picutes of things that are important in their life and then presenting the photos and why their important
Windshielf surverys
walking/driving around the neighbourhood and taking not of the overnment building, state of the sidewalks, are there trees, vomit/garbage on the ground, etc.
Numerical (quantitative) data
can be measured on a scale (e.g., weight, blood pressure), analyzed statistically, and displayed graphically
Nonnumerical (qualitative) data
provide depth and detail to statistics and allow us to interpret the beliefs, values, opinions, and culture of the community or population aggregate (e.g., the meaning of overweight or hypertension to people experiencing it)
Sociodemographic data
from local, regional, provincial/territorial, and national sources (e.g., census reports, registry reports).
for example, age, sex, education, migration background and ethnicity, religious affiliation, marital status, household, employment, and income.
Vital statistics data
from provincial/territorial vital statistics departments that track births, deaths, marriages, etc.
Health-related data
from a variety of sources such as Statistics Canada, PHAC Health Status Reports, CIHR information, local/regional public health department reports, specific disease foundations.
Archival materials
specific reports previously commissioned from such sources as health regions, national and international health status reports, royal commissions (e.g., Mental Health Commission of Canada), and reports prepared by special interest groups (e.g., disease associations, population groups).
Original data
reports of data collected specifically for the assessment (e.g., windshield surveys, key informant interviews, participant observation, photovoice results, questionnaires, surveys).
Hypothesis-confirmation bias
focusing selectively on information that confirms interviewers’ preconceived hypotheses.
Elite bias
tending to give more weight to the views of people in influential positions than to the opinions of others.
Concreteness bias
giving the impressions from vivid descriptions and statistical data about a few cases that they represent general situations.
Consistency bias
attempting to draw meaningful conclusions prematurely from conflicting information.
Is the following statement True or False?
Focus groups are an ideal setting to identify new themes and data from a diverse group of community members.
False
Focus groups are not intended to be group interviews in which new data are collected. Instead, they are best used when data themes have emerged from other sources and the team wants to add to the understanding of each theme. Focus group participants are limited to 8 to 12 homogeneous people (i.e., they share certain characteristics).
Community Core
The core of a community is its people—their history, characteristics, values, and beliefs
Community core depicted by inner circle
History, characteristics, values, and beliefs
Sociodemographic, economic, cultural, and social support information
Education and employment patterns, resource production and use
Population-level personal health behaviours
Social cohesion/isolation, attitudes toward diversity
What is the first stage used to assess a community?
- Hold a town meeting
- Learn about its people
- Discuss community needs with local government
- Tour the community clinics
- Discuss community needs with local physicians
B. Learn about its people
The core of a community is its people—their history, characteristics, values, and beliefs. The first stage of assessing a community, then, is to learn about its people. In fact, partnering with people in the community is an integral part of working in the community.
8 Subsystems assessment wheel
Physical Environment
Education
Safety and Transportation
Politics and Government
Health and Social Service
Communication
Business and Economics
Recreation and Leisure
Physical Environment Subsystem
- Where and how is the community/population situated?
- How does the physical setting impact the population or community life?
- Weather, terrain
- Placement of services
- Built environment, population density and diversity
- Food sources, transportation, shelter
Education Subsystem
- Closely linked with employment and economic status of a community and population aggregate
- Learning infrastructure—basic, specialized, literacy, and sources for learning (formal and informal)
- School enrollment, attendance, and completion rates by type of school
- Whether children go to school in their community or outside it
Politics and Government Subsystem
- Need to understand which government is responsible for the portfolios that influence healthy public policy
- Must be aware of how special interest groups can influence policy
- Need to learn about how the population or community can access resources
- Identify the people and groups who are in positions of power and influence
Safety and Transportation Subsystem
- Reduce anxiety and promote a sense of safety
- Components of safety that affect the community
- Security services—fire, police, emergency services
- Water quality, sanitation, and sewage treatment
- Air quality and pollution prevention
- Waste removal and recycling services
- Animal welfare and protection
- Dangerous goods transport through communities
- Components of transportation that affect the community:
- Transportation sources and routes
- Availability of bus, light rail transit, bicycle paths
- Air and rail service to places outside the community
- Cost of transportation, parking, insurance
- Collision rates, safety measures, enforcement
Health and Social Service
- SOCIAL SAFETY NET with a focus on needs and utilization to determine adequacy, accessibility, acceptability
- Facilities and services available—ambulance, health units, hospitals, urgent care, primary care, long-term care, social services
– Intracommunity and extracommunity location
– Formal and volunteer programs and resources - Utilization: characteristics of users, statistics of use, gaps and duplications in services
Communication Subsystem
- Formal—from outside the community (extracommunity)
– Newspapers, radio and TV, Internet - Informal—from inside the community
– Bulletin boards, posters in community locations
– Flyers and newsletters from community groups
– Word of mouth, social media, door-to-door, phone trees
Business and Economics Subsystem
- “Wealth” of the community—goods and services available, resource allocation
- Household finances are impacted by employment, business, and productivity locally and nationally
– Key indicators are number of households below the poverty level and unemployment rate, and the proportion of lone-parenting families - This subsystem has a direct impact on the health of the population and the morale of the community
Recreation and Leisure Subsystem
- Allows us to focus on assessing the degree of lifestyle support in the community
- Link recreation information with the data on physical environment and safety subsystems
- Green space, sports and physical activity venues
- Venues for social interaction
- Venues for spiritual worship and reflection
A systems review for a community includes all but one of the following. Which is not included?
- Observing social systems
- Performing physical assessments of individual residents
- Observing housing
- Observing local businesses
B. Performing physical assessments of individual residents
In the community, the system review includes observing social systems, which include housing, businesses, faith institutions, and hangouts. Conducting physical assessments of individuals is not normally part of community assessment.
