EXAM 1: Community Needs Assessment Flashcards
What is a community needs assessment?
It is a process that:
- identifies community needs
- clarifies problems
- Identifies strengths and resources
What is a community diagnosis
Systematic collection, analysis and distribution of information on the health or nutritional status of the community
What is the purpose of a community needs assessment:
To find important nutrition-related needs in the community while also finding opportunities for intervention
What is health status
The condition of health, including estimates of quality of life and physical and psychological functioning
What is nutrition status
The condition of health as influenced by nutrients
what is a target population
The population that is the focus of an assessment, study or intervention
What are the basic steps of a community assessment?
Identify groups at risk
Find the most critical nutritional needs
Identify factors that contribute to the problem
Determine if existing resources meet the target group’s needs
Provide baseline data for interventions
Aid in developing new programs (if needed)
What prompts a community assessment?
“Ordered” by the city health department or state agency
A non-profit organization serving the community wants to understand in how it can help
New data needed because existing information outdated
Population has changed and existing data don’t reflect make-up of the population
No data existing
What are the steps in conducting a community needs assessment
Set the parameters of the assessment
Develop a data collection plan
Collect data
Analyze and interpret the data
Share the findings of the assessment
Set priorities
Choose a plan of action
What happens in step 1: Set the parameters of the assessment
What is your community?
- geographic delineation?
- race/ethnicity?
- sex?
- age?
What is your target population?
- focus of needs assessment?
Who are the community leaders?
- why is it important to know?
Part A: Background information
Part B: identify a problem
Part C: Create goals and objectives
What is a goal
Broad and unmeasurable statements of what the activity or program is expected to accomplish, long-range outcomes and concepts
What is an objective
Statement of specific outcomes and activities needed to reach a goal
What happens in step 2: develop a data collection plan
There are three basic categories of data to collect:
Community data, community environment and background conditions, and target population data
What happens in step 3: collect data
A variety of methods exist for collecting data:
- secondary data collection
-primary data collection
- surveys
- interviews
- focus groups
- nutritional assessment and screening
- direct observation
-Data collectors
- community members
- professionals
What happens in step 4: analyze and interpret data
Data from assessment are used to make a community diagnosis
