Health Needs Assessment Flashcards
What is a health needs assessment
A systematic method of identifying unmet health and healthcare needs of a population, and making changes to meet these needs
What are the gaps in services? What needs to happen? —> decisions +plans to implement
Aims of a health needs assessment
To provide info and to plan, negotiate and change services for the better and to improve health
Objectives of a health needs assessment
- improve effectiveness of services
- improve equity
- target efficiency
- set priorities
- gather general info on population + health
- corporate involvement
Define:
Need
Supply
Demand
Need: what people benefit from
Supply: what is provided
demand: what people want
Stevens & Rafferty framework- 3 approaches
EPIDEMIOLOGICAL
COMPARATIVE
CORPORATE
Stevens & raffery
EPIDEMIOLOGICAL:
explain + strengths & weaknesses
(what do we know about the population? Potential benefit from intervention?)
Incidence + prevalence of problem
Effectiveness + cost-effectiveness of service/intervention
Description of current services
Strengths: systematic + objective
weaknesses: lack of available data, lack of available evidence, new epidemiological work is costly + time consuming
Stevens & raffery
COMPARATIVE:
explain + strengths & weaknesses
(How do we compare to other places with similar population)
Compare service provision in other places
Strengths: inexpensive, quick
Weaknesses: difficult to find populations that are comparable
Stevens & raffery
CORPORATE:
explain + strengths & weaknesses
(Who has a stake in the decision? What are their views?)
Ask experts, users, policy makers, stake holders, what issues are, ask what changes are needed
Strengths: fosters ‘local ownership’, ensures HNA is responsive to local needs
Weaknesses: determines demands not needs, may be influenced by political agendas
