Community Assessment Report: Strategies to Address Community Needs

This report provides a comprehensive overview of community assessment, detailing the steps involved in identifying and addressing community needs. It begins by emphasizing the importance of stakeholder engagement, including the recruitment of community members and experts to represent diverse interests. The report then outlines the process of defining the community, collecting and analyzing data (both primary and secondary), and choosing priority health issues based on the collected data. The subsequent steps involve documenting and communicating the findings, planning improvement strategies with stakeholder input, implementing these plans, and finally, evaluating the progress. The report emphasizes the significance of community involvement throughout the assessment process, from initial data collection to the evaluation of implemented strategies. The conclusion highlights the value of community assessment in developing concrete strategies to meet community needs, while also suggesting the incorporation of future planning to address potential future health challenges.

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Community Assessment
Student Name
Institution Affiliation

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Community Assessment
Introduction
Community assessment essentially pinpoints the strengths as well as resources that are at
the disposal of a community to ensure that the needs of the youth, children, and families are met.
The fundamental purpose of community assessment is to come up with concrete strategies to
tackle the needs of the community. Community assessment is beneficial since the strengths and
weaknesses of a community are identified, appropriate decision is able to be made since data is
readily available and the community members are able to better understand their needs (Mpofu
& Oakland, 2014). The purpose of this report is to closely look at the steps involved in
community assessment and how they contribute to tackling the needs of the community.
Identification and engagement of stakeholders
This is the first step that should be carried out as far as community assessment is
concerned. Community members must be recruited to serve in the community group. These
create a sense of joint ownership of the process hence trust is built. Those chosen must include
individuals that are respected in the community since they are in a position to better represent the
interests of the whole community. The groups must also welcome people from minority groups,
experts in public health, individuals with chronic disease needs as well as low-income
population. These group members are fundamental since it is their duty to review the data
received and pinpoint and prioritize the needs of the community as far as health is concerned
(Calgary, 2016).

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Define the Community
This is the second step as far as community assessment is concerned. The community is
essentially a group of people who tend to have different characteristics but share common
perspectives. Defining the community is fundamental since it dictates the scope of assessment as
well as intervention. The definition of community can be made more inclusive by bringing
community members and patient into the conversation (Royer, 2015).
Collecting and Analyzing Data
This is the third step as far as community assessment is concerned. Data analysis is
essentially the process of inspecting, cleansing and modifying data with the primary aim of
discovering crucial information. Secondary data is compiled for the purposes of sharing with the
group members. This data is also essential since it will be the foundation for the decisions and
analysis that will be made in the meetings. Secondary data can comprise of demographic
information, clinical care measures, levels of insurance, causes of death, environmental factors,
children’s health as well as preventive measures. Information on how the hospital service areas
were defined as well as the services and community benefits it provides should also be compiled
too. Community stakeholders can complement quantitative data through interviews, surveys,
community meeting as well as focus groups. Collecting and analysis of data will help
particularly in ranking the health needs of the community (Butt, 2013).
Choosing Primacy Community Health Issues
This is the fourth step as far as community assessment is concerned. This involves
selecting community health issues based on priority. This step is guided mainly by the qualitative
and quantitative data that is collected and analyzed in the third step. The healthcare system and

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the stakeholders in the community can also play a crucial role in this step since they can explain
the urgency of issues hence providing crucial information that is used in making final decisions
as far as health care is concerned. Community members automatically feel more invested in the
outcome especially when their views are considered and respected especially in regards to the
urgency of the issues (Royer, 2015).
Document and Communicate
This is the fifth step as far as community assessment is concerned. In this step,
documents are shared with the stakeholders before finalization so that their feedback and
recommendation can be put into consideration before finalizing everything. Some of the crucial
information they can provide feedback includes but not limited to the format of the document,
language level as well as the length of the document. Through the provision of additional
feedback, it is possible to know if there is a need for the document to be translated into languages
and the best form of communication that would reach the subpopulations of the community.
Those community members who were involved in the community assessment group can be
called upon by the health system to act as community emissaries preaching on the needs
assessment outcomes (Butt, 2013).
Plan Improvement Strategies
This is the sixth step as far as community assessment is concerned. Planning is essentially
the process of organizing activities in such a way that the intended goal is achieved. In
community assessment, community stakeholders are involved in the entire improvement
planning process since they comments will be crucial as far as feasibility and acceptability of the

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strategies in the community are concerned. Furthermore, people who are involved the process
will highly appreciate the opportunity to be part of the solution (Crouch & Meurier, 2015).
Implementing Improvement Plans
This is the seventh step as far as community assessment is concerned. Improvement plans
are strategies that can in one way or another improve the health of community members. This
step involved executing those plans as dictated by step six. The evidence-based interventions
pointed out in step six are customized in this step by simply engaging the community
stakeholders and patients. This generates a sense of shared responsibility and fosters dialogue
(Harris, 2016).
Evaluation of Progress
This is the eighth and final step as far as community assessment is concerned. Progress
evaluation involves taking stock of where things are. Patients, families, as well as community
members, are involved in providing opinions on how the implementation is developing and the
sort of alterations that need to be made. Reflecting and strategizing with community members
are encouraged for the purpose of knowing what works well and what should be improved
(Amugi-crouch & Meurier, 2015).

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Conclusion
All in all, the purpose of community assessment is to come up with concrete strategies to
tackle the needs of the community. Interventional assessment is virtually comprehensive but
future planning should be incorporated in the steps. Future planning is recommended since it
ensures that the strategies being implemented do not just solve current issues but also those that
are projected to occur in future (Loue, Lloyd & O'Shea, 2014).

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References
Amugi-crouch, A., & Meurier, C. (2015). Vital Notes for Nurses: Health Assessment. Oxford:
John Wiley & Sons.
Butt, G. (2013). Making assessment matter. London: Continuum.
Calgary (Alta.). (2016). A handbook for conducting a community assessment. Calgary, AB: The
Dept.
Harris, M. J. (2016). Evaluating Public and Community Health Programs. Newark: Wiley.
In Crouch, A. T., & In Meurier, C. (2015). Health assessment. Boston: Jones and Bartlett
Publishers.
Loue, S., Lloyd, L. S., & O'Shea, D. (2003). Community health advocacy. New York: Kluwer
Academic.
Mpofu, E., & Oakland, T. (2014). Rehabilitation and health assessment: Applying ICF
guidelines. New York: Springer.
Royer, P. S. (2015). Project health assessment: A conceptual tool kit. New York: Wiley.

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