Public Health Need Assessment - Essay Example

Health needs assessment is recognized as the process of determining the health and the health care of a defined population or a specific area (Butler, Sparks, & Oxley,1995). The assessment is the complicated procedure that requires an epidemiological expert, the ability to understand how organizational boundaries function and the ability to engage will concern populations and subgroups. History indicates in the developing countries the evolution of health services is subject to Western models of health care (Eldredge, Markham, Ruiter, Kok, & Parcel, 2016). Notably, many of the health needs assessment rarely has taken account of the local needs of the people illnesses or sought advice on how to mitigate some of the epidemic illnesses like preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS in the community. However, it is critical to note, the assessment of health not only focuses on listening and understanding the patient's personal experience but it involves proper identification of unmet needs and ensuring different parameters (Warheit, Bell, & Schwab,1977). Therefore, for there to be a wholesome and comprehensive assessment of the needs of a particular community (Thompson,2014). It is important for there to be a combination of the Ministry of Health, academic institutions and other healthcare institutions that look forward to co-operating innovative approaches to ensure there is increased awareness on broader social and public issues regarding the health status of the identified community.

The application of heath need assessment is dependent on the careful design of the program, methodology implied in its execution, decisive leadership, support from key decision makers, engagement of local priorities, availability of relevant resources and proper communication channels (McKEE,1996). While applying the health need assessment approach the identified themes can broadly be classified under, contextual factors, the robustness of the works and quality intended to the population affected. Quality of life has over the years been noted to be unrelated to the satisfaction of needs and in place associated with unmet needs (Drotar, 2014). Evidently, there is a decrease in quality of life when the requirements of the population increases, therefore, when the application of health assessment it is critical to identify all the relevant stakeholders who are willing to engage into the community health development (Cowley, Mitcheson & Houston, 2004). After that, define the community dimensions. By the good establishment of the community set up, the health assessment is capable of recognizing and establishing the scope of the evaluation and intervention. Research is critical as it helps the health care providers to be competent to identify and rank the needs of the community based on the collected qualitative and quantitative data (Appleton & Cowley, 2008). Often the community stakeholders are aware of the happenings in the city. Therefore, by directly engaging with them will enlighten the hospitals and healthcare systems on essential information. For an accurate implementation of the health assessment, there is need to have the health specialists to feel invested to the right kind of interventions from the onset of the project. With proper prioritization, communication can then be made efficient with the right intention noted. There is need to have a direct connection with the relevant parties and stakeholders of the function. A schedule is then created to plan on how different activities will be conducted to ensure there is maximum value gained by the community. After implementation of the various strategies, enforcement will be performed to efficiently discuss the role the community members and patients would like to play to ensure they are given maximum exposure for ongoing opportunities.

Community health assessment model is one of the most popular models where the people in the community are treated with equal respect as many of the features in the city are jointly owned (Hyun, Quinn, Madon, & Lustig, 2006). Moreover, the model explains that upon solving the problems that surround a community, the different cities are then tasked to ensure they implement the suggested solutions independently by following a set of guidelines to maintain the intended quality. The model aims to demonstrate community problems are often shared by a majority of the population (World Health Organization, 2015). Therefore, the most efficient way is to develop solutions that can be used to solve the problems that are facing the community members. However, the different strategies developed as the answers are employed by various communities as different centers have different capacities to ensure they solve the problems noted. In summary Health needs assessment is a critical element in every society. Every community is unique regarding the set of issues that it faces. Therefore, there is need to ensure different and right stakeholders are involved in solving the problems in the community. To correctly identify the correct issues affecting the city there is need to provide the right kind of methodologies are utilized in the community gathering of data and information. With proper identification on the right kind of ventures to undertake in a community, it then becomes very important for the community to enjoy excellent health.

References

Appleton, J. V., & Cowley, S. (2008). Health visiting assessment processes under scrutiny: a case study of knowledge use during family health needs assessments. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 45(5), 682-696.

Butler, T., Sparks, C., & Oxley, D. (1995). Community health needs assessment. OR Insight, 8(3), 2-8.

Cowley, S., Mitcheson, J., & Houston, A. M. (2004). Structuring health needs assessments: the medicalisation of health visiting. Sociology of Health & Illness, 26(5), 503-526.

Drotar, D. (Ed.). (2014). Measuring health-related quality of life in children and adolescents: implications for research and practice. Psychology Press.

Eldredge, L. K. B., Markham, C. M., Ruiter, R. A., Kok, G., & Parcel, G. S. (2016). Planning health promotion programs: an intervention mapping approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Hyun, J. K., Quinn, B. C., Madon, T., & Lustig, S. (2006). Graduate student mental health: Needs assessment and utilization of counseling services. Journal of College Student Development, 47(3), 247-266.

McKEE, M. (1996). Health needs assessment. Health policy and system development. An agenda for research. Geneva: World Health Organization, 61-78.

Thompson, S. R. (2014). Health needs assessment. The Essential Guide to Public Health and Health Promotion, 47.

Warheit, G. J., Bell, R. A., & Schwab, J. J. (1977). Needs assessment approaches: Concepts and methods. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration, National Institute of Mental Health.

World Health Organization. (2015). Health Worker Role in Providing Safe Abortion Care and Post Abortion Contraception. World Health Organization.