Community Health Assessment

 

Introduction

A community health assessment is the evaluation of health issues using data collection and analysis. This gives a detailed summary of a community’s needs and challenges. Through the community health assessments, improved policies and strategies are developed.

According to Savage (2019), the demographics in the community include gender, age, race, and education levels. This data will help in the assessment to know the people living in the community. These statistics will help to give the necessary information about the leading health issues in the community. Guidance on the resources and services available is also provided by the statistical data, and this makes it easy to guide on the ones that need to be added. The data will help to guide on the solutions needed to improve health in the community.

Medlock, Shtasel, Trinh, and Williams (2019) state that strategies that align with the national CLAS standards will help to address racial and ethnic differences in the community. They will help to improve the healthcare quality of products and services and avoid healthcare differences. This will be done by implementing culturally appropriate services. Due to the diverse population, communication will be improved by implementing linguistically appropriate services.

Demographics will help in keeping records of the morbidity and the mortality rate in the community. Savage (2019), explains that this will help to implement different methods of preventing and curing diseases. This will help in the development of epidemiological concepts such as immunization to prevent diseases. Components such as decision making, commitment, communication, working together and being aware of each other will lead to quality healthcare. This will help them to achieve goals that they set together. They will be able to communicate and work with each other and come up with solutions to problems facing them.

Teaching strategies among cross-cultural diversity is a strategy that will improve communication and understanding in the community. This will help people to engage in activities and change their mindsets concerning healthcare. According to Jongen, McCalman, Bainbridge, and Clifford (2017), people will be taught of the different lifestyles, cultures and the value of beliefs and traditions and how to be able to live together. Developing perfect working systems for the people in the community will be able to improve healthcare. Improving the healthcare provider’s education and knowledge to give better and quality healthcare is another strategy. Stakeholders will help in providing improved and quality products for the people. They will help in improving systems to cater for more people and with quality services.

According to Savage (2019), a community health assessment is a strategy used to describe the health of a community by collecting and analyzing data. The data is used to bring communities together and educate them concerning health. It is also used to obtain resources and get solutions to improve health in the community. It is the first step in the development and improvement of a health program. It helps in understanding the different features affecting health, for example, the environment, resources, culture, and infrastructure. The assessment helps to find solutions for these problems hence improving healthcare.

Conclusion

            Community health assessment is a useful strategy in improving healthcare. The data collected is used as guidance to finding the perfect solutions. It helps to directly interact with the people living in the community, therefore, giving firsthand information to the ones conducting the assessment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Jongen C., McCalman J., Bainbridge R., Clifford A. (2017). Cultural competence in health: A

review of the evidence. (2017). Singapore: Springer.

In Medlock, M. M., In Shtasel, D., In Trinh, N.-H., & In Williams, D. R. (2019). Racism and

psychiatry: Contemporary issues and interventions. Cham, Switzerland: Humana

Savage, C. L. (2020). Public/community health and nursing practice: Caring for populations.

Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company