EVALUATION

Community health needs assessment is a systematic process involving the community to identify and analyze community health needs (Becker, 2015). With a future in human and social services my concentration is community services. Behavioral health, mental health, health workforce, and obesity can benefit from conducting community health needs assessments. The initial steps would first be communication. Communication is the foundation for the community health needs assessment and its success is contingent upon open and transparent communication channel with organizational leadership (Becker, 2015). Forming a committee is a strategy to help gain support in carrying out all of the tasks associated with a CHNA and make the process collaborative in nature. The committee provides continuity and local guidance to the CHNA process, so it reflects your community. A survey tool contains both open-ended and close-ended questions, and is a good way to gather honest, anonymous feedback, available to all community members at locations throughout the county. Working with the committee, a community meeting with community stakeholders should be steered. An assessment process centered around arranging a broad-based community group that reviews data and information to identify health needs of the community, provides qualitative input, and makes recommendations to the community expands on why conducting needs assessment is necessary.

Becker, K. (2015). Conducting Community Health Needs Assessments in Rural Communities. Health Promotion Practice, 16(1), 15-19. https://ruralhealth.und.edu/assets/479-1329/10-step-chna-process.pdf